mbed to the
horrors of the torture he had himself created. Maddened by certain
thoughts more agonizing than those he had as yet resisted, he cut his
throat with a razor.

This death coincided, almost, with that of Louis XI. Nothing then
restrained the populace, and Malemaison, that Evil House, was pillaged.
A tradition exists among the older inhabitants of Touraine that a
contractor of public works, named Bohier, found the miser's treasure
and used it in the construction of Chenonceaux, that marvellous chateau
which, in spite of the wealth of several kings and the taste of Diane
de Poitiers and Catherine de' Medici for building, remains unfinished to
the present day.

Happily for Marie de Sassenage, the Comte de Saint-Vallier died, as
we know, in his embassy. The family did not become extinct. After the
departure of the count, the countess gave birth to a son, whose career
was famous in the history of France under the reign of Francois I.
He was saved by his daughter, the celebrated Diane de Poitiers,
the illegitimate great-granddaughter of Louis XI., who became the
illegitimate wife, the beloved mistress of Henri II.--for bastardy and
love were hereditary in that family of nobles.

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