of the
period.

After long and specious arguments, the attorney general Bijnon gave his
decision in favour of the Count and Countess of Saint-Geran, concluding
thus:--

"The court rejects the civil appeal of la Pigoreau; and all the
opposition and appeals of the appellants and the defendants; condemns
them to fine and in costs; and seeing that the charges against la
Pigoreau were of a serious nature, and that a personal summons had been
decreed against her, orders her committal, recommending her to the
indulgence of the court."

By a judgment given in a sitting at the Tournelle by M. de Mesmes, on the
18th of August 1657, the appellant ladies' and the defendants' opposition
was rejected with fine and costs. La Pigoreau was forbidden to leave the
city and suburbs of Paris under penalty of summary conviction. The
judgment in the case followed the rejection of the appeal.

This reverse at first extinguished the litigation of Mesdames du Lude and
de Ventadour, but it soon revived more briskly than ever. These ladies,
who had taken la Pigoreau in their coach to all the hearings, prompted
her, in order to procrastinate, to file a fresh petition, in which she
demanded the confrontment of all the witnesses to the pregnancy, and the
confinement. On hearing this petition, the court gave on the 28th of
August 1658 a decree ordering the confrontment, but on condition that for
three days previously la Pigoreau should deliver herself a prisoner in
the Conciergerie.

This judgment, the consequences of which greatly alarmed la Pigoreau,
produced such an effect upon her that, after having weighed the interest
she had in the suit, which she would lose by flight, against the danger
to her life if she ventured her person into the hands of justice, she
abandoned her false plea of maternity, and took refuge abroad. This last
circumstance was a heavy blow to Mesdames du Lude and de Ventadour; but
they were not at the end of their resources and their obstinacy.

Contempt of court being decreed against la Pigoreau, and the case being
got up against the other defendants, the Count de Saint-Geran left for
the Bourbonnais, to put in execution the order to confront the witnesses.
Scarcely had he arrived in the province when he was obliged to interrupt
his work to receive the king and the queen mother, who were returning
from Lyons and passing through Moulins. He presented the Count de la
Palice to their Majesties as his son; they receiv