ns
or sentiments at any period of his life. He drew up a memorial,
expressing his strong attachment to every point of the Catholic faith,
from which he had never for an instant swerved. His whole demeanor was
noble, submissive, and Christian. "In every essential," said Fray
Hernando, "he conducted himself so well that we who remain may bear him
envy." He wrote a paper of instructions concerning his faithful and
bereaved dependents. He placed his signet ring, attached to a small gold
chain, in the hands of the ecclesiastic, to be by him transmitted to his
wife. Another ring, set with turquois, he sent to his mother-in-law, the
Princess Espinoy, from whom he had received it. About an hour after
midnight, on the morning, therefore, of the 16th of October, Fray
Hernando gave notice that the prisoner was ready to die. The alcalde Don
Alonzo then entered, accompanied by the executioner and the notary. The
sentence of Alva was now again recited, the alcalde adding that the King,
"out of his clemency and benignity," had substituted a secret for a
public execution. Montigny admitted that the judgment would be just and
the punishment lenient, if it were conceded that the charges against him
were true. His enemies, however, while he had been thus immured, had
possessed the power to accuse him as they listed. He ceased to speak, and
the executioner then came forward and strangled him. The alcalde, the
notary, and the executioner then immediately started for Valladolid, so
that no person next morning knew that they had been that night at
Simancas, nor could guess the dark deed which they had then and there
accomplished. The terrible, secret they were forbidden, on pain of death,
to reveal.

Montigny, immediately after his death, was clothed in the habit of Saint
Francis, in order to conceal the marks of strangulation. In the course of
the day the body was deposited, according to the King's previous orders,
in the church of Saint Saviour. Don Eugenio de Peralta, who superintended
the interment, uncovered the face of the defunct to prove his identity,
which was instantly recognised by many sorrowing servants. The next
morning the second letter, prepared by Philip long before, and brought by
Don Alonzo de Avellano to Simancas, received the date of 17th October,
1570, together with the signature of Don Eugenio de Peralta, keeper of
Simancas fortress, and was then publicly despatched to the King. It
stated that, notwithstanding the care