“Come, Duc de Nemours,” said the Prince de Conde, weary of the part he was playing; “you who have the credit of the skirmish, and who helped to make these men prisoners, do you not feel under an obligation to ask mercy for this one?  It is Castelnau, who, they say, received your word of honor that he should be courteously treated if he surrendered.”

“Do you think I waited till he was here before trying to save him?” said the Duc de Nemours, stung by the stern reproach.

The clerk called slowly—­no doubt he was intentionally slow:—­

“Michel-Jean-Louis, Baron de Castelnau-Chalosse, accused and convicted of the crime of lese-majeste, and of attempts against the person of the king.”

“No,” said Castelnau, proudly, “it cannot be a crime to oppose the tyranny and the projected usurpation of the Guises.”

The executioner, sick of his task, saw a movement in the king’s gallery, and fumbled with his axe.

“Monsieur le baron,” he said, “I do not want to execute you; a moment’s delay may save you.”

All the people again cried, “Mercy!”

“Come!” said the king, “mercy for that poor Castelnau, who saved the life of the Duc d’Orleans.”

The cardinal intentionally misunderstood the king’s speech.

“Go on,” he motioned to the executioner, and the head of Castelnau fell at the very moment when the king had pronounced his pardon.

“That head, cardinal, goes to your account,” said Catherine de’ Medici.

The day after this dreadful execution the Prince de Conde returned to Navarre.

The affair produced a great sensation in France and at all the foreign courts.  The torrents of noble blood then shed caused such anguish to the chancellor Olivier that his honorable mind, perceiving at last the real end and aim of the Guises disguised under a pretext of defending religion and the monarchy, felt itself no longer able to make head against them.  Though he was their creature, he was not willing to sacrifice his duty and the Throne to their ambition; and he withdrew from his post, suggesting l’Hopital as his rightful successor.  Catherine, hearing of Olivier’s suggestion, immediately proposed Birago, and put much warmth into her request.  The cardinal, knowing nothing of the letter written by l’Hopital to the queen-mother, and supposing him faithful to the house of Lorraine, pressed his appointment in opposition to that of Birago, and Catherine allowed herself to seem vanquished.  From the moment that l’Hopital entered upon his duties he took measures against the Inquisition, which the Cardinal de Lorraine was desirous of introducing into France; and he thwarted so successfully all the anti-gallican policy of the Guises, and proved himself so true a Frenchmen, that in order to subdue him he was exiled, within three months of his appointment, to his country-seat of Vignay, near Etampes.