l 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.

The worthy old Lec