wn domestics, but placed in strict confinement.
Montigny had taken this proceeding so ill, and with such vehement
complaints of its injustice, that it had brought on a fever, under which
he was now laboring. Peralta concluded by expressing his regret at being
forced by Montigny's conduct into a course so painful to himself, as he
would gladly have allowed him all the indulgence compatible with his own
honor.[1251]--This letter, which had all been concocted in the cabinet
at Madrid, was shown openly at court. It gained easier credit from the
fact of Montigny's former attempt to escape; and the rumor went abroad
that he was now lying dangerously ill.

Early in October, the licentiate Alonzo de Arellano had been summoned
from Seville, and installed in the office of alcalde of the chancery of
Valladolid, distant only two leagues from Simancas. Arellano was a
person in whose discretion and devotion to himself Philip knew he could
confide; and to him he now intrusted the execution of Montigny.
Directions for the course he was to take, as well as the precautions he
was to use to prevent suspicion, were set down in the royal instructions
with great minuteness. They must be allowed to form a remarkable
document, such as has rarely proceeded from a royal pen. The alcalde was
to pass to Simancas, and take with him a notary, an executioner, and a
priest. The last should be a man of undoubted piety and learning,
capable of dispelling any doubts or errors that might unhappily have
arisen in Montigny's mind in respect to the faith. Such a man appeared
to be Fray Hernando del Castillo, of the order of St. Dominic, in
Valladolid; and no better person could have been chosen, nor one more
open to those feelings of humanity which are not always found under the
robe of the friar.[1252]

[Sidenote: HIS LAST MOMENTS.]

Attended by these three persons, the alcalde left Valladolid soon after
nightfall on the evening of the fourteenth of October. Peralta had been
advised of his coming; and the little company were admitted into the
castle so cautiously as to attract no observation. The governor and the
judge at once proceeded to Montigny's apartment, where they found the
unhappy man lying on his pallet, ill not so much of the fever that was
talked of, as of that sickness of the heart which springs from hope
deferred. When informed of his sentence by Arellano, in words as kind as
so cruel a communication would permit, he was wholly overcome by i