meats, and returned to the custody of his gaolers, by whom he was
shortly afterwards imprisoned in the castle of Nantes.[294]

While this incredible scene was being enacted in an apartment of the
palace, another of a far more terrible nature was to be witnessed in the
streets of Paris; but before we describe this, we must explain all that
had passed since the murder of the Marechal d'Ancre. As we have already
stated, the body was pillaged where it lay; and then, as no further
booty could be anticipated, it was carried into a small closet attached
to the common guard-room, where it remained until nightfall, when a
coarse sheet, for which fifty sous were given, was folded about it, and
it was buried without any religious ceremony under the organ of the
church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois near the Louvre. A priest who
attempted to chant a funeral-hymn as it was laid in the earth was
compelled to desist, in order that the place of burial might not be
known; and the flags which had been raised were so carefully replaced
that it was only by secret information that the spot could possibly have
been discovered. This information was however given; and early in the
morning the pavement was torn up, and a rope fastened round the neck of
the corpse, which was then dragged through the streets by the infuriated
mob; and the desecrated remains of the recently powerful favourite were
hung by the feet to a gibbet, dismembered in the most brutal manner, and
finally burned.[295]

At the close of this tragedy the Baron de Vitry received the wages of
his brutality, and found himself before sunset a Marshal of France:
while Du Hallier his brother became his successor as Captain of the
Royal Guard; and Persan, the husband of his sister, who had also
assisted in the massacre of Concini, was recompensed by the lieutenancy
of the Bastille, and entrusted with the safe keeping of the Prince de
Conde. On the same day it was publicly proclaimed in the streets of
Paris that all the relatives and adherents of the Marechale d'Ancre were
forthwith to leave the capital, and that the Sieur de Vitry had acted
throughout the late execution by the express command of the King; the
ministers who had recently held office under the Queen-mother were
dismissed, and those whom she had displaced were restored to power; De
Luynes was formally invested with the confiscated property of Concini;
and a new Government was organized which had for its leading object the
sub