ank as the wife of a Marshal of France, and out of
respect for the Queen-mother, of whom she had not only been the
foster-sister but also the familiar friend, have been conveyed to the
place of execution in a covered carriage, and thus have been in some
degree screened from the public gaze; but no such delicacy was observed.
The criminal's cart, with its ghastly faggot for a seat, was her
ordained conveyance; but her step did not falter as she stepped into the
vehicle which had been previously tenanted by the vilest and most
degraded culprits. Never had there been seen so dense a crowd in the
Place de Greve; and as she glanced hurriedly around, unaware of the
popular reaction of feeling, she cowered for an instant panic-struck,
and murmured helplessly: "Oh, what a multitude to gaze upon a
miserable woman!"

Not a word, not a gesture of vengeance or of hate, escaped, however,
from the populace. Her deportment had been so dignified, her courage so
great, her piety so perfect, that those who were once her bitterest
enemies looked on her through their tears. Her charities had been
unremitting and extensive; and those whom she had aided in their
necessities had thronged, through a morbid and mingled feeling of
gratitude and awe, to see her die.[313]

Her head fell--her body was burned--and her ashes were scattered to the
wind.

De Luynes had, as we have stated, constituted himself her heir; but it
was not without difficulty that he succeeded in appropriating the
principal portion of the coveted wealth of his victims. Du Vair, with a
firmness for which the favourite was not prepared, refused for a
considerable time to countersign the letters of consignment which had
been granted by the King to that effect; declaring that as the property
of Concini and his family had been confiscated to the Crown, it could
not be otherwise disposed of. This difficulty was, however, surmounted
after the fashion of the period, and the signature of the scrupulous
minister was purchased by the rich bishopric of Lisieux; after which De
Luynes himself negatived the destruction of the magnificent hotel of the
Marechal, to which he transferred his own establishment, and then
proceeded to enforce his claims upon the funded property in Rome. This
pretension was, however, opposed by the Pope, who declared that all
monies confiscated within the Roman states must necessarily revert to
himself; and Louis XIII, after having in vain endeavoured to induce t