ishment lenient, if it were conceded that the charges against him
were true. His enemies, however, while he had been thus immured, had
possessed the power to accuse him as they listed. He ceased to speak, and
the executioner then came forward and strangled him. The alcalde, the
notary, and the executioner then immediately started for Valladolid, so
that no person next morning knew that they had been that night at
Simancas, nor could guess the dark deed which they had then and there
accomplished. The terrible, secret they were forbidden, on pain of death,
to reveal.

Montigny, immediately after his death, was clothed in the habit of Saint
Francis, in order to conceal the marks of strangulation. In the course of
the day the body was deposited, according to the King's previous orders,
in the church of Saint Saviour. Don Eugenio de Peralta, who superintended
the interment, uncovered the face of the defunct to prove his identity,
which was instantly recognised by many sorrowing servants. The next
morning the second letter, prepared by Philip long before, and brought by
Don Alonzo de Avellano to Simancas, received the date of 17th October,
1570, together with the signature of Don Eugenio de Peralta, keeper of
Simancas fortress, and was then publicly despatched to the King. It
stated that, notwithstanding the care given to the Seigneur de Montigny
in his severe illness by the physicians who had attended him, he had
continued to grow worse and worse until the previous morning between
three and four o'clock, when he had expired. The Fray Hernando del
Castillo, who had accidentally happened to be at Simancas, had performed
the holy offices, at the request of the deceased, who had died in so
catholic a frame of mind, that great hopes might be entertained of his
salvation. Although he possessed no property, yet his burial had been
conducted very respectably.

On the 3rd of November, 1570, these two letters, ostensibly written by
Don Eugenio de Peralta, were transmitted by Philip to the Duke of Alva.
They were to serve as evidence of the statement which the
Governor-General was now instructed to make, that the Seigneur de
Montigny had died a natural death in the fortress of Simancas. By the
same courier, the King likewise forwarded a secret memoir, containing the
exact history of the dark transaction, from which memoir the foregoing
account has been prepared. At the same time the Duke was instructed
publicly to exhibit the lying le