They died, and the secret was revealed by servants who had partaken of the food.

The Spanish ambassador, Mendoza, advised recourse to an article of diet which had been used in some of the oriental sieges.

The counsel at first was rejected as coming from the agent of Spain, who wished at all hazards to save the capital of France from falling out of the hands of his master into those of the heretic.

But dire necessity prevailed, and the bones of the dead were taken in considerable quantities from the cemeteries, ground into flour, baked into bread, and consumed.

It was called Madame Montpensier's cake, because the duchess earnestly proclaimed its merits to the poor Parisians.