CHAPTER V.
1605 Trial of the conspirators--Pusillanimity of the Comte d'Auvergne--Arrogant attitude assumed by Madame de Verneuil--She refuses to offer any defence--Defence of the Comte d'Entragues--The two nobles are condemned to death--Madame de Verneuil is sentenced to imprisonment for life in a convent--A mother's intercession--The King commutes the sentence of death passed on the two nobles to exile from the Court and imprisonment for life--Expostulations of the Privy Council--Madame de Verneuil is permitted to retire to her estate--Disappointment of the Queen--Marriage of the Due de Rohan--Singular ceremony--A tilt at the Louvre--Bassompierre is dangerously wounded--His convalescence--Death of Clement VIII--Election of Leo XI--His sudden death--Election of Paul V--The Comte d'Entragues is authorised to return to Marcoussis--Madame de Verneuil is pardoned and recalled--Marriage of the Prince de Conti--Mademoiselle de Guise--Marriage of the Prince of Orange--The ex-Queen Marguerite--She arrives in Paris--Gratitude of the King--Her reception--Murder at the Hotel de Sens--Execution of the criminal--Marguerite removes to the Faubourg St.Germain--The King condoles with her on the loss of her favourite--Her dissolute career--Her able policy--Death of M.de la Riviere--Execution of M.de Merargues--Attempt to assassinate Henri IV--Magnanimity of the monarch--Henry seeks to initiate the Queen into the mysteries of government--_Madame la Regente_--A timely warning.
The year 1605 commenced, as had been the case each year since the peace, with a succession of Court-festivals; tilts and tournaments, balls and masquerades, occupied the attention of the privileged; presents of value were exchanged by the sovereigns and princes; and during all this incessant dissipation the Parliament was diligently employed upon the trial of the conspirators.
On Saturday, the 29th of January, the Comte d'Auvergne was placed out the sellette,[284] where L'Etoile[285] asserts that he communicated much more than was required of him; while the Queen, anxious to secure the condemnation of Madame de Verneuil, and at the same time to intimidate the favourites by whom she might be succeeded, appeared in person as one of the accusing witnesses.

Nor did Henry, who had already decided upon the pardon of the Marquise, attempt to dissuade her from this extraordinary measure; and it is even probable that as the design of the King was merely to humble the pride of the haughty Marquise, in order to render her more submissive to his authority, he was by no means disinclined to suffer Marie to give free vent to her indignation and contempt.
The Parliament had nominated as its commissaries Achille de Harlay, the first president,[286] and MM.

Etienne Dufour and Philibert Turin, councillors, to whose interrogatories, however, the Comte d'Auvergne at first refused to reply, alleging as his reason the pardon which had been accorded to him by Henry during the past year.

In this emergency M.
Louis Servin,[287] the King's Advocate, was deputed to offer to his Majesty the remonstrance of the commissaries, and to represent that as the accused had already been convicted of conspiring, first with Maturin Carterie, and subsequently with the Duc de Biron, he was unworthy of pardon on this third occasion; while the most imperious necessity existed that an example should be made, in order to secure the safety of their Majesties and the Dauphin, which, moreover, as a natural consequence, involved the tranquillity and welfare of the state.
To this appeal the King replied that the abolition accorded to the accused on the two former occasions had been granted with a view of inducing him to return to his allegiance, but that since it had failed to produce the desired result it could form no pretext for his escape from the penalties of this new crime, and that should he persist in refusing to reply to the questions put to him by his judges his silence must be construed into an acknowledgment of treason; upon which M.
d'Auvergne immediately endeavoured to redeem his error by revealing all the details of the past plots, as well as those of the one in which he was now implicated.
Madame de Verneuil, who had been summoned to appear at the same time, excused herself upon the plea of indisposition; and it was asserted that she had caused herself to be bled in order that the temporary delay in her examination thus secured might enable her, ere she appeared before the commissaries, to ascertain to what extent she had been implicated by the revelations of her step-brother.

She no sooner learnt, however, that the Count had thrown all the odium of the conspiracy upon herself than she hastened to obey a second summons, and presented herself with her arm in a sling to undergo in her turn the necessary interrogatories.