Of the wretched Spaniard I need say little more. Caught in his
own snare, he was no sooner withdrawn from the court than he fell
into violent convulsions, which held him until midnight when he
died with symptoms and under circumstances so nearly resembling
those which had attended the death of Madame de Beaufort at
Easter, that I have several times dwelt on the strange
coincidence, and striven to find the connecting link. But I
never hit on it; and the King's death, and that unexplained
tendency to imitate great crimes under which the vulgar labour,
prevailed with me to keep the matter secret. Nay, as I believed
that d'Evora had played the part of an unconscious tool, and as a
hint pressed home sufficed to procure the withdrawal of the
chaplain whom Maignan had named, I did not think it necessary to
disclose the matter even to the King my master.



III. TWO MAYORS OF BOTTITORT.

Believing that I have now set down all those particulars of the
treaty with Epernon and the consequent pacification of Brittany
in the year 1598 which it will be of advantage to the public to
know, that it may the better distinguish in the future those who
have selfishly impoverished the State from those who, in its
behalf, have incurred obloquy and high looks, I proceed next to
the events which followed the King's return to Paris.

But, first, and by way of sampling the diverting episodes that
will occur from time to time in the most laborious existence, and
for the moment reduce the minister to the level of the man, I am