de la Palice to their Majesties as his son; they received him as such.
But during the visit of the king and queen the Count de Saint-Geran fell
ill, over fatigued, no doubt, by the trouble he had taken to give them a
suitable reception, over and above the worry of his own affairs.

During his illness, which only lasted a week, he made in his will a
new acknowledgment of his son, naming his executors M. de Barriere,
intendant of the province, and the sieur Vialet, treasurer of France,
desiring them to bring the lawsuit to an end. His last words were
for his wife and child; his only regret that he had not been able to
terminate this affair. He died on the 31st of January 1659.

The maternal tenderness of the countess did not need stimulating by the
injunctions of her husband, and she took up the suit with energy.
The ladies de Ventadour and du Lude obtained by default letters of
administration as heiresses without liability, which were granted out of
the Chatelet. At the same time they appealed against the judgment of the
lieutenant-general of the Bourbonnais, giving the tutelage of the young
count to the countess his mother, and his guardianship to sieur de
Bompre. The countess, on her side, interpleaded an appeal against the
granting of letters of administration without liability, and did all
in her power to bring back the case to the Tournelle. The other ladies
carried their appeal to the high court, pleading that they were not
parties to the lawsuit in the Tournelle.

It would serve no purpose to follow the obscure labyrinth of
legal procedure of that period, and to recite all the marches and
countermarches which legal subtlety suggested to the litigants. At the
end of three years, on the 9th of April 1661, the countess obtained a
judgment by which the king in person--