"out of his clemency and benignity," had substituted a secret for a
public execution. Montigny admitted that the judgment would be just and
the punishment 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