[140] Montmorency met his death with calm resignation and Christian fortitude, and, after hearing his sentence, begged that the time of his execution might be hastened by two hours, in order that he might die at the same hour as his Saviour. As a proof that he died with no feeling of resentment against Richelieu, he bequeathed to the Cardinal a painting of the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, one of the finest pictures in his possession.
[141] Madame de Motteville, Mémoires.
[142] Ibid.
[143] Nicole Henriette de Bassompierre.
[144] Anne Mangot, Seigneur de Villarceaux. He was Intendant of justice and Finance in the Three Bishoprics.
[145] Not long after this, the Cardinal asked Bassompierre for the loan of the house with the magnificence of which he had taunted him. It is needless to say that the request was granted, though the marshal was obliged to turn out the Duchesse de Nemours, to whom he had lent it.
[146] In the summer of 1636, an army of Spaniards and Netherlanders invaded Picardy, crossed the Somme, took Corbie and threatened Paris, in which for a time the greatest alarm prevailed.
[147] The Comte de Cramail had been arrested and brought to the Bastille in 1638. He had been so ill-advised as to speak against the Cardinal in the presence of the King.
[148] Marie Criton d’Estourmel, dame de Gravelle. Tallemant des Réaux asserts that she had, while in the Bastille, where she remained several years, an amourette with Bassompierre.
[149] Son of Saint-Luc and the marshal’s sister, Henriette de Bassompierre.