He hath well Served the King, it is true; but his Offices and Dignities did call him to that Duty, he hath had notable rewards for it, and from the time that he hath shewed himself so unfaithfull, he hath diminished the lustre of his deserts. His deserts had made him capable of the first dignities of the Kingdom, but the merit of them is vanished away, by the greatness of his Crime.
And what is the State beholding to him, if after he hath contributed so much for its restauration, he goeth about to turn up side down the Foundation of it, and to betray it to the Enemies. It is nothing to begin well unless you end well, the actions are judged by the end: Those that have deserved best of the States, are the most severely punished when they fall into Sedition and Rebellion. There is many sheets of Paper in the Hands of the Court, containing in them one hundred advices given to the Enemy, the least of which is capable to make him guilty.
The Prisoners quality is not considerable in this case; Justice is blind to all distinctions, and rather considereth the offence according to the quality of the offender; Crimes of high Treason are not considered by things past, but by things present and that are to come; we must not put in an account what he hath done, but what he had a mind to do. The quality of a Duke and Peer of France, of Knight of the Kings Order, of Marshal, doth not exempt him from the Law, and from being judged as an Enemy to the State, and to the Majesty of the Prince, seeing he would have troubled the State, and attempted upon the Kings person. Who in France besides is more obliged to the King? the greater then is the Obligation, the greater the ingratitude. God forbid that the respect of the quality should stop the course of Justice: a Limb must be cut off to save all the body.
But his offence hath been forgiven: The pardon cannot extend but to the things that are confessed; but he acknowledgeth himself that he hath not told all, therefore he hath confessed as little as he could, his own confessions Witness, he only asked forgiveness, that he might continue his Crimes with more security: Besides, he would not acknowledge his fault to the King, for all the King promised to forgive him, and lately he told the Court, he did not believe that la Fin had revealed what was secret between them; and thought he would have kept his word, which he had confirmed with so many Oaths, and that if he had doubted of it, he would have cast himself at his Majesties Feet as readily as he, and asked him forgiveness. It followeth then that there was some thing left behind that was not confessed: Thus he accuseth himself, thinking to excuse his fault; besides, he mistaketh himself thinking to persuade the Court, that since the pardon he hath done nothing amiss, for the Pardon was in January 1600. and here be Letters of September last, by which he recalleth la Fin, telleth him, he will think no more upon the Vanities that were past since, God was pleased to have given the King a Dolphin. It is apparent then that he hath employed la Fin at least since the Pardon, till the birth of the Dolphin, and la Fin maintaineth that there was a note quite to the contrary, and that they did continue their intelligences and practises unknown to the King. That the Duke did recal him, fearing he should discover the Conspiracy, when a man continues in his faults and abuseth his Pardon, the last fault payeth for all.
Besides, the Court hath not seen that Pardon, he oughted to have produced it in writing under the Kings Hand and Seal, and to forgive him once more, would put him into such a condition, as to contrive always Treasons against the State; the remedy of a present evil is not to be neglected upon the hope of an uncertain good; he is in a case to be no more useful; nothing can be expected from his courage but revenge; he that can bring no profit by his virtue and faithfulness, must do it by being made an exemple.
Such were for the most part the reasons of the Court, according to which, and to the conclusions of the Attorney General, the Chancellor did pronounce Sentence of death against the Prisoner; some were of opinion that la Fin should be arrested, as one that could not justifie himself, for having concealed such a damnable Conspiracy, till he saw that the Spanish affairs went to wrack. The Chancellor did moderate these opinions, representing that the Conspiracy was not yet wholly discovered, and that such things would hinder the rest of those that knew some thing of it to reveal it; that a man that saveth the Kings Person and his Estate, ought rather to be rewarded then punished. And in confirmation of this, the King sent Letters to la Fin, by which he assured him, that such a service done to him and his Kingdom, should never prove his ruine.
The Court stayed onely for the Kings intention upon the execution of the Sentence, which Sillery had carried to St. Germain. The Scaffold was ready to be set up in the place of Greve, but the execution might have proved dangerous, in the middle of so much people of different humors and tempers; and already there was a rumour, as if some body should throw him a Sword, with which he should make himself a passage, or else have died with a blow less shameful then that of the Hangman; upon his friends intreaty the execution was ordered to be done in the Bastille.
The next day about noon, the people knowing that the Sentence was past, went some to the Greve, thinking that the execution should be done there, others to St. Antony street, to see the Prisoner pass by; he saw from his Chamber that multitude, and guessed that he was to be the Spectacle of those Spectators; here the anguish of the Grave began to beset him, and drawing a consequence from the shadow of death, that the body was not far of; he sent Baranton a Scotish Gentleman to intreat the Marquess of Rhosny to come to see him, or if he could not come, to sue for his Pardon to the King. He sent him answer, he could do neither, and that he was extreamly sorry for his misfortune, that if he had believed him at his coming to Court, he should have confessed what the King did desire to know of him, for by concealing of it, he did hinder the King to give him his life, and all his friends to sue for it.
The next day last of July 1602. the Chancellor, the first President, Sillery, three Masters of Requests, some Officers of the Chancery, Rapin Lieutenant of the short Gown, his Lieutenant, Daniel Voisin Register of the Court of Parliament, six Sergeants, and seven or eight more went to the Bastille, about ten of the Clock in the morning, as soon as they were come in the Chancellor commanded that the Prisoners Dinner should be carryed, without giving him notice of his coming, and in the mean time he and the first President made a List of those whom they would have to be present in that action: Some Presidents, three Masters of Requests, three Auditors, six Serjeants of the Parliament, the Lieutenant Civil, the Kings Attorney at the Chastelet, Rapin and his Lieutenant, the Knight of the Watch, the Prevost of the Merchants, four Aldermen, four Councellors of the City, and some few others, to the number of fifty.
About noon the Prisoner looking through the Grates of his Chamber Windows, perceived the Wife of Rumigny, Captain of the Castle, weeping with her hands up and guessed that those Tears were drawn by the compassion of his Fortune. He was confirmed in his opinion, when he saw the Chancellor followed by the Serjeants, Rapin and his Lieutenant, and some others go through the Bastilles Yard into the Chappel, then he began to cry aloud, O my God I am a dead man, ah, what injustice it is to put an Innocent Person to death, thereupon he intreated Rumigny to tell his Brothers, Sisters and Kindred, that they should not be ashamed of his death, because he was Innocent of that he was accused.