He was terribly grieved and desolate. Every glimpse that we have of his wife shows her good and charming, and the blows of fortune may well have seemed to both brothers too heavy to bear. The child’s death meant the extinction of the direct male line of du Plessis-Richelieu. After some weeks, by the intervention of their old friend Bassompierre, the Marquis and his brother-in-law M. du Pont-de-Courlay were allowed to go to Richelieu and to Paris on their family business. The Bishop remained alone at Avignon. His solitude there was of his own choice, for the Vice-Legate and other dignitaries were ready to make much of him, and a letter to his brother, written in February 1619, shows him very sensible of some special kindness. He commissions M. de Richelieu to buy and to send him the most beautiful hackney he can find--“mais belle tout-à-fait”--probably such a gentle, ambling creature as a Vice-Legate would ride--as well as pieces of choice goldsmith’s work to hang on watches. His anxiety is that the presents should be “something conformable to his condition,” for it is better to give nothing at all than “un maigre présent.” The Bishop of Luçon, in poverty and exile, had already the splendid tastes of the Éminentissime. But in actual fact he was very solitary and intensely sad. For once in his life he seems to have lost faith in his star, and as the conviction that he would die in exile gained strength, he thought a good deal of the poor little diocese he might never see again. He wrote a curious document, a kind of last will, dated February 8, and addressed to the Chapter of Luçon. After some expressions of sincere affection, he leaves his body to the Cathedral, “that I may repose when dead in the same place where, living, I desire to be....” “... The place of my sepulture shall be, if you please, immediately above the singers’ desk, leaving the higher part of the choir, as more honourable, for those who shall come after me.... “I leave you also all the silver plate of my chapel, my ornaments, and hangings of Flemish tapestry, to adorn the choir, without any condition whatever, trusting to be helped by your prayers.... “If I could leave you anything more, I would very willingly do so; my will surpassing my power, my wishes for you must supply the defect. “The first benefit I wish you is to live in clear consciousness of your condition, keeping before your eyes that this world is but illusion, and that there is no profit or contentment except in the service of God, who never forsakes them who serve Him. “I desire for you a bishop who, equalling me in affection, may surpass me in all other qualities.... I conjure him, whoever he may be, to reside with you, to visit his diocese, to encourage in their duty, by his example and his teaching, those who have the care of souls under him, to maintain and augment the seminary founded at Luçon, to which I leave a thousand _livres_ and my whole library....”