The Roman proctor, taking up the matter again, claimed the priory, in the name of Clement, on behalf of the priest who had been invested with it after the death of the traitor Montheron. Bonivard, desiring to place his benefice beyond the reach of fresh attacks, annexed it to the hospital of Geneva, which was to receive the revenues for him as prior. But the duke had other views. More than four hundred persons, carrying arms, and assembling by night before the hôtel-de-ville, had demanded justice on certain monks of St. Victor, who were accused of plotting to betray the convent to the partisans of Savoy. Besançon Hugues and Thomas Vandel, the procurator-fiscal, were the bearers of this request, and Bonivard had the monks shut up in prison. When the duke was informed of the annexation of the priory to the hospital of Geneva, his anger was increased, for he had a great desire to possess St. Victor's, which would give him a footing close to the gates of the city. His agents therefore solicited the prior 'daily' to revoke this act, and promised him 'seas and mountains' if he would consent; but Bonivard shook his head, saying: 'I do not trust him!' Charles now determined to get rid of a man who was an obstacle in his path in all his enterprises against Geneva.[824] [Sidenote: BONIVARD'S FILIAL AFFECTION.] The prior, usually so cheerful, had been for some time dejected and thoughtful. It was not only his priory, his poverty, and his enemies that threw a shade over his countenance, formerly so animated: his mother was seriously ill. To Bonivard filial piety was the most natural of obligations, the first and sweetest form of gratitude. He thought: 'How correctly Plato writes that there are no Penates more sacred, there is no worship more acceptable to the gods, than that of a father or mother bending under the weight of years.' His Genevese friends, who went daily to St. Victor's, observed his sadness, and asked him the reason. 'Alas!' he said, 'I should like to see my aged mother once more before she dies. I have not seen her these five years, and she is on the brink of the grave.' To one of them who inquired where she was, he replied: 'At Seyssel, in our ancestral house.' Seyssel was in the states of Savoy, and Charles would not fail to have the prior seized if he ventured to appear there.