Page 138. line 11. _Others._] This is perhaps, a more probable statement, as well as more favourable to the memory of the duke, than that given by some other chroniclers, and hinted at in the ensuing paragraph. The lord Giles of Brittany, the youngest of the children of John VI., was brought up in the court of England; and he was accused, perhaps justly, of having imbibed prejudices contrary to the French interest from his earliest years. On his return to Brittany in 1442, his wife, (the beautiful heiress of Chateaubriant and Beaumanoir) is said to have excited the desire of Arthur de Montauban, the wicked favourite at court; who, finding all attempts to subdue her chastity ineffectual, contrived by intrigues, insinuations, and at last by open charges, to render the lord Giles suspected by his brother. On the other hand, he stimulated that unfortunate prince to demand an extension of revenue and of power, which he took care the duke should deny him. The two brothers being by these arts alienated from each other, an open rupture ensued, which the constable de Richemont, their uncle, in vain endeavoured to heal. The lord Giles, apprehensive for his personal safety, fled to the castle of Guildo; and most imprudently trusted its defence to a company of English men at arms. This circumstance was soon conveyed with all possible aggravation to the king of France, who thereupon gave orders to the admiral de Coetivy to arrest him. The admiral for some time neglected this order, but at last was obliged to perform it; and the lord Giles was brought before the parliament, or assembly of the states at Rennes, where his case was fairly investigated, and himself about to be honourably acquitted, when a letter to the king of England (said to be artfully forged by Montauban himself) was found on his person, and he was immediately committed to the castle of Moncontour. While a prisoner in this place, his persecutor resorted to every wicked contrivance to remove him without suspicion of violence. But his constitution resisted the effects of repeated poisons, and a charitable old woman found means long to preserve him from those of starvation. At length however his health gave way to the continual assault of his enemies, and he charged a priest (who attended privately to receive his confessions) to repair to the duke his brother, and summon him within 40 days to appear before the tribunal of God and answer for all his injustice towards him. Still his gaolers thought the end of their charge too slow in its approaches. They therefore strangled their unhappy victim, already dying, and gave out to the world that he had died of a cold. He was at that time not thirty years of age. The confessor executed his commission as he met the duke returning from the siege of Avranches; and Francis, struck to the heart by terror and repentance, actually died on the 40th day from the date of the summons. Montauban and