While Biron was thus the sport of his unruly passions, his friends were actively employed in endeavouring to save him. Henry had returned to the capital, amidst the shouts and congratulations of his subjects. Soon after his arrival, many of the nobles, some of whom were of Biron’s nearest kindred, waited upon the king, to intercede for the criminal. The duke of la Force was their spokesman; he spoke on his knees, and, though Henry desired him to rise, he retained that posture. He pleaded the services of the culprit and his father, the divine command to forgive our enemies, the pardon which the king had extended to others, and, especially, the deep indelible stain which would be thrown upon the family by a public execution; and, as far as was possible, he laboured to extenuate the marshal’s guilt, by representing that it arose from the warmth of his temper, and had never been carried beyond mere intention. There was one point in the duke’s speech which it was, perhaps, impolitic in him to urge; that in which he stated himself to speak in the name of a hundred thousand men, who had served under Biron. This was begging too much in the style of the Spanish beggar in Gil Blas, and was not calculated to propitiate a man like Henry. The monarch answered temperately, and even kindly, but with due firmness. Reminding them that he did not resemble some of his predecessors, who would not suffer parents to sue for their children on such an occasion, he declared that the mercy for which they asked would, in fact, be the worst of cruelty. He alluded to the love which he had always borne to Biron, and told them, that had the offence been only against himself he would willingly have forgiven it, and did forgive it as far as related to his person, but that the safety of his children and of the whole kingdom was implicated, and he must perform his duty to them. With respect to the disgrace which it was feared would attach to the relatives of the culprit, he treated the fear as a visionary one; he was, he said, himself descended from the constable St. Pol and the Armagnacs, who suffered on a scaffold, yet he did not feel dishonoured. In conclusion, he assured them that, far from depriving the marshal’s kindred of the titles and offices which they possessed, he was much more inclined to add to the number, so long as they continued to serve the state with fidelity and zeal.