The king having authorized the parliament to proceed to trial, a deputation from that body, with the first president Harlay at its head, went to the Bastile, to take the necessary examinations, and confront the witnesses. With only one exception, which exception the internal evidence supplied by the papers soon obliged him to retract, Biron recognized all the letters and memorials which were shown to him; but he strove to put an innocent construction upon them, and, as they were written in a studiously ambiguous style, he might have thrown doubts upon the subject, had they been unsupported by oral testimony. In this stage of the business, he was asked what was his opinion of la Fin? Still believing that person to be true to him, he replied that he was “an honourable gentleman, a good man, and his friend.” The depositions of la Fin were then read, and he was brought face to face with the prisoner. The marshal now burst out into the most furious abuse of the man whom, but a moment before, he had declared to be his honourable and worthy friend. “O good God!” exclaims a contemporary chronicler, “what said he, and what did he not say! With what more atrocious revilings could he have torn to pieces the character of the most execrable being in the world! With what more horrible protestations, with what more terrible oaths, could he have called upon men, angels, and God himself, to be the witnesses and judges of his innocence!” La Fin, however, stood his ground against the storm of invective; and supported his evidence by corroborative circumstances, and additional documents in the prisoner’s handwriting. It seemed as though every thing conspired against Biron at this dreadful moment. “If Renazé,” said he, “were here, he would prove La Fin to be a liar.” To his utter surprise and consternation, the witness whom he had invoked, but whom he imagined to be dead, was suddenly brought forward, and amply confirmed the whole of La Fin’s story. On the very day that Biron was arrested, Renazé contrived to escape from the castle of Chiari, and he now sealed the fate of the marshal. Driven to his last resource, Biron pleaded the pardon which was granted to him at Lyons, and protested that, since he received it, he had never entertained any criminal designs. In this plea he was no less unfortunate than in the others. From his own incautious avowal, it was gathered that he did not make a full confession to the king; and one of his letters showed that he had continued to plot for many months after the monarch had forgiven him.