Almost the last wish of Biron was for vengeance on La Fin; the wish was gratified. After a lapse of four years, La Fin ventured to visit Paris. In the middle of the day, and in the centre of the capital, he was attacked by twelve or fifteen well-mounted men, who unhorsed him, and stretched him on the ground, weltering in his blood. Several passengers were killed or wounded by the random firing. The perpetrators of this deed, though not unknown, were never brought to justice. La Fin himself was undeserving of pity; but his murderers, even had he been the only victim, ought to have been shortened by the head. Faithless to a sovereign who had lavished kindness and honours upon him, borne with his caprices and errors, and more than once saved his life on the field of battle, Biron was rightfully punished; but the severity which, on very slight grounds of suspicion, was shown to René de Marc, sieur de Monbarot, seems to impeach the justice of Henry. When, however, we recollect, that his mind was painfully agitated by the plots which were thickening round him, we may, perhaps, be inclined to pity rather than blame the monarch, that, in one instance, its natural bias towards lenity was turned aside. In the bay of Douarnenez, off the Breton coast, there is an islet, called Tristan, or Frimeau, which commands the entrance to the harbour of Douarnenez. The government of it was held by the baron de Fontanelles, who, during the war of the League, had rendered himself notorious by his activity in plundering. Not being any longer able to gratify his rapacity in this manner, he sought for other resources, and hoped he had found them in becoming an accomplice of Biron, and in opening a negotiation with the Spaniards, to deliver up to them the island and the neighbouring town. This would have put Spain into possession of a very annoying post in Britanny. Fortunately his treason was discovered, and he was sentenced to be broken on the wheel. Three other persons, two of whom were Bretons, participated in his guilt, and the latter were executed. Before the accomplices of Fontanelles were led to the scaffold, they were put to the torture, and, while they were writhing under that iniquitous infliction, something dropped from them which was construed into an implication of Monbarot, who was governor of Rennes. Monbarot had done good service against the duke of Mercœur, during the war of the League, and, since the peace, he had made strenuous exertions to maintain the royal authority in Britanny. All this was, nevertheless, insufficient to save him from being suspected of treasonable designs, and immured in the Bastile.