Again all the faculties of Richelieu were devoted to licentious pleasures, which were now and then interrupted by a duel. In 1716 he had a desperate encounter with the Count de Gacé, for which the regent committed both parties to the Bastile, where they remained from March till August. This imprisonment was, however, less severe than that which he had to endure two years afterwards. In the spring of 1719, he was sent, for the third time, to the Bastile, but, in this instance, he went with the brand of traitor upon him, and was treated accordingly. He was concerned in the Cellamare conspiracy, and had promised to deliver up Bayonne to the Spaniards, and to join in exciting the south of France to revolt. “If the Duke of Richelieu had four heads,” said the regent, “I have proof enough against him to deprive him of them all.” On his first arrival at the Bastile, the duke was placed in a dungeon; but female influence soon obtained his removal to more comfortable quarters, and permission for him to walk daily on the ramparts of the fortress. His walks gave rise to an occurrence, which speaks volumes as to the unblushing depravity of the high-born dames of France. During the hour that he was walking, a string of elegant carriages, filled with women who notoriously were or had been his mistresses, passed slowly backward and forward in front of the spot where he was, and an intercourse of signs was kept up between the prisoner and these unscrupulous ladies. It was by the intercession of two princesses, who were enamoured of him, that his release was obtained, after he had suffered a captivity of five months.