Did the brutal vindictiveness of the monarch end here? It did not. The guiltless children, of whom the youngest was only five years old, were taken back to the Bastile, and plunged into a loathsome dungeon, where they had scarcely the power of moving. There they remained, for five years, till the accession of Charles the eighth opened their prison door. A part of the confiscated property of their father was subsequently restored to them by Charles. The health of two of them was so broken that they did not long survive. The youngest inherited the title of Nemours, rose to be viceroy of Naples, and fell at the battle of Cerignoles, in 1503. CHAPTER III. Reign of Francis I.—Semblançai—The Chancellor Duprat—The Chancellor Poyet—Admiral de Chabot—Fall of Poyet—Reign of Henry II.—Anne du Bourg—Louis du Faur—Reign of Francis II.—Execution of du Bourg—Francis de Vendôme—Reign of Charles IX.—The Duke of Lunebourg—Henry of Navarre and the Prince of Condé in danger of the Bastile—Faction of the Politicians—La Mole—Coconas—Marshal de Montmorenci—Marshal de Cossé—Reign of Henry III.—Bussi d’Amboise. During the reigns of Charles the eighth and Louis the twelfth, a period of more than thirty years, no prisoners of note appear to have been incarcerated in the Bastile. In the reign of Francis the first, we again find it receiving persons of rank within its gloomy walls. The first who was consigned to it by Francis was James de Beaune, baron of Semblançai. He was the eldest son of John de Beaune, a citizen of Tours, who acquired a large fortune by commerce, and who, after having withdrawn from mercantile pursuits, held the office of steward to Louis the eleventh and to Charles the eighth. Semblançai entered early into the royal service, and, in the reign of Charles the eighth, rose to the high situation of superintendant of the finances, and retained it under Louis the twelfth and Francis the first. It was to his talents he was indebted for preferment; and his conduct, in the difficult and dangerous post which he occupied, justified his elevation, and gained for him the confidence of the three monarchs. Francis was even accustomed to address him with the flattering appellation of father. Keeping aloof from all court intrigues, he displayed, in his official character, an exemplary regularity, economy, and probity; and he crowned the whole by a virtue which is still more rare in a finance minister—that of endeavouring to alleviate the burthens of the people, and prevent them from being despoiled by unprincipled nobles.