It was in vain that the Elector Palatine wrote to the French monarch, to entreat him to spare the life of du Bourg, and that numerous eminent persons, even catholics, solicited to the same effect. Neither their intercession, nor his acknowledged integrity and pure morals, availed to save him. He was condemned to be hanged and his body burnt, at the Place de Grêve. He died, at the age of thirty-eight, with a calm heroism, and Christian spirit of forgiveness, which excited general admiration. His death, far from being beneficial to the catholic cause, was exceedingly injurious to it. The protestants regarded him as a martyr, gloried in him as an honour to their party and faith, and were not slow in taking a heavy vengeance for his untimely doom. The blood of du Bourg seems to have deadened the fire of persecution, as far as related to the other parliamentary prisoners. Some were subjected to little more than nominal punishments; and even du Faur, the most obnoxious of them, was only condemned to pay a fine, ask pardon, and be suspended from his judicial functions for five years. But, comparatively light as this sentence was, du Faur refused to acquiesce in it; he boldly protested against it, and after a hard struggle, he was fortunate enough to obtain its revocation, and to be re-established in his magisterial capacity. Nor does it appear that this victory was purchased by any sacrifice of principle. Among those who, during the new crusade against protestants, had to lament the loss of liberty, was Francis de Vendôme, Vidame of Chartres, allied to the princes of the blood and the potent house of Montmorenci. Vendôme had served in Italy, as a volunteer, under the duke of Aumale, and, subsequently, held a command there, under the duke of Guise; after which he was appointed governor of Calais. Closely connected with the house of Montmorenci, he was irritated beyond measure by the dismissal of the constable, and cherished a deadly animosity against the Guises, who were the authors of that measure. It is not wonderful that, under the influence of these feelings, he should make common cause with the prince of Condé and the king of Navarre, who were preparing for resistance to the court. Vendôme took an active part in rousing the protestants to arms in various parts of the kingdom. But some of his letters, to the prince of Condé, having been found upon la Sague, an emissary of the protestant party, he was arrested and sent to the Bastile. There he was treated with extreme rigour, and was refused permission to see his wife, though she offered to become a prisoner with him. The letters were in appearance merely complimentary, but the dread of the torture induced la Sague to disclose that important secrets were written, with sympathetic ink, on the cover that contained them. The death of Francis II. and the pretended reconcilement of the hostile parties on the accession of Charles IX., would have saved Vendôme from the scaffold, but he did not