William, one of the brothers of Montmorenci, whom we have seen one of the original chiefs of the Politicians, was now about to enter the French territory at the head of a division of troops, designed to herald the way to the army which the prince of Condé had succeeded in obtaining from the Elector Palatine. In the first outbreak of her anger, on hearing this news, the queen mother sent him word, that, if he dared to advance, she would despatch to him the heads of the two marshals. His reply was, “Should the queen do as she threatens, there is nothing of hers in France on which I will not leave the marks of my revenge.” Menace having failed, the wily Catherine resorted to an opposite mode of proceeding. Aware that the liberation of the two marshals would be imperatively demanded by their armed friends, and that the king was too weak to refuse it, she determined to try whether she could not secure their gratitude, by appearing to have the merit of voluntarily releasing them. They were accordingly restored to liberty. By a declaration, under the royal seal, Montmorenci was pronounced to be “absolutely innocent of the crime which had been laid to his charge,” When a similar exculpatory document was offered to Cossé by the king, he chivalrously replied, “Excuse me, sire, for declining it; a Cossé ought to think that no one can believe him to be guilty.” Though they could not be ignorant of the motive which had induced Catherine to throw open their prison doors, the marshals acted as if a favour had really been granted to them. Montmorenci had the largest share in bringing about the truce, and the subsequent treaty, between the king and the duke of Alençon; and the loyalty of Cossé was considered to be so unimpeachable that, in 1578, he received the order of the Holy Ghost. Montmorenci died in 1579; Cossé in 1582. The principal favourite of the duke of Alençon, after the death of la Mole and Coconas, was Louis de Clermont, better known by the appellation of Bussy d’Amboise. In profligacy he went beyond his predecessors. He seems to have been a compound of vices, without a single virtue; unless, indeed, we may give the name of virtue to mere brutal courage. Full of pride and insolence, eager to involve others in deadly quarrels, a libertine, a professed duellist, and a cold-blooded assassin, his being tolerated at the French court, and even admired by many persons, is an unrefutable evidence of the wretched state of morals among the nobility of France. Bravery must have been held in a sort of idolatrous estimation, when respect for it could induce such a man as Crillon to be the friend of d’Amboise.