He did not surrender his rights without a contest, but alleged that the Duke and Duchess of Bretagne were moved solely by discontent at not having been able to persuade him to give them the estate of Thouars, and that, furthermore, the proceedings instituted against him were irregular, inasmuch as, from his rank and relationship to the royal family of France, he must be tried by the king and “the duly assembled court of peers.” The parliament, disregarding his protest, made a provisional order that the vicomte should not alienate his property, or make any conveyance thereof without the advice and consent of Master Robert Thiboust, then president of that court. This decree was dated on the 16th of January, 1457. The suit was still in progress when Louis XI. ascended the throne; and it seemed to him that it would be easy to take advantage at once of the weakness and irritation of the vicomte. At a summons from the king, the vicomte proceeded to Tours, and Louis proposed to him to marry the Duchess of Bretagne, who had become a widow, to the Duke of Savoy, and appointed him to negotiate the alliance. The duchess gave a distinct and formal refusal to these overtures; and in order to destroy all chance of gaining her compliance, she pronounced a vow at the altar never to marry again. Louis XI. gave a very ungracious reception to the luckless negotiator, and frightened him so by his threats and the violence of his reproaches, that Louis d’Amboise, duped by this simulated anger, readily listened to the counsels of certain courtiers, who advised him to propitiate the king by giving him the viscounty of Thouars. But in order that this donation might be valid, it was necessary to get rid of the decree pronounced by the court in January, 1457. This obstacle did not long stand in the way of Louis XI. The affair was referred to the council, which, by a decree of the 5th of September, 1462, reversed the order of the parliament. Thus restored to the uncontrolled management of his property, Louis d’Amboise sold to the king the viscounty of Thouars for 100,000 crowns, to be paid within a week: but the king was not to take possession of the estate until the death of the vicomte. 10,000 crowns were paid to him a few days after the signature of the contract, and Louis XI. received in return a general receipt for the entire sum. The Duchess of Bretagne hastened to protest against this ill-disguised act of spoliation; but ere long, having taken the veil, she transferred all her rights to her nephew, Louis de la Tremoille, the eldest son of her sister Marguerite. Louis d’Amboise, after having spent the last years of his life in disgraceful disorders, died at length on the 28th of February, 1470. While he was on his death-bed, Jacques de Beaumont, Lord of Bressuyre, came, in pursuance of the king’s command, at the head of some thirty gentlemen, to invest the Castle of Thouars, from whence he had orders to remove the children, the wife, the relatives, and even