Any other than Gabriel de Montgommery would have surrendered without entering upon a resistance sure to be of no effect; but he, with his forty men, determined to show a bold front to that army. In De Thou's history the incredible narrative of that siege may be read. Domfront held out for twelve days, during which time the Comte de Montgommery made seven furious sallies; at last, when the walls of the town, riddled and tottering, were practically in the enemies' hands, Gabriel abandoned them, but only to ensconce himself in what was called the Tower of Guillaume de Bellême, and fight on. He had only thirty men with him. Matignon ordered to the assault a battery of five pieces of heavy artillery, a hundred cuirassiers, seven hundred musketeers, and a hundred pikemen. The attack lasted five hours; and six hundred cannon-shot were fired into the old donjon. In the evening Montgommery had but sixteen men left; but he still held out. He passed the night working at the breach like a common laborer. The assault began again with daybreak. Matignon had received reinforcements during the night, and had under his command around the tower of the Bellême donjon and its seventeen defenders fifteen thousand soldiers and eighteen pieces of artillery! The courage of the besieged did not fail; but their powder was exhausted. Montgommery, rather than fall into the hands of his enemies alive, determined to fall upon his own sword; but Matignon sent him a flag of truce, the bearer of which swore in the name of his chief "that his life should be spared, and he should be allowed to depart." Montgommery thereupon gave himself up, trusting to the oath. He should have remembered the fate of Castelnau. On the same day he was sent to Paris in fetters. Catherine de Médicis at last had him in her power. It was by treachery, to be sure; but what mattered that? Charles IX. was dead; and pending the return of Henri III. from Poland she was queen-regent and omnipotent. Montgommery was dragged before parliament, and condemned to death June 26, 1574. For fourteen years he had been fighting against the wife and children of Henri II. On the 27th of June, the Comte de Montgommery--to whom, in mere refinement of cruelty, the extraordinary torture had been applied--was carried to the scaffold and beheaded. His body was subsequently drawn and quartered. Catherine de Médicis was present at the execution. Thus closed the career of that extraordinary man,--one of the noblest and bravest souls that the sixteenth century had seen. He had never risen above the second rank, but had always shown himself worthy of a place in the first. His death fulfilled to the letter the predictions of Nostradamus,-- "Enfin, l'aimera, puis las! le tuera Dame du roy." Diane de Castro did not survive him. She had died the year before, abbess of the Benedictines of St. Quentin. THE END.