In this conspiracy stood, as its head and front, the handsomest representative of a house that, since the suppression of the family of De Guise, was the first in the kingdom; while others whose names were the most notable of the time were strongly suspected of being implicated in the plot. Among those names was that of the Duc de Bourbon-Condé, grandson of the Prince de Condé--a man of whom it was said that he was "an unnatural son, a cruel father, a terrible husband, a detestable master, an evil neighbour, a man without friendship or a friend, and equally fit to be his own executioner and that of others." Another, on whom suspicion rested deeply, was the brother of the Duc de Guiche; another the Cardinal de Retz. Of these latter none were ever brought to trial, while the name of Condé's grandson was, by order of the King himself, omitted from the interrogatories and trial. For the Condés were of the House of Bourbon, and the great head of that house could not see one of his own blood, however evil, receive the ordinary treatment meted out to suspected men. In the Bastille, therefore, Louis de Beaurepaire, Emérance and Van den Enden, all in separate rooms or _cachots_, awaited the day when they should be put on their trial, the former inhabiting one of the principal rooms in the Tour de la Bertaudière, the woman another off the Chapel, and the Jew a dungeon in the basement. Day after day they were submitted to interrogatories, sometimes by La Reynie himself, sometimes by Bezous, _Conseiller au Parliament_, and sometimes by De Pomereu, _Conseiller d'État_, yet, though not one of them had ever the least opportunity of communicating with the other, or of knowing what either of the others had admitted or denied, from none was any admission obtained. De Beaurepaire asserted that he knew naught of the conspiracy, while advancing what was an undoubtedly strong, as well as a true, point in his favour, namely, that his family was not Norman and that, absolutely, he had never been in Normandy. Emérance stated that she was of Norman origin but that her social standing was of too humble a nature for her to be admitted into any such conspiracy as the one in question, even had she desired to be so admitted; while Van den Enden said that his various visits to Holland and other places were connected with the many commercial affairs in which he was concerned. While these interrogatories were taking place, however, De Beaurepaire learned that one person who, perhaps above all, had had it in his power to testify against him and to include him in his own ruin should he desire to do, was harmless now.