It may be easily imagined that Richelieu would not allow these edicts, apparently humane, to put an end to a practice which was both directly and indirectly of material service to his lofty ambition; and when he could not bring to the scaffold illustrious victims, such as the Cinque-Mars, De Thous, and Montmorency, he sought for guilt, real or supposed, amongst those nobles who had infringed these useless laws. Thus we find, in 1626, the young Prince de Chalais, of the house of Talleyrand, killing in a duel the Count of Pont Gibaut, grandson of Schomberg. He was immediately apprehended; but being a favourite of Gaston d’Orleans the King’s brother, and moreover the lover of the famous Duchess de Chevreuse, the cardinal was for the time deprived of his victim, until the year 1626, when he was accused of a conspiracy against his sovereign, sentenced to death, and executed the same day. This judicial murder was attended with circumstances of a most cruel nature. No executioner could be found to carry the sentence into effect, when two malefactors were pardoned on condition that they would perform the hateful duty; which they executed in so fearful a manner, that the unfortunate young nobleman received thirty blows of the axe ere his head was severed from the body. The following year, history records another merciless act of the cardinal. François de Montmorency, better known under the name of Boutteville, was one of the most renowned duellists of the day. This nobleman, whenever he heard that a person bore the reputation of a courageous man, was in the practice of walking up to him, and quietly saying, “I understand, sir, that you are courageous; I wish to enable you to prove it,--what are your weapons?” Every morning the hall of his hotel was crowded with what was called the “golden youth of France,” where fencing and trials of skill at all arms were practised, and a sumptuous collation laid out for the company. The excesses of these desperadoes were so reckless, that a special edict appeared to keep them within limits. Such was the audacity of Boutteville, that he actually compelled the Count of Pont Gibaut on an Easter Sunday to quit his devotions and fight him: he was also denounced for having killed the Marquis de Portes and the Count de Thorigny. Shortly after, fighting the Baron de la Frette, in which duel his second was killed, he was obliged to absent himself from Paris: he fixed upon Brussels to meet another adversary, the Marquis de Beuvron, a relation of Thorigny, whose death he was anxious to avenge. The King, upon hearing of this determination, wrote immediately to the Archduchess, who then governed the Low Countries, to prevent this meeting; and directed the Marquis de Spinola to settle their differences. For this purpose, this nobleman invited them both to a splendid repast, and made them embrace each other, with vows of everlasting friendship, and a total forgiveness of all past injuries, in the presence of a numerous company.