Note 440 — CCCXXIII.—To Denis Peloquin and Louis de Marsac.[440]

Occupying the same cell during the last days of their captivity, the two prisoners were only separated to die. Denis Peloquin was taken from his prison the 4th September, and conducted to Ville Franche, where his heroic constancy at the stake excited the wonder and tender sympathy of the spectators. Louis de Marsac, with two other victims, Etienne Gravot of Gyen, and Marsac, his cousin, who had followed him into his dungeon, "gave thanks to God for the inestimable honour which he conferred upon them of suffering for his name." At the moment when the three condemned were about to be led to the place of execution, a rope was put about their neck, according to custom. "Louis de Marsac, seeing that they spared him in that particular, out of some regard to his quality, asked in a loud voice if the cause of his two brethren was different from his, adding these words, 'Alas! do not refuse me the collar of so excellent an order.' The lieutenant agreed to his wish, and the three martyrs, chanting with one voice the song of deliverance, shortly after mounted the pile prepared on the Place des Terreaux, and expired in the midst of the flames."—Hist. des Martyrs. Lib. iv. p. 254. Hist. Eccl. tom. i. p. 92.