Note 126 — Chapter I · THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

[Minister of finance to Francis I., a faithful and honourable servant of the crown. Lautrec, governor of Milan, having asked for 400,000 crowns as arrears of pay for his troops, the queen-mother, Louise of Savoy, who had a grudge against him, seized all the money in the treasury on the pretext that it was owing to her, and even intercepted what little coin Semblançay was able to get together. The result was that Lautrec’s army melted away and Milan was lost. Louise made Semblançay the scapegoat, and when Francis, after his defeat at Pavia, was carried a prisoner to Spain, she threw Semblançay (he was 72 years old) into the Bastille, had him tried on trumped-up charges, and brought about his execution.]