Louis gave him an interview on the way from Amboise to Notre-Dame de Clery; and they were observed, it is said, conversing for two hours, as they walked together on the road.

The trial and condemnation of a cardinal by a civil tribunal was a serious business with the court of Rome.

The king sent commissioners to Pope Paul II.: the pope complained of the procedure, but amicably and without persistence.

The cardinal was in prison at Loches; and Louis resolved to leave him there forever, without any more fuss.

But at the same time that, out of regard for the dignity of cardinal, which he had himself requested of the pope for the culprit, he dispensed with the legal condemnation to capital punishment, he was bent upon satisfying his vengeance, and upon making Balue suffer in person for his crime.