The decree was not executed, however; Saint-Vallier received his reprieve on the scaffold itself.

Francis I.was neither rancorous nor cruel; and the entreaties, or, according to some evil-speakers of the day, the kind favors, of the Lady de Brew, Saint-Vallier's daughter and subsequently the celebrated Diana of Poitiers, obtained from the king her father's life.
Francis I., greatly vexed, it is said, at the lenity of the Parliament of Paris, summoned commissions chosen amongst the Parliaments of Rouen, Dijon, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, and made them reconsider the case.

The provincial Parliaments decided as that of Paris had.

The procedure against the principal culprit was several times suspended and resumed according to the course of events, and the decree was not pronounced so long as the Duke of Bourbon lived.

It was abroad and in his alliance with foreign sovereigns that all his importance lay.
After Bourbon's precipitate retreat, the position of Francis I.was a good one.