"Do not listen to him, my daughter," whispered the old governess in German to her ward.
"Let her hear, for since she wanted to know, know she shall!" said Balsamo in the same language, which doubled the mystery over the incident. "But to you alone, lady."
"Be it so," said the latter. "Stand back!"
"I suppose this is just an artifice to get a private audience?" sneered she, turning again to the magician.
"Do not try to irritate me," said he; "I am but the instrument of a higher Power, used to enlighten you. Insult fate and it will revenge itself, well knowing how. I merely interpret its moves. Do not fling at me the wrath which will recoil on yourself, for you can not visit on me the woes of which I am the sinister herald."
"Then there are woes?" said the princess, softened by his respectfulness and disarmed by his apparent resignation.
"Very great ones."
"Tell me all. First, will my family live happy?"
"Your misfortunes will not reach those you leave at home. They are personal to you and your new family. This royal family has three members, the Duke of Berry, the Count of Provence, and the Count of Artois. They will all three reign."
"Am I to have no son?"