“To watch the lady?”
“Yes.”
“Monseigneur, I confess I do not like the commission.”
“You offered to do me a service, and you draw back already!”
“Because you want me to be a spy.”
“I ask you as a friend.”
“Monseigneur, this is a sort of thing that every man must do for himself, even if he be a prince.”
“Then you refuse?”
“Ma foi! yes.”
The duke frowned. “Well, I will go myself,” said he, “and if I am killed or wounded, I shall say that I begged my friend Bussy to. undertake the task, and that for the first time he was prudent.”