"You are unjust," said the Duc d'Alençon, drawing his armchair still nearer to his sister, "I love you and protect you!"
"Brother," said Marguerite, looking at him sharply, "have you anything to say to me from the queen mother?"
"I! you mistake, sister. I swear to you—what can make you think that?"
"What can make me think that?—why, because you are breaking off the intimacy that binds you to my husband, because you are abandoning the cause of the King of Navarre."
"The cause of the King of Navarre!" replied the Duc d'Alençon, wholly at his wits' end.
"Yes, certainly. Now look here, François; let us speak frankly. You have come to an agreement a score of times; you cannot raise yourself or even hold your own except by mutual help. This alliance"—
"Has now become impossible, sister," interrupted the Duc d'Alençon.
"And why so?"
"Because the King has designs on your husband! Pardon me, when I said your husband, I erred; I meant Henry of Navarre. Our mother has seen through the whole thing. I entered into an alliance with the Huguenots because I believed the Huguenots were in favor; but now they are killing the Huguenots, and in another week there will not remain fifty in the whole kingdom. I gave my hand to the King of Navarre because he was—your husband; but now he is not your husband. What can you say to that—you who are not only the loveliest woman in France, but have the clearest head in the kingdom?"
"Why, I have this to say," replied Marguerite, "I know our brother Charles; I saw him yesterday in one of those fits of frenzy, every one of which shortens his life ten years. I have to say that unfortunately these attacks are very frequent, and that thus, in all probability, our brother Charles has not very long to live; and, finally, I have to say that the King of Poland has just died, and the question of electing a prince of the house of France in his stead is much discussed; and when circumstances are thus, it is not the moment to abandon allies who, in the moment of struggle, might support us with the strength of a nation and the power of a kingdom."