"Yes, but is it with your lips or at heart?"
"One is always grateful to God when he saves our life," replied Henry, turning the question as he had a habit of doing in such cases, "and God has evidently saved me from this cruel danger."
"Sire," resumed De Mouy, "let us admit one thing."
"What?"
"That your abjuring is not a matter of conviction, but of calculation. You have abjured so that the King would let you live, and not because God has saved your life."
"Whatever the cause of my conversion, De Mouy," replied Henry, "I am none the less a Catholic."
"Yes, but shall you always be one? The first chance you have for resuming your freedom of life and of conscience, will you not resume it? Well! this opportunity has presented itself. La Rochelle has revolted, Roussillon and Béarn are merely waiting for one word before acting. In Guyenne every one cries for war. Merely tell me if you were forced into taking this step, and I will answer for the future."
"A gentleman of my birth is not forced, my dear De Mouy. That which I have done, I have done voluntarily."
"But, sire," said the young man, his heart oppressed with this resistance which he had not expected, "you do not remember that in acting thus you abandon and betray us."
Henry was unmoved.