"What was it?"
"That which I hoped for; I bring to your Majesty that which will cure not only your body but your mind."
Charles shuddered. He thought that finding that he was still living his mother had resolved to finish knowingly that which she had begun unconsciously.
"Where is this remedy?" said he, rising on his elbow and looking at his mother.
"In the disease itself," replied Catharine.
"Then where is that?"
"Listen to me, my son," said Catharine, "have you not sometimes heard it said that there are secret enemies who in their revenge assassinate their victim from a distance?"
"By steel or poison?" asked Charles, without once turning his eyes from the impassible face of his mother.
"No, by a surer and much more terrible means," said Catharine.
"Explain yourself."