"Always; and she would rather see her daughter at Paris than at Nerac—near her than near you."
"You think so? Yet she does not love her daughter to distraction."
"No; but Madame Marguerite serves you as a hostage, sire."
"You are cunning, Chicot. Devil take me, if I thought of that! But you may be right; a daughter of France would be a hostage in case of need. Well, the third?"
"Between the Duc d'Anjou, who seeks to make a throne for himself in Flanders, between MM. de Guise, who wish for a crown, and shake that of France, and his majesty the king of Spain, who wishes for universal monarchy, you hold the balance and maintain a certain equilibrium."
"I, without weight?"
"Just so. If you became powerful, that is to say, heavy, you would turn the scale, and would be no longer a counterpoise, but a weight."
"Ah! I like that reason, and it is admirably argued. This is the explanation of my situation?"
"Complete."
"And I, who did not see all this, and went on hoping."