'Nay,' she answered; 'if she will lie to keep her queenship, keep it she shall. I am upon the point of honour.'
'Before God!'—and his voice had a sneering haughtiness—'ye will not be long of this world if ye steer by the point of honour.'
'Sir,' she cried out and stretched forth her hands; 'for the love of Mary who guides the starry counsels and of the saints who sit in conclave, speak not in that wise.'
He shrugged his shoulders and said, with a touch of angry shame:
'God send the world were another world; I would it were other. But I am a prince in this one.'
'My lord,' she said; 'if the world so is, kings and princes are here to be above the world. In your greatness ye shall change it; with your justice ye shall purify it; with your clemencies ye should it chasten and amerce. Ye ask me to be a queen. Shall I be a queen and not such a queen? No, I tell you; if a woman may swear a great oath, I swear by Leonidas that saved Sparta and by Christ Jesus that saved this world, so will I come by my queenship and so act in it that, if God give me strength the whole world never shall find speck upon mine honour—or upon thine if I may sway thee.'
'Why,' he said, 'thy voice is like little flutes.'
He considered, patting his square, soft-shod feet upon the bricks of the arbour floor.
'By Guy! I will have thee,' he said; 'though ye twist my senses as never woman twisted them—and it is not good for a man to be swayed by his women.'
'My lord,' she said, 'in naught would I sway a man save in where my conscience pricks and impels me.' She rubbed her hand across her eyes. 'It is difficult to see the right in these matters. The only way is to be firm for God and for the cause of the saints.' She looked down at her feet. 'I will be ceaseless in my entreaties to you for them,' she uttered. Suddenly again she stretched forth both her hands that had sunk to her sides: