"What would that avail?" he said, indifferently. "But have the followers of Luther, or Calvin, no friends in Francis' court?"
"Have they in Charles' domains?" she asked quickly.
"The Protestants in Germany are a powerful body; the emperor is forced to bear with them."
"Here they have no friends—openly," she went on. "Secretly—Marguerite, Marot; others perhaps. But these will not serve you; could not, if they would. Besides, this heresy of which you are accused is but a pretext to get rid of you."
"And how, good Jacqueline, has the king treated the new sect?"
She held her hand suddenly to her throat; her face went paler, as from some tragic recollection.
"Oh," she answered, "do not speak of it!"
"They burned them?" he persisted.
"Before Notre Dame!"
Her voice was low; her eyes shone deep and gleaming.