"What would you have him do?" demanded Catherine de Medici quickly. "How would you have him act?"
"In the first place," replied the Duke, "let him recall his troops; let them be withdrawn from every post they occupy! Their presence was the cause of the people's rising, and as soon as they are gone, the emotion will gradually subside."
"He has sent the order of recall already," replied Catherine; "but it is impossible to execute it. Hemmed in by barricades on every side, how can they retire, or take one step without danger?"
"That I trust," replied the Duke, "can soon----"
But he was interrupted in the midst of what he was saying by the sudden entrance of Charles of Montsoreau.
"I beg your Highness to pardon me," he said. "Your Majesty will, I am sure, forgive me, when I ask if you know what has become of Mademoiselle de Clairvaut?"
There was anxiety and apprehension in every line of Charles of Montsoreau's countenance, and the Queen's brow instantly gathered together with a look of mingled surprise and apprehension.
"She followed me into the hotel; did she not?" exclaimed the Queen. "I got out of the chair first, and she came immediately after. Surely I saw her upon the stairs!"
"The porter, madam, declares, that there was no lady entered with your Majesty; that two or three gentlemen came in; and that it was some time before your chair, and the rest of your male attendants could come up, on account of the crowd. I have ventured to ask Madame de Montpensier and the rest of the ladies in the house, before I intruded here: but no one has seen Mademoiselle de Clairvaut, and she is certainly not in the house."
"Is this the way I am treated?" exclaimed the Duke of Guise, his brow gathering into a tremendous frown. "Is this the way that I am sported with at the very moment----"