"Is that all he said?" said De Rohan. "Are you to act as negotiator in this business, sir?"
"Not in the least," replied Edward. "I merely bear you a message, and am perfectly ignorant of the whole circumstances, even of the contents of this package,—though I have been told that it contains the conditions, which, if you assent to them, you will sign, and enable me to return them to the cardinal by noon to-morrow."
The duke took the packet, broke open the seal, and looked at the writing, which was very brief, consisting only of three paragraphs. There was a second paper, however, apparently briefer still. As he read, de Rohan knit his brows and bit his lip.
"Am I to understand that you know nothing of these papers?" he asked.
"Nothing whatever," replied Edward; and the duke, rising from his stool, walked up and down the hut for some minutes in deep thought.
"It must be done," he said, at length. "There is no use taking counsel in the matter, for it is what they all wish. And thus ends the Protestant cause in France! Monsieur Langdale, the only part of these papers which is personal to myself is that." And he laid the second enclosure before the young Englishman. "Why the cardinal has made this a condition all along I cannot conceive, unless it be a point of pride with him."
Edward read the paper, and perceived these words:—"I do hereby solemnly consent to and affirm the marriage of my cousin Lucette Marie de Mirepoix du Valais with Edward Langdale, of Buckley, in the county of Huntingdon, England, as solemnized at Nantes, on the 3d of July, in the year of grace 1627."
"I do assure you, my lord," said Edward, "this is none of my doing; and, sooner than be any impediment to a peace so necessary to the poor Protestants of France, I say, tear it. I will win Lucette by other means."
"No," said the duke: "I will sign it; I will sign all. And when a Rohan pledges his word the cardinal may be assured that it will be kept."