"Why?"
"Idle curiosity, Sire."
"Only fools are curious for nothing, and you are no fool, or were not when you left to go to Amboise." He paused, and in the silence Commines searched his wit for some plausible reason for the question he had put to Lessaix. But Louis probed no further. To hear the truth would have suited his purpose no better than it would have suited Commines to tell it.
CHAPTER XXVIII
PHILIP DE COMMINES, DIPLOMATIST
Commines broke the silence with a bold stroke. "He carried more letters than yours, Sire. A man named Saxe——"
"Saxe?" said Louis, drawling the word. "Who is Saxe?"
"An innkeeper in Amboise. Yesterday, an hour or two after I had received Your Majesty's letter, he came to me with a lying tale."
"What sort of reputation has this Saxe?"
"He is an innkeeper."