“But surely you will allow some little authority to the king of France?” said Catherine, smiling.
“And much to the queen,” said de Beze, bowing low.
“You will find,” continued the queen, “that our most submissive subjects are heretics.”
“Ah, madame!” cried Coligny, “we will indeed endeavor to make you a noble and peaceful kingdom! Europe has profited, alas! by our internal divisions. For the last fifty years she has had the advantage of one-half of the French people being against the other half.”
“Are we here to sing anthems to the glory of heretics,” said the Connetable, brutally.
“No, but to bring them to repentance,” whispered the Cardinal de Lorraine in his ear; “we want to coax them by a little sugar.”
“Do you know what I should have done under the late king?” said the Connetable, angrily. “I’d have called in the provost and hung those two knaves, then and there, on the gallows of the Louvre.”
“Well, gentlemen, who are the learned men whom you have selected as our opponents?” inquired the queen, imposing silence on the Connetable by a look.
“Duplessis-Mornay and Theodore de Beze will speak on our side,” replied Chaudieu.
“The court will doubtless go to Saint-Germain, and as it would be improper that this colloquy should take place in a royal residence, we will have it in the little town of Poissy,” said Catherine.