“Ah! madame,” cried Chiverni, surprised at such astuteness, “we never dreamed of casting you into such difficulties.”
“Does he know the position I am in?” asked the queen, calmly.
“Very nearly. He thinks you were duped after the death of the king into accepting that castle on Madame Diane’s overthrow. The Guises consider themselves released toward the queen by having satisfied the woman.”
“Yes,” said the queen, looking at the two Gondi, “I made a blunder.”
“A blunder of the gods,” replied Charles de Gondi.
“Gentlemen,” said Catherine, “if I go over openly to the Reformers I shall become the slave of a party.”
“Madame,” said Chiverni, eagerly, “I approve entirely of your meaning. You must use them, but not serve them.”
“Though your support does, undoubtedly, for the time being lie there,” said Charles de Gondi, “we must not conceal from ourselves that success and defeat are both equally perilous.”
“I know it,” said the queen; “a single false step would be a pretext on which the Guises would seize at once to get rid of me.”
“The niece of a Pope, the mother of four Valois, a queen of France, the widow of the most ardent persecutor of the Huguenots, an Italian Catholic, the aunt of Leo X.,—can she ally herself with the Reformation?” asked Charles de Gondi.