“Suppose I do go out, what then?”
“I should say that you had won the game by playing against the rules.”
“Chicot, you alarm me. Are you sent here by some one who takes an interest in me?”
“Yes,” said Chicot, nodding. He came nearer to the prince, and made him understand that they were being watched and overheard.
“What have you to say to me?” asked the Prince de Conde, in a low voice.
“Boldness alone can pull you out of this scrape; the message comes from the queen-mother,” replied the fool, slipping his words into the ear of the prince.
“Tell those who sent you,” replied Conde, “that I should not have entered this chateau if I had anything to reproach myself with, or to fear.”
“I rush to report that lofty answer!” cried the fool.
Two hours later, that is, about one o’clock in the afternoon, before the king’s dinner, the chancellor and Cardinal de Tournon came to fetch the prince and present him to Francois II. in the great gallery of the chateau of Amboise, where the councils were held. There, before the whole court, Conde pretended surprise at the coldness with which the little king received him, and asked the reason of it.
“You are accused, cousin,” said the queen-mother, sternly, “of taking part in the conspiracy of the Reformers; and you must prove yourself a faithful subject and a good Catholic, if you do not desire to draw down upon your house the anger of the king.”