"Rascals!" cried the Prince, laughing.
"You made a public declaration against the Mass, and in favor of heresy——"
"We are masters in Navarre," said the Prince.
"In Béarn, you mean! But you owe homage to the Crown," replied the Président de Thou.
"Ah, you are here, Président!" exclaimed the Prince ironically. "And is all the Parlement with you?"
With these words the Prince flashed a look of contempt at the Cardinal and left the room; he understood that his head was in peril.
On the following day, when Messieurs de Thou, de Viole, d'Espesse, Bourdin the public prosecutor, and du Tillet, the chief clerk, came into his prison, he kept them standing, and expressed his regrets at seeing them engaged on a business which did not concern them; then he said to the clerk:
"Write."
And he dictated as follows:
"I, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Condé, peer of the realm, Marquis de Conti, Comte de Soissons, Prince of the Blood of France, formally refuse to recognize any Commission appointed to try me, inasmuch as that by virtue of my rank and the privileges attaching to every member of the Royal Family, I can only be attainted, heard, and judged by a Parlement of all the peers in their places, the Chambers in full assembly, and the King seated on the bed of justice.—You ought to know this better than any one, gentlemen, and this is all you will get of me. For the rest, I trust in God and my Right."