"You were the first to jump, I will wager."
The King smiled.
"I know why you risk your life so."
"Hah, fair sorceress!"
"You are weary of life."
"Begone with witchcraft! I am haunted by it!" said the King, grave once more.
"My witchcraft is love," said she, with a smile. "Since the happy day when you first loved me, have I not always guessed your thoughts? And if you will suffer me to say so, the thoughts that torment you to-day are not worthy of a King."
"Am I a King?" said he bitterly.
"Can you not be King? What did Charles VII. do, whose name you bear? He listened to his mistress, my lord, and he won back his kingdom, which was invaded by the English then as it is now by the adherents of the New Religion. Your last act of State opened the road you must follow: Exterminate heresy."
"You used to blame the stratagem," said Charles, "and now——"