"Republics have heads, dictators, rulers, as well as monarchies. Men who are yet monarchs though without crowns, or thrones, or rights hereditary. Whom does Spain produce?" La Truaumont asked.
"De Montérey at first stipulated for the head of the house of--Le Dédaigneux. The Duke----"
"Ah!" whispered Humphrey to himself.
"But finding that this might not be, that the Duke refuses since he would have to throw too heavy a stake to win even so great a prize as this, they will accept him."
"They must," the listener heard the woman say. "He must be head or nothing."
"They have agreed," Van den Enden continued. "They desire Quillebeuf, De Montérey avers, more than all the places of which Le Roi Soleil has despoiled them. They wish to form a Republic rivalling that of Venice, one that, in being with them, shall crush all who are against them."
"And Louis! The King. What of him?"
"Listen. His guards have been dispatched to join the army. Le Dédaigneux as their colonel has taken care of that."
"My God!" Humphrey whispered to himself. "He is in it. The chief conspirator and no tool!"
"The King will," Van den Enden went on, "be either at St. Germain or Fontainebleau for the next few weeks or months. And then--then----"