"It is my misfortune to be unpopular with the Catholics, though I have done what might be for their service."
"I do not listen," repeated the King hastily; he seated himself in the carved chair beside the bureau. "But I must tell you one thing," he added, after an instant. "M. Barillon thinketh I go too far."
Sunderland remained standing.
"He hath told me so," he answered quietly.
"What doth he mean?" asked James eagerly, and with the air of depending entirely on the other's interpretation.
"This," replied the Earl suavely—"that, good friend as His Christian Majesty is to you, it doth not suit his pride that you, sir, should grow great without his help—he would rather have Your Majesty the slave than the master of the people, rather have you dependent on him than a free ally."
"I'll not be dictated to," said the King. "My brother was too much the creature of Louis, but I will not have him meddle in my affairs."
"M. Barillon doth his duty to his master," answered the Earl. "Your Majesty need pay no attention to his warnings——"
"Warnings!" echoed the King, with sullen fire. "I take no warnings from an Ambassador of France." Then he sat forward and added in a quick, half-baffled fashion, "Yet there are dangers——"
"What dangers, sire?"