"'Didn't I tell you, Henri de Valois, that you would have to fight with ten swords against my one, and meet my insult with the obedient courage of your soldiers?'
"'You hear, Monsieur de Montmorency!' said the trembling dauphin.
"'Let him be gagged!' was Monsieur de Montmorency's only reply. 'I will soon give you your instructions,' said he to the men, 'as to what is to be done with him. Meanwhile keep careful watch on him; you shall answer for him to me with your heads.'
"And he left the oratory, taking the dauphin with him. They passed through the corridor, where Perrot was hiding behind the hangings, and went into Madame Diane's apartment.
"Perrot thereupon went over to the other wall, and applied his ear to the other disused door.
"The scene of which he had already been an auditor was on the whole less terrible than that to which he was now to listen."
CHAPTER XXII
DESCRIBES THE MOST CONVINCING PROOF THAT A WOMAN
CAN GIVE THAT A MAN IS NOT HER LOVER
"'MONSIEUR de MONTMORENCY,' said the dauphin, as he entered the room, angry and cast down, 'if you had not held me back, I should be better content with myself and you than I am at present.'
"'Permit me to say, Monseigneur,' Montmorency replied, 'that you talk like a hot-headed youth, and not like the king's son. Your days do not belong to you; they belong to your people, Monseigneur, and crowned heads have different duties from other men.'