"'Monsieur de Montgommery has been guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté. Monsieur de Montmorency, to what penalty are they liable who commit that crime?'
"'Death,' the constable replied.
"'Then,' said Madame Diane, coldly, 'my opinion is that this man should die.'
"Both the others stood aghast at these words; and there was another pause before Monsieur de Montmorency replied,—
"'You mean by that, Madame, that you do not love Monsieur de Montgommery, and never have loved him.'
"'For my part,' said the dauphin, 'I am less desirous than ever now that he should die.'
"'I hold the same views,' said Montmorency, 'but on different grounds from yours, I take it, Monseigneur. The opinion which generosity moves you to express, I hold for prudential reasons. Monsieur de Montgommery has many friends and powerful allies in France and England; it is known at court that he was likely to meet us here to-night. If they come to us and ask us boldly and clamorously for news of him to-morrow, it must not be that we are able to produce only a dead body. Nobles cannot be treated like serfs and put to death without ceremony. We must be able to reply,—"Monsieur de Montgommery has absconded;" or, "Monsieur de Montgommery is wounded and ill;" but in any event, "Monsieur de Montgommery is alive!" 'And if we are pushed to the last extremity, and if they persist in clamoring for him to the end, well, then we must be in a position where if worst comes to worst, we can take him from his prison or his bed and produce him to the slanderers. But I hope that this precaution, necessary though it be, will nevertheless be useless. Monsieur de Montgommery will be sought for and inquired for to-morrow and the day after; but in a week's time the matter will begin to die out, and in a month he will not be mentioned at all. Nothing is forgotten so speedily as a friend; and we must help to change the subject of common gossip. My conclusion is, then, that the culprit must neither die nor live; he must disappear.'
"'So be it!' said the dauphin. 'Let him go; let him leave France! He has property and connections in England; let him take refuge there.'
"'Not by any means, Monseigneur,' Montmorency replied. 'Death is too much; but banishment is not enough. Would you like,' he added in a lower tone, 'to have this fellow tell in England rather than in France how he threatened you with an insulting gesture?'
"'Oh, don't remind me of that!' cried the dauphin, grinding his teeth.