A flash of lightning from a cloudless sky could not have terrified Gabriel more than these words.
"What have I forgotten, Madame, pray?" the young man murmured.
"One half of your task, Monsieur," Diane replied. "You said to his Majesty,—and if these are not your exact words, I at least give their sense,—'Sire, to purchase the freedom of the Comte de Montgommery, I will arrest the enemy in his triumphal march toward the heart of France.'"
"Well, did I not do it?" asked the bewildered Gabriel.
"Oh, yes!" replied Diane, "but you added: 'And even, if it be necessary, the assailed shall become the aggressor, and I will seize one of the towns of which the enemy is in possession.' That is what you said, Monsieur. Therefore it seems to me that you have done but half of what you agreed to do. What answer have you to that? You held St. Quentin for a certain number of days; it was well done, I do not deny. You have shown us the town defended as you promised; but where is the town taken?"
"Oh, mon Dieu, mon Dieu!" It was all Gabriel in his utter despair could find strength to say.
"You see," Diane resumed with the same sang-froid, "that my memory is even better and more at my command than yours. Yet I venture to hope that now you remember."
"Yes, it is true, I do remember now!" cried Gabriel, in bitterness of spirit. "But when I said that, I meant simply to say that in case of need I would accomplish the impossible; for is it possible at this time to take any town from the hands of the Spaniards or the English? Is it, Sire? Your Majesty, by allowing me to go, tacitly accepted the first of my offers, without giving me to understand that after such an heroic effort and a long term of captivity I should be called upon to carry out the second. Sire, it is to you—to you—that I appeal; one town for the freedom of one man,—is not that enough? Will you not be content with such a ransom; and must it be that on account of a mere foolish word which escaped me in the exaltation of my spirit, you will impose upon me, a weak human Hercules, another task a hundred times harder than the first,—yes, Sire, even impossible, and understood to be so?"
The king made a motion of his lips, as if to speak, but the grande sénéchale made haste to forestall him.
"Is it, pray, any easier and more practicable, is there any less of danger or of madness, despite your promises, in setting free a dangerous prisoner, who was guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté? You offered to do the impossible in order to obtain the impossible, Monsieur d'Exmès; and it is not fair that you should demand the fulfilment of the king's word when you have not kept your own promise in full. The duties of a sovereign are no less weighty than those of a son; enormous, nay, superhuman services rendered the State can alone produce such a condition of things as would justify his Majesty in nullifying the laws of the State. You have a father to save,—very well; but the king has France to protect."