"In any event, Sire, before you have a minister, your mother has, not a favor to ask at your hands, but a demand to make."
"Say, then, a command, Madame," replied François. "Speak, I beg you."
"Well, then, my son," Catherine continued, "I refer to a woman who has done me much harm, but has injured France even more. It is not for us to censure the failings of one who is more than ever sacred in our eyes now. But unfortunately your father is no more, Sire; his will is no longer supreme in this château; and yet this woman, whom I will not call by name, dares still to remain here, and to inflict upon me the outrage of her presence even to the end. During the king's protracted unconsciousness, it was suggested to her that it was not decent for her to remain at the Louvre. 'Is the king dead?' she asked. 'No, he still breathes.' 'Very well! none but he has the right to give orders to me.' And she had the brazen impudence to remain."
The Duc de Guise interrupted the queen-mother at this point, and hastened to say,—
"Pardon me, Madame, but I think that I know his Majesty's intentions with regard to her of whom you are speaking."
Without other preamble, he struck a bell, and a valet appeared.
"Let Madame de Poitiers be informed," said he, "that the king wishes to speak with her at once."
The valet bowed, and withdrew to carry out the order. The young monarch gave no sign whatever of surprise or dissatisfaction at seeing his authority thus taken from his hands without a word from him. The fact is that he was overjoyed at anything that tended to lessen his responsibility, and release him from the necessity of giving orders or acting as king.
However, Le Balafré thought best to give to his proceeding the sanction of royal approbation.
"I trust I do not presume too far, Sire," he continued, "in feeling confident of your Majesty's wishes touching this matter?"