"Very well! I am listening, Monsieur; therefore speak," said François to the cardinal.
"Sire," continued the latter, "a conspiracy against your Majesty has been discovered, and your life is no longer safe in this Château de Blois; you should depart hence immediately."
"A conspiracy! Depart from Blois!" exclaimed the king. "Pray, what does all this mean?"
"It means, Sire, that evil-minded men are conspiring against the life and the crown of your Majesty."
"What!" said François, "can they have any ill-will against me, so young as I am, and only seated on the throne yesterday! against me, who have never injured a single soul,—that is to say, knowingly or wilfully! Who are these evil-minded men, Monsieur le Cardinal?"
"Why, who should they be," rejoined Charles de Lorraine, "if not these cursed Huguenot heretics?"
"Heretics again!" cried the king. "Are you sure, Monsieur, that you are not allowing yourself to be led astray by suspicions which have no foundation in fact?"
"Alas!" said the cardinal, "there is, unhappily, no room for doubt now."
The young king, whose delightful dreams were thus interrupted by this unpleasant reality, seemed greatly annoyed; Mary was much disturbed by his ill-humor, and the cardinal very anxious over the news he had brought. Le Balafré, alone calm and self-controlled, awaited the result of all this talk in an attitude of utter impassibility.
"In God's name, what have I done to my people that they love me no longer!" continued François, bitterly.