The Duc de Guise rose, apparently well content, and said simply as he saluted the king, "Sire, I shall soon be with you again," and went hurriedly from the room.
His powerful voice could be plainly heard, giving orders in the antechamber, when there was a second volley of arquebuses.
"You see, Sire," said the cardinal, perhaps to put his fear to shame with the sound of his voice,—"you see that Lignières was well informed, and only made an error of a few hours."
But the king heard him not; angrily biting his colorless lips, he had ears only for the ever-growing noise of artillery and arquebuses.
"Even yet I can hardly believe in the possibility of such audacity!" he muttered. "Such an outrage upon the crown—"
"Can only result in shame and abasement for the wretches, Sire," rejoined the cardinal.
"Alas!" returned the king, "if we may judge by the noise they make, the Protestants are present in large force, and are scarcely afraid."
"This disturbance will be quenched at once like a fire of straw," said Charles de Lorraine.
"It doesn't seem so, for the noise is coming nearer," replied François; "and the fire instead of being quenched is blazing brighter, I think."
"Holy Virgin!" cried Mary Stuart, in terror; "do you hear the bullets ringing against the walls?"