"Have you any better and more speedy means than ours to suggest, Master Paré?" asked Chapelain.
"Yes," said Paré.
"What is it?"
"We must trepan the king," said Paré.
"Trepan the king!" cried the three physicians, in tones expressive of the utmost horror.
"In what does this operation consist?" asked the Duc de Guise.
"It is little known as yet, Monseigneur," replied the surgeon. "It consists in making upon the top of the head, or rather upon the lateral part of the brain, with an instrument I have invented, called the 'trepan,' an opening about the size of an angelot."
"God of mercy!" cried Catherine de Médicis, indignantly. "Put the knife to the king's head! And you would dare to do it?"
"Yes, Madame," replied Ambroise, simply.
"But it would be murder!" exclaimed Catherine.