“Last night, at latest—that letters were coming from the King.”
“By my hand?”
“By your lordship’s hand—whose name is so well known here,” the magistrate added, in the hope of clearing the great man’s brow.
Count Hannibal laughed darkly. “My hand will be better known by-and-by,” he said. “See you, sirrah, there is some practice here. What is this cry of Montsoreau that I hear?”
“Your lordship knows that he is His Grace’s lieutenant-governor in Saumur.”
“I know that, man. But is he here?”
“He was at Saumur yesterday, and ’twas rumoured three days back that he was coming here to extirpate the Huguenots. Then word came of your lordship and of His Majesty’s letters, and ’twas thought that M. de Montsoreau would not come, his authority being superseded.”
“I see. And now your rabble think that they would prefer M. Montsoreau. That is it, is it?”
The magistrate shrugged his shoulders and opened his hands.
“Pigs!” he said. And having spat on the floor, he looked apologetically at the lady. “True pigs!”