"Very little, my lord, except when the man is yourself, and then it becomes everything!"
"Well," replied Coligny, "at the least we can ponder his majesty's request."
"He will go," declared Felix that evening; "his mind is made up. With him France is first, second, and third; Coligny is nowhere."
"The king may really mean well," I suggested.
"If he doesn't," said Felix, "and any harm happens to our chief, the House of Valois will rue it! We will clear them out, root and branch."
My comrade foretold the Admiral's decision correctly. With his eyes wide open to the terrible risk, he elected to place himself in the king's power, in the hope of healing the wounds from which France was still bleeding.
Jeanne was so happy with her royal mistress that I felt no misgiving in leaving her, and for myself I was not sorry to exchange the confinement of Rochelle for a more active life. Besides, I could not help reflecting that it was to the Admiral's influence I looked for the recovery of my father's estates.
The evening before leaving La Rochelle I went to take farewell of my sister. "If Roger Braund should return during our absence," I said, "you can tell him we have gone to Blois and perhaps to Paris. What is it, sweetheart?" for at this, a wave of colour spread over her fair face.
"'Tis nothing, brother," said she, gazing earnestly at the ground, "only this very morning the master of an English ship brought me a note from him."
"A note for you! 'Tis strange he did not write to me!"