“Do not seek to soften it. What must be must be, and yet was ever a woman’s pride so humbled!”
She grew inarticulate, stood awhile with one hand at her throat, and then swung round and faced them.
“Gentlemen, to save a son and a kingdom I pluck my child out of the throne, and like a hen I hide him under my feathers. The secret must be kept, well kept.”
They answered her together:
“Madame, it shall be. All our lives depend on it.”
“Then let it be done quickly. I have spoken with the two women I have chosen; they are in my closet and can be trusted to the death.”
Salisbury looked at her questioningly.
“Would it please you to see this young man—to assure yourself?”
Her face flushed.
“See him—this—this——! Sir, are you blind to what my pride bears in suffering? Let me never set eyes on the young man.”