“I insinuate nothing,” said Philip. “Go, Sir, Heaven go with you!”
Seriously alarmed, the ambassador did not dare to stir a step. The terrible looks of the Duke of Alva froze the blood in his veins. While he stood irresolute, the lady abbess went up to him, and said, “I will go with you.”
“It seems, then, that I am really in danger,” stammered De Noailles.
“Without me you will never quit this place alive,” replied the abbess.
And signing to Constance to follow her, she left the room with the ambassador, the Duke of Alva and the Count D’Egmont having gone out before them.
As De Noailles and the two ladies entered the ante-chamber, they found it full of armed men, while both the Duke and D’Egmont had drawn their swords.
“Pass on, holy mother, and take your charge with you,” said Alva to the abbess and Constance. “We must have a word with his excellency.”
“I will not affect to misunderstand your purpose, my lord Duke,” said the abbess, “but it must not be. I forbid it.”
“You, holy mother!”
“Yes, I, the Queen!” she rejoined.