Making a profound obeisance to Claude, Bourbon knelt reverentially to his mother-in-law, and kissed her withered hand. The old duchess immediately raised him, and embraced him tenderly.
“Your looks bespeak trouble, my son,” she said, regarding him anxiously. “Tell me what has happened?”
Bourbon relieved his bursting heart by a full description of his interview with the Duchess d'Angoulême, and the quarrel that had ensued between him and the king. Both Claude and the old duchess listened to his narration with profound interest. At its close, the queen said:
“I sympathise with you deeply, prince, but do not let the injuries you have received make you swerve from your loyalty to the king.”
“Justice must and shall be done you, Charles,” cried the Dame de Beaujeu. “I will go to the Duchess d'Angoulême at once. Your arm, Charles—give me your arm.”
“You are not equal to the effort, madame,” said the Constable.
“If it costs me my life, I will see her,” cried the resolute old duchess. And she took a few steps, but her strength then utterly failed her, and she would have fallen but for the Constable's support.
Her physician and Cornelius Agrippa, who had been anxiously watching her, flew to her assistance.
“Oh! that; I had but one hour left of my former strength! I should die content,” she groaned.
“Drink of this, madame,” said Cornelius Agrippa, offering her a phial. “It is a sovereign elixir, and will restore you.”