“Oh! so much the better,” said Chicot, drawing a long breath like a man much relieved.

“Do you know one thing, Chicot?” said Henri.

“No, I do not.”

“It is that you have become wicked.”

“I?”

“Yes, you.”

“My sojourn in the tomb had sweetened me, but your presence, great king, has destroyed the effect.”

“You become insupportable, Chicot; and I now attribute to you ambitious projects and intrigues of which I formerly believed you incapable.”

“Projects of ambition!  I ambitious!  Henriquet, my son, you used to be only foolish, now you are mad; you have progressed.”

“And I tell you, M. Chicot, that you wish to separate from me all my old friends, by attributing to them intentions which they have not, and crimes of which they never thought; in fact, you wish to monopolize me.”

“I monopolize you! what for?  God forbid! you are too tiresome, without counting the difficulty of pleasing you with your food.  Oh! no, indeed!  Explain to me whence comes this strange idea.”

“You began by listening coldly to my praises of your old friend, Dom Modeste, to whom you owe much.”

“I owe much to Dom Modeste!  Good.”

“Then you tried to calumniate the Joyeuses, my true friends.”

“I do not say no.”

“Then you launched a shaft at the Guises.”

“Ah! you love them now; you love all the world to-day, it seems.”

“No, I do not love them; but, as just now they keep themselves close and quiet, and do not do me the least harm, I do not fear them, and I cling to all old and well-known faces.  All these Guises, with their fierce looks and great swords, have never done me any harm, after all, and they resemble—­shall I tell you what?”

“Do, Henri; I know how clever you are at comparisons.”

“They resemble those perch that they let loose in the ponds to chase the great fish and prevent them growing too fat; but suppose that the great fish are not afraid?”

“Well!”

“Then the teeth of the perch are not strong enough to get through their scales.”

“Oh!  Henri! my friend, how clever you are!”

“While your Bearnais—­”

“Well, have you a comparison for him also?”

“While your Bearnais, who mews like a cat, bites like a tiger.”

“Well, my son, I will tell you what to do; divorce the queen and marry Madame de Montpensier; was she not once in love with you?”

“Yes, and that is the source of all her menaces, Chicot; she has a woman’s spite against me, and she provokes me now and then, but luckily I am a man, and can laugh at it.”

As Henri finished these words, the usher cried at the door, “A messenger from M. le Duc de Guise for his majesty.”

“Is it a courier or a gentleman?” asked the king.

“It is a captain, sire.”

“Let him enter; he is welcome.”