“Such men always act for their own interests,” replied the duke.  “Didn’t I fathom La Renaudie?  I loaded him with favors; I helped him to escape when he was condemned by the parliament of Bourgogne; I brought him back from exile by obtaining a revision of his sentence; I intended to do far more for him; and all the while he was plotting a diabolical conspiracy against us!  That rascal has united the Protestants of Germany with the heretics of France by reconciling the differences that grew up between the dogmas of Luther and those of Calvin.  He has brought the discontented great seigneurs into the party of the Reformation without obliging them to abjure Catholicism openly.  For the last year he has had thirty captains under him!  He is everywhere at once,—­at Lyon, in Languedoc, at Nantes!  It was he who drew up those minutes of a consultation which were hawked about all Germany, in which the theologians declared that force might be resorted to in order to withdraw the king from our rule and tutelage; the paper is now being circulated from town to town.  Wherever we look for him we never find him!  And yet I have never done him anything but good!  It comes to this, that we must now either thrash him like a dog, or try to throw him a golden bridge by which he will cross into our camp.”

“Bretagne, Languedoc, in fact the whole kingdom is in league to deal us a mortal blow,” said the cardinal.  “After the fete was over yesterday I spent the rest of the night in reading the reports sent me by the monks; in which I found that the only persons who have compromised themselves are poor gentlemen, artisans, as to whom it doesn’t signify whether you hang them or let them live.  The Colignys and Condes do not show their hand as yet, though they hold the threads of the whole conspiracy.”

“Yes,” replied the duke, “and, therefore, as soon as that lawyer Avenelles sold the secret of the plot, I told Braguelonne to let the conspirators carry it out.  They have no suspicion that we know it; they are so sure of surprising us that the leaders may possibly show themselves then.  My advice is to allow ourselves to be beaten for forty-eight hours.”

“Half an hour would be too much,” cried the cardinal, alarmed.

“So this is your courage, is it?” retorted the Balafre.

The cardinal, quite unmoved, replied:  “Whether the Prince de Conde is compromised or not, if we are certain that he is the leader, we should strike him down at once and secure tranquillity.  We need judges rather than soldiers for this business—­and judges are never lacking.  Victory is always more certain in the parliament than on the field, and it costs less.”

“I consent, willingly,” said the duke; “but do you think the Prince de Conde is powerful enough to inspire, himself alone, the audacity of those who are making this first attack upon us?  Isn’t there, behind him—­”

“The king of Navarre,” said the cardinal.