VIII

MARTYRDOM

The cardinal went straight to the queen-mother.

“I hold the threads of the conspiracy of the heretics,” said Catherine.  “They have sent me this treaty and these documents by the hands of that child,” she added.

During the time that Catherine was explaining matters to the cardinal, Queen Mary whispered a few words to the grand-master.

“What is all this about?” asked the young king, who was left alone in the midst of the violent clash of interests.

“The proofs of what I was telling to your Majesty have not been long in reaching us,” said the cardinal, who had grasped the papers.

The Duc de Guise drew his brother aside without caring that he interrupted him, and said in his ear, “This makes me lieutenant-general without opposition.”

A shrewd glance was the cardinal’s only answer; showing his brother that he fully understood the advantages to be gained from Catherine’s false position.

“Who sent you here?” said the duke to Christophe.

“Chaudieu, the minister,” he replied.

“Young man, you lie!” said the soldier, sharply; “it was the Prince de Conde.”

“The Prince de Conde, monseigneur!” replied Christophe, with a puzzled look.  “I never met him.  I am studying law with Monsieur de Thou; I am his secretary, and he does not know that I belong to the Reformed religion.  I yielded only to the entreaties of the minister.”

“Enough!” exclaimed the cardinal.  “Call Monsieur de Robertet,” he said to Lewiston, “for this young scamp is slyer than an old statesman; he has managed to deceive my brother, and me too; an hour ago I would have given him the sacrament without confession.”

“You are not a child, morbleu!” cried the duke, “and we’ll treat you as a man.”

“The heretics have attempted to beguile your august mother,” said the cardinal, addressing the king, and trying to draw him apart to win him over to their ends.

“Alas!” said the queen-mother to her son, assuming a reproachful look and stopping the king at the moment when the cardinal was leading him into the oratory to subject him to his dangerous eloquence, “you see the result of the situation in which I am; they think me irritated by the little influence that I have in public affairs,—­I, the mother of four princes of the house of Valois!”

The young king listened attentively.  Mary Stuart, seeing the frown upon his brow, took his arm and led him away into the recess of the window, where she cajoled him with sweet speeches in a low voice, no doubt like those she had used that morning in their chamber.  The two Guises read the documents given up to them by Catherine.  Finding that they contained information which their spies, and Monsieur Braguelonne, the lieutenant of the Chatelet, had not obtained, they were inclined to believe in the sincerity of Catherine de’ Medici.  Robertet came and received