bad for him, as it certainly was very dangerous, and enough to throw him into a fever, which was, above everything, to be guarded against.  She begged the king to put off the rest of their conversation to another time, when the admiral was better.  This vexed the king mightily, for he was very anxious to hear the remainder of what the admiral had to say to him.  However, he being unable to gainsay so specious an argument, we got the king away.  And incontinently the queen-mother (and I too) begged the king to let us know the secret conversation which the admiral had held with him, and in which he had been unwilling that we should be participators; which the king refused several times to do.  But finding himself importuned and hard pressed by us, he told us abruptly and with displeasure, swearing by God’s death that what the admiral said was true, that kings realized themselves as such in France only in so far as they had the ’power of doing harm or good to their subjects and servants, and that this power and management of affairs had slipped imperceptibly into the hands of the queen my mother and mine.’  ’This superintendent domination, the admiral told me, might some day be very prejudicial to me and to all my kingdom, and that I should hold it in suspicion and beware of it; of which he was anxious to warn me, as one of my best and most faithful subjects, before he died.  There, God’s death, as you wish to know, is what the admiral said to me.’  This, said as it was with passion and fury, went straight home to our hearts, which we concealed as best we might, both of us, however, defending ourselves in the matter.  We continued this conversation all the way from the admiral’s quarters to the Louvre, where, having left the king in his room, we retired to that of the queen my mother, who was piqued and hurt to the utmost degree at this language used by the admiral to the king, as well as at the credence which the king seemed to accord to it, and was fearful lest it should bring about some change and alteration in our affairs and in the management of the state.  Being unable to resolve upon any course at the moment, we retired, putting off the question till the morrow, when I went to see my mother, who was already up.  I had a fine racket in my head, and so had she, and for the time there was no decision come to save to have the admiral despatched by some means or other.  It being impossible any longer to employ stratagems and artifices, it would have to be done openly, and the king brought round to that way of thinking.  We agreed that, in the afternoon, we would go and pay him a visit in his closet, whither we would get the Sieur de Nevers, Marshals de Tavannes and de Retz, and Chancellor de Birague to come, merely to have their opinion as to the means to be adopted for the execution, which we had already determined upon, my mother and I.”