“Heretic or not is of no consequence; the trouble is that, in spite of my advice, you have brought the head of the younger branch too near the throne by that marriage, and Henri’s purpose is now to embroil you with the rest and make you kill one another.  The house of Bourbon is the enemy of the house of Valois; remember that, monsieur.  All younger branches should be kept in a state of poverty, for they are born conspirators.  It is sheer folly to give them arms when they have none, or to leave them in possession of arms when they seize them.  Let every younger son be made incapable of doing harm; that is the law of Crowns; the Sultans of Asia follow it.  The proofs of this conspiracy are in my room upstairs, where I asked you to follow me last evening, when you bade me good-night; but instead of doing so, it seems you had other plans.  I therefore waited for you.  If we do not take the proper measures immediately you will meet the fate of Charles the Simple within a month.”

“A month!” exclaimed the king, thunderstruck at the coincidence of that period with the delay asked for by the princes themselves. “’In a month we shall be masters,’” he added to himself, quoting their words.  “Madame,” he said aloud, “what are your proofs?”

“They are unanswerable, monsieur; they come from my daughter Marguerite.  Alarmed herself at the possibilities of such a combination, her love for the throne of the Valois has proved stronger, this time, than all her other loves.  She asks, as the price of her revelations that nothing shall be done to La Mole; but the scoundrel seems to me a dangerous villain whom we had better be rid of, as well as the Comte de Coconnas, your brother d’Alencon’s right hand.  As for the Prince de Conde, he consents to everything, provided I am thrown into the sea; perhaps that is the wedding present he gives me in return for the pretty wife I gave him!  All this is a serious matter, monsieur.  You talk of horoscopes!  I know of the prediction which gives the throne of the Valois to the Bourbons, and if we do not take care it will be fulfilled.  Do not be angry with your sister; she has behaved well in this affair.  My son,” continued the queen, after a pause, giving a tone of tenderness to her words, “evil persons on the side of the Guises are trying to sow dissensions between you and me; and yet we are the only ones in the kingdom whose interests are absolutely identical.  You blame me, I know, for the Saint-Bartholomew; you accuse me of having forced you into it.  Catholicism, monsieur, must be the bond between France, Spain, and Italy, three countries which can, by skilful management, secretly planned, be united in course of time, under the house of Valois.  Do not deprive yourself of such chances by loosing the cord which binds the three kingdoms in the bonds of a common faith.  Why should not the Valois and the Medici carry out for their own glory the scheme of Charles the Fifth, whose head failed him?  Let us fling off that race of