The king smiled, with an expression of bitter self-contempt; he thought his material royalty petty in presence of the august intellectual royalty of Lorenzo Ruggiero.  Charles IX. knew that he could scarcely govern France, but this grand-master of Rosicrucians ruled a submissive and intelligent world.

“Answer me truthfully; I pledge my word as a gentleman that your answer, in case it confesses dreadful crimes, shall be as if it were never uttered,” resumed the king.  “Do you deal with poisons?”

“To discover that which gives life, we must also have full knowledge of that which kills.”

“Do you possess the secret of many poisons?”

“Yes, sire,—­in theory, but not in practice.  We understand all poisons, but do not use them.”

“Has my mother asked you for any?” said the king, breathlessly.

“Sire,” replied Lorenzo, “Queen Catherine is too able a woman to employ such means.  She knows that the sovereign who poisons dies by poison.  The Borgias, also Bianca Capello, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, are noted examples of the dangers of that miserable resource.  All things are known at courts; there can be no concealment.  It may be possible to kill a poor devil—­and what is the good of that?—­but to aim at great men cannot be done secretly.  Who shot Coligny?  It could only be you, or the queen-mother, or the Guises.  Not a soul is doubtful of that.  Believe me, poison cannot be twice used with impunity in statecraft.  Princes have successors.  As for other men, if, like Luther, they are sovereigns through the power of ideas, their doctrines are not killed by killing them.  The queen is from Florence; she knows that poison should never be used except as a weapon of personal revenge.  My brother, who has not been parted from her since her arrival in France, knows the grief that Madame Diane caused your mother.  But she never thought of poisoning her, though she might easily have done so.  What could your father have said?  Never had a woman a better right to do it; and she could have done it with impunity; but Madame de Valentinois still lives.”

“But what of those waxen images?” asked the king.

“Sire,” said Cosmo, “these things are so absolutely harmless that we lend ourselves to the practice to satisfy blind passions, just as physicians give bread pills to imaginary invalids.  A disappointed woman fancies that by stabbing the heart of a wax-figure she has brought misfortunes upon the head of the man who has been unfaithful to her.  What harm in that?  Besides, it is our revenue.”

“The Pope sells indulgences,” said Lorenzo Ruggiero, smiling.

“Has my mother practised these spells with waxen images?”

“What good would such harmless means be to one who has the actual power to do all things?”

“Has Queen Catherine the power to save you at this moment?” inquired the king, in a threatening manner.

“Sire, we are not in any danger,” replied Lorenzo, tranquilly.  “I knew before I came into this house that I should leave it safely, just as I know that the king will be evilly disposed to my brother Cosmo a few weeks hence.  My brother may run some danger then, but he will escape it.  If the king reigns by the sword, he also reigns by justice,” added the old man, alluding to the famous motto on a medal struck for Charles IX.