to aid his brethren, to free the young King from evil influences, and to strike one good stroke against the old national enemy.  He talked eagerly to Sidney of alliances with England, and then lamented over the loss of so promising a youth as young Ribaumont to the Reformed cause in France.  If the marriage with the heiress could have taken effect, he would have obtained estates near enough to some of the main Huguenot strongholds to be very important, and these would now remain under the power of Narcisse de Ribaumont, a determined ally of the Guise faction.  It was a pity, but the Admiral could not blame the youth for obeying the wish of his guardian grandfather; and he owned, with a sigh, that England was a more peaceful land than his own beloved country.  Berenger was a little nettled at this implication, and began to talk of joining the French standard in a campaign in their present home and described the conversation, Walsingham said,—­

’The Admiral’s favourite project!  He would do wisely not to brag of it so openly.  The King of Spain has too many in his interest in this place not to be warned, and to be thus further egged on to compass the ruin of Coligny.’

‘I should have thought.’  Said Sidney. ’that nothing could add to his hatred of the Reformed.’

‘Scarcely,’ said Walsingham; ’save that it is they who hinder the Duke of Guise from being a good Frenchman, and a foe to Spain.’

Politics had not developed themselves in Berenger’s mind, and he listened inattentively while Walsingham talked over with Sidney the state of parties in France, where natural national enmity to Spain was balanced by the need felt by the Queen-mother of the support of that great Roman Catholic power against the Huguenots; whom Walsingham believed her to dread and hate less for their own sake than from the fear of loss of influence over her son.  He believed Charles IX. himself to have much leaning towards the Reformed, but the late victories has thrown the whole court entirely into the power of the Guises, the truly unscrupulous partisans of Rome.  They were further inflamed against the Huguenots by the assassination of the last Duke of Guise, and by the violences that had been committed by some of the Reformed party, in especial a massacre of prisoners at Nerac.

Sidney exclaimed that the Huguenots had suffered far worse cruelties.

‘That is true,’ replied Sir Francis, ’but, my young friend, you will find, in all matters of reprisals, that a party has no memory for what it may commit, only for what it may receive.’

The conversation was interrupted by an invitation to the Ambassador’s family and guests to a tilting-match and subsequent ball at the Louvre.  In the first Berenger did his part with credit; to the second he went feeling full of that strange attraction of repulsion.  He knew gentlemen enough in Coligny’s suite for it to be likely that he might remain unperceived among them, and he knew this would be prudent, but he found himself unexpectedly near the ranks of ladies, and smile and gesture absolutely drew him towards his semi-spouse, so that he had no alternative but to lead her out to dance.