"Oh! how I wish they were not your uncles!" cried Francois II. "Iparticularly dislike the cardinal; and when he puts on his wheedling air and his submissive manner and says to me, bowing: 'Sire, the honor of the crown and the faith of your fathers forbid your Majesty to--this and that,' I am sure he is working only for his cursed house of Lorraine.""Oh, how well you mimicked him!" cried the queen. "But why don't you make the Guises inform you of what is going on, so that when you attain your grand majority you may know how to reign yourself? I am your wife, and your honor is mine. Trust me! we will reign together, my darling; but it won't be a bed of roses for us until the day comes when we have our own wills. There is nothing so difficult for a king as to reign. Am I a queen, for example? Don't you know that your mother returns me evil for all the good my uncles do to raise the splendor of your throne? Hey! what difference between them! My uncles are great princes, nephews of Charlemagne, filled with ardor and ready to die for you; whereas this daughter of a doctor or a shopkeeper, queen of France by accident, scolds like a burgher-woman who can't manage her own household. She is discontented because she can't set every one by the ears; and then she looks at me with a sour, pale face, and says from her pinched lips: 'My daughter, you are a queen; Iam only the second woman in the kingdom' (she is really furious, you know, my darling), 'but if I were in your place I should not wear crimson velvet while all the court is in mourning; neither should Iappear in public with my own hair and no jewels, because what is not becoming in a simple lady is still less becoming in a queen. Also Ishould not dance myself, I should content myself with seeing others dance.'--that is what she says to me--""Heavens!" cried the king, "I think I hear her coming. If she were to know--""Oh, how you tremble before her. She worries you. Only say so, and we will send her away. Faith, she's Florentine and we can't help her tricking you, but when it comes to worrying--""For Heaven's sake, Mary, hold your tongue!" said Francois, frightened and also pleased; "I don't want you to lose her good-will.""Don't be afraid that she will ever break with /me/, who will some day wear the three noblest crowns in the world, my dearest little king,"cried Mary Stuart. "Though she hates me for a thousand reasons she is always caressing me in the hope of turning me against my uncles.""Hates you!"
"Yes, my angel; and if I had not proofs of that feeling such as women only understand, for they alone know its malignity, I would forgive her perpetual opposition to our dear love, my darling. Is it my fault that your father could not endure Mademoiselle Medici or that his son loves me? The truth is, she hates me so much that if you had not put yourself into a rage, we should each have had our separate chamber at Saint-Germain, and also here. She pretended it was the custom of the kings and queens of France. Custom, indeed! it was your father's custom, and that is easily understood. As for your grandfather, Francois, the good man set up the custom for the convenience of his loves. Therefore, I say, take care. And if we have to leave this place, be sure that we are not separated.""Leave Blois! Mary, what do you mean? I don't wish to leave this beautiful chateau, where we can see the Loire and the country all round us, with a town at our feet and all these pretty gardens. If Igo away it will be to Italy with you, to see St. Peter's, and Raffaelle's pictures.""And the orange-trees? Oh! my darling king, if you knew the longing your Mary has to ramble among the orange-groves in fruit and flower!""Let us go, then!" cried the king.
"Go!" exclaimed the grand-master as he entered the room. "Yes, sire, you must leave Blois. Pardon my boldness in entering your chamber; but circumstances are stronger than etiquette, and I come to entreat you to hold a council."Finding themselves thus surprised, Mary and Francois hastily separated, and on their faces was the same expression of offended royal majesty.
"You are too much of a grand-master, Monsieur de Guise," said the king, though controlling his anger.
"The devil take lovers," murmured the cardinal in Catherine's ear.
"My son," said the queen-mother, appearing behind the cardinal; "it is a matter concerning your safety and that of your kingdom.""Heresy wakes while you have slept, sire," said the cardinal.
"Withdraw into the hall," cried the little king, "and then we will hold a council.""Madame," said the grand-master to the young queen; "the son of your furrier has brought some furs, which was just in time for the journey, for it is probable we shall sail down the Loire. But," he added, turning to the queen-mother, "he also wishes to speak to you, madame.
While the king dresses, you and Madame la reine had better see and dismiss him, so that we may not be delayed and harassed by this trifle.""Certainly," said Catherine, thinking to herself, "If he expects to get rid of me by any such trick he little knows me."The cardinal and the duke withdrew, leaving the two queens and the king alone together. As they crossed the /salle des gardes/ to enter the council-chamber, the grand-master told the usher to bring the queen's furrier to him. When Christophe saw the usher approaching from the farther end of the great hall, he took him, on account of his uniform, for some great personage, and his heart sank within him. But that sensation, natural as it was at the approach of the critical moment, grew terrible when the usher, whose movement had attracted the eyes of all that brilliant assembly upon Christophe, his homely face and his bundles, said to him:--"Messeigneurs the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand-master wish to speak to you in the council chamber.""Can I have been betrayed?" thought the helpless ambassador of the Reformers.
