“No irony, monseigneur, towards an old and faithful servant, who comes at this hour and in this state to do you a service. If I sat down, on my honor, it was because I could not stand.” “A service! to do me a service?” “Yes.” “Speak, then.” “Monseigneur, I come on the part of a great prince.” “From the king?” “No; M. le Duc de Guise.” “Ah! that is quite a different thing. Approach, and speak low.” CHAPTER LXXXI. HOW M. LE DUC D’ANJOU SIGNED, AND AFTER HAVING SIGNED, SPOKE. There was a moment’s silence. Then the duke said: “Well, M. le Comte, what have you to say to me from the Duc de Guise?” “Much, monseigneur.” “They have written to you?” “No; the duke writes no more since that strange disappearance of Nicholas David. They have come to Paris.” “MM. de Guise are at Paris?” “Yes, monseigneur.” “I have not seen them.” “They are too prudent to expose themselves or your highness to any risk.” “And I was not told!” “I tell you now.” “What have they come for?” “They come, monseigneur, to the rendezvous you gave them.” “That I gave them!” “Doubtless; on the day when your highness was arrested you received a letter from M. de Guise, and replied to it verbally, through me, that they were to come to Paris from the thirty-first of May to the second of June. It is now the thirty-first of May, and if your highness has forgotten them, they have not forgotten you.” François grew pale. So many events had passed since, that he had forgotten the rendezvous. “It is true,” said he, at length, “but the relations which then existed between us exist no longer.” “If that be so, monseigneur, you would do well to tell them, for I believe they think differently.” “How so?” “You, perhaps, think yourself free as regards them, but they feel bound to you.” “A snare, my dear comte, in which a man does not let himself be taken twice.” “And where was monseigneur taken in a snare?” “Where? at the Louvre, mordieu.” “Was it the fault of MM. de Guise?” “I do not say so, but they never assisted me to escape.” “It would have been difficult; they were flying themselves.” “It is true.” “But when you were in Anjou, did they not charge me to tell you that you could always count on them, as they on you, and that the day you marched on Paris, they would do the same?” “It is true, but I did not march on Paris.” “You are here.” “Yes; but as my brother’s ally.” “Monseigneur will permit me to observe that he is more than the ally of the Guises.” “What then?” “Their accomplice.” The duke bit his lips. “And you say they charged you to announce their arrival to me?” “They did me that honour.” “But they did not tell you the motive of their return?” “They told me all, knowing me to be the confidant of your highness.” “Then they have projects. What are they?” “The same always.” “And they think them practicable?” “They look upon them as certain.” “And these projects have for an aim----” The duke stopped, not daring to finish.