"Money!" exclaimed Villequier, with a slight ironical smile playing about the corners of his mouth. "Have you any money? It is indeed a surprising thing to hear any one talk of money except the Duke of Guise, or the Duke of Epernon. Why, Bellievre assures me, upon his honour, that the very dispatch which he was ordered to send to Soissons, to forbid positively the Duke of Guise coming to Paris, was stopped, for what reason think you? Because, when he took it down to the treasury, there was not found fifty livres to pay the courier's expenses. The courier would not go without the money, Bellievre had none to give him, so between them both they carried the King's dispatch to the post, and put it in with the common letters. The letters went to Rheims before they were sent to Soissons, and the Duke of Guise was in Paris, while the order to forbid him was on the road.[3] Money? Oh certainly, money above all things! But pray do not let it be a large sum, lest, like an apoplectic epicure, the King's treasury and my purse die of sudden repletion." --------------------- [Footnote 3: This is historically true in regard to one of the dispatches to the Duke of Guise; and in representing Henry and his courtiers as occasionally acting the part of low and mercenary swindlers, first fleecing and then laughing at a dupe, I am also borne out by facts.] --------------------- "Well then, Monsieur de Villequier," said the Marquis, after taking one or two turns up and down the room, "I will tell you what I will do, to show you how dearly I hold the gift that is promised me. On the day of my marriage with Marie de Clairvaut, when it is all completed, the benediction said, the contract signed, your name as guardian, and the King's in confirmation attached, I will place in your hands the sum of one hundred thousand crowns of the sun." "Heavens and earth!" exclaimed Villequier in the same tone in which he had spoken before, "I did not know that there was such a sum in France. If I were to tell it to Monsieur d'O. he would not believe me." "But remember, Monsieur de Villequier," replied Gaspar of Montsoreau, not quite liking the levity of his companion's speech, "this is no jesting matter with me, whatever it may be with you; and I must have such sure and perfect warranty that you will not betray my hopes again, or ask for even the slightest further delay, that there cannot be a doubt rest upon my mind; otherwise----" "Otherwise what, Monsieur de Montsoreau?" demanded Villequier. "If we do not keep our words, you know we shall lose the great advantage that we hope to gain from you. That is the surest bond! Let the matter stand thus, sir: if this marriage do take place, as I have promised you it shall, the hundred thousand crowns of gold are paid; if not, we are the losers. I see no alternative beyond this."