"Thanks, sire, thanks!" replied De Biron, in his usual blunt tone. "Of my fidelity and attachment your Majesty need have no doubt; and I think," he added, "I think I can answer for the greater part of the troops." "Then we are safe!" cried the king. "Then we are safe! What with my own forces, and those that you can bring me, Biron, the Swiss under Monsieur de Sancy here, and the fresh troops of Maine promised me by my young friend St. Real, I will not fear anything, even though D'Aumont and his division go over to the enemy." "I do not think he will, sire," replied Biron. "He is not the most active of soldiers, but he is an honest and true-hearted man. De Rosny told me but now that he was going to him, and I doubt not but, at the first word, he will come to join your Majesty; but it might have been better to have directed Rosny to speak with his officers, and bring them over too, for D'Aumont will never think of it; and besides--" "He has not the whole hearts of his soldiers, like Biron," added the king. "I thought of it, my friend, I thought of it, and begged De Rosny to see what could be done. But who have we here? Oh! our cousins of Longueville and Nevers; and Monsieur d'O, too, whom we hope speedily to replace in his government of Paris, which has been ill-governed enough certainly since he left it." As he spoke, a large body of French nobles, headed by the persons whom he mentioned, entered the hall; and Monsieur de Biron and the others who were with the king, forming a semicircle on either hand, the gentlemen who had just arrived advanced, and one by one knelt and kissed the monarch's hand. There was, however, a degree of gloom and coldness in their countenances, which betokened no hearty wishes for the welfare of him who had so suddenly been placed upon the throne. When they had all saluted the king, Monsieur D'O, the titular governor of Paris, advanced a step before the rest, and addressed the monarch in the name of all. His tone was respectful, and his words well chosen; but after proceeding to offer some faint congratulations to the king on his accession to the throne, he stated that the fact of his Majesty's adherence to the tenets of the Huguenots pained and embarrassed many who were his faithful subjects and sincere well-wishers; and then he proceeded boldly and unceremoniously to propose that the monarch should reconcile himself to the Church of Rome, and receive absolution for his past heresies, holding out but a half-concealed threat, that if he did not comply with this sudden proposal, the great body of the French nobles and princes of the blood would be obliged to withdraw from the royal army.