Adding a few words in a low tone, he turned to Bourbon, and telling him he would return anon, quitted the chamber with Duprat. Left alone with the Constable, Louise regarded him anxiously and tenderly, but the stern expression of Bourbon's features underwent no change. The duchess, however, would not be discouraged, but said, in a gentle voice which she thought calculated to move him, “Dismiss that frown, Charles de Bourbon, and come and sit nigh me. Nay,” she added, playfully, “I will be obeyed.” But Bourbon moved not, and his brow grew yet more sombre. Presently she arose, and, stepping up to him, laid her hand gently upon his arm. He shrank from her touch as if a viper had stung him. Mastering her anger by a great effort, she said, “Come, let us be friends, Charles de Bourbon. We have been enemies long enough.” “Friends, madame!” exclaimed Bourbon, bitterly. “You can scarcely expect it.” “But you will forgive me, Charles, will you not, when I tell you I still love you?” she rejoined. “You are too old for love, madame--far too old,” he rejoined, with a look almost of loathing. “You may have loved me years ago, though your conduct since would lead me to doubt it. But now the feeling ought to he--must be--a stranger to your breast.” “My love for you is strong as ever, and enables me even to bear this language from you,” she said. Hear my explanation before you reproach me so severely.” “I have not reproached you, madame, but I say that your declarations are utterly inconsistent with your conduct. You have pursued me with unceasing animosity. By your instrumentality, madame--for I well know you were the cause of my removal--I was despoiled of my authority in the Milanese, which I had helped to win, and the government given to Lautrec, by whose mismanagement the fruits of the battle of Marignan were lost. Not only did you prevent the reimbursement of the large sums I had expended for the king's use in Italy, but you withheld the payment of my pensions as grand-chamberlain of France, as governor of Languedoc, and as Constable. I deserved better treatment from the king, but I knew from whom the wrongs proceeded, and made no complaint. This was not enough. By your instigation a deeper affront was offered me, I will not vaunt my military skill, though I had proved it sufficiently at Marignan, but I was excluded by you--by you, madame, for you directed the king--from the four grand military commanderships formed by his majesty, and given by him to the Duke d'Alençon, the Duke de Vendôme, Bonnivet, and Lautrec, Still I was patient.” “Why were you patient, Charles? Why did you not complain to me?” cried the duchess.