"No doubt he was Secretary of the King," returned Mary, "and received wages from him, terming himself his banker in this country, and under this pretext he was very disobedient to me. I commanded him, it is true, and in a general way supported his doings, as all princes are accustomed to do, but it is for him to answer for his private doings; I cannot but think he has been acting under constraint in this matter. Feeling himself to be feeble and weak by nature, and fearing torture, he thought to escape by throwing all the blame on me. A criminal is not allowed to be sworn, and his assertions are not believed; his oath is worthless. The first oath which he has taken to his master renders all others null and void; and Nau can make none that can prejudice me. And I see well," continued Mary, examining one of the written depositions attributed to Nau, "that he has even not written or signed as he is accustomed to do, supposing that, as you all affirm, he has written it with his own hand; may it not be that while translating and putting my letters into cipher, my secretaries may have inserted things which I did not dictate to them? May it not be also that letters similar to those now produced, may have come to their hands without, however, my seeing them? The majesty and safety of princes would be reduced to nought, if their reputation depended upon the writing and witnesses of their secretaries. I dictated nothing to them but what nature herself inspired me, for the recovery at last of my liberty. I can only be convicted by my words or by my own writings. If, without my consent, they have written something to the prejudice of the Queen, your mistress, let them suffer the punishment of their rashness. But of this I am very sure, if they were now in my presence, they would clear me on the spot of all blame, and would put me out of case. Show me, at least, the minutes of my correspondence written by myself; they will bear witness to what I now assert." The Queen's defence, so clear and unanswerable, silenced for a time the accusers, and they took refuge in insult. "Then," says Bourgoing, "the Chicaneurs made a great noise, calling out and striving to prove and exaggerate the facts, with fury repeating all that had been said or written,--all the circumstances, suspicions, and conjectures. In short, all the reasons they could imagine were brought to the front to make their cause good, and to accuse the Queen without allowing her to reply distinctly to what they said. Like 'madmen' they attacked her, sometimes one by one, sometimes all together, declaring her to be guilty, which gave occasion to Her Majesty to make a very noble speech on the next morning."[38] [Footnote 38: Chantelauze, pp. 522-527.]