"God in heaven! Then you may come to love me!" cried Montgommery. "I may love you," replied Diane, calmly; "but I can never tell you that I love you." "And why not, Madame?" "To save my father's life," said Diane, "I consented to become the mistress of the King of France; but the way to restore my honor is not to become the mistress of the Comte de Montgommery." She accompanied this half-refusal with so passionate and so languishing a glance that the count could not restrain himself. "Ah, Madame," said he to the coquettish duchess, "if you love me as I love you--" "Well, what then?" "What then! Why, what matters the world, or the prejudices of family or of honor? For me you are the universe. For three months I have seen nothing but your face. I love you with all the blind devotion and all the ardor of a first passion. Your sovereign beauty intoxicates me and distracts me. If you love me as I love you, be Comtesse de Montgommery,--be my wife." "Thanks, Count," said Diane, triumphantly. "I will remember these noble and generous words. Meanwhile you know that green and white are my colors." Jacques in a transport of delight kissed Diane's hand, prouder and happier than if the crown of the whole world had been on his head. And when François I., the following day, called Diane's attention to the fact that her new adorer had begun to wear her colors in public,-- "Has he not a right to, Sire?" said she, fixing her keen glance upon the king. "And may I not allow him to wear my colors when he offers to let me wear his name?" "Is it possible?" the king asked. "There is no doubt about it, Sire," the duchess replied, with confidence, thinking for a moment that her plan had succeeded, and that the jealousy of her unfaithful lord would reawaken his love. But after a moment of silence, the king, rising to put an end to the interview, said to Diane, gayly,-- "If that is so, Madame, we will give the office of grand sénéchal--which has been vacant since the death of Monsieur de Brézé, your first husband--to Monsieur de Montgommery as a wedding present." "And Monsieur de Montgommery will accept it," was Diane's proud reply; "for I will be a faithful and loyal wife to him, and I would not be false to my troth to him for all the kings in Christendom." The king bowed and smiled, without making any reply, and left the room. Unquestionably Madame d'Étampes's star was in the ascendant. The same day Diane the ambitious, with bitter anger at her heart, said to the enraptured Jacques,-- "My gallant Count, my noble Montgommery, I love you with all my heart." CHAPTER XIX HOW HENRI II. BEGAN TO ENJOY HIS INHERITANCE DURING HIS FATHER'S LIFE The marriage of Diane and the Comte de Montgommery was appointed to take place in three months; and it was currently rumored in that scandal-mongering and licentious court that Diane de Poitiers, in her eager desire for revenge, had given earnest-money to her future husband.