"I have probed it, and it is very deep," replied the jealous courtier. "If by any chance there should be a change of reign, have you considered what that ambition, assisted by the influence of Mary Stuart, might be able to effect upon the mind of a young and inexperienced king! My devotion to your interests has completely alienated Queen Catherine from me. The Guises will be more sovereign than the sovereign himself." "Such a catastrophe is, thank God, very improbable and very far distant," returned Diane, who could not avoid the reflection that her friend of sixty years was rather free with his conjectures as to the prospects of the early demise of a king who was but forty. "There are other chances against us much nearer at hand and almost as terrible," said Montmorency, shaking his head very gravely. "What are they, my friend?" "Have you lost your memory, Diane, or do you only pretend to forget who went to Calais with the Duc de Guise; who, apparently, was the one who first breathed a suggestion of this foolhardy enterprise into his ear, and who will return in triumph with him, if he does triumph, and will no doubt succeed in receiving credit for some share in the victory?" "Are you speaking of Vicomte d'Exmès?" asked Diane. "Of whom else, Madame? Even though you may have forgotten his extravagant undertaking, he will remember it, never fear! And more than that, fortune is so capricious that he is quite capable of having kept his promise, and of loudly calling upon the king to redeem his." "Impossible!" exclaimed Diane. "What is it that seems impossible to you, Madame,--that Monsieur d'Exmès should keep his word, or that the king should be true to his?" "Either supposition is absurd and insane, and the second even more so than the first." "If, however, the first should be realized, it may very well be that the second will follow; for the king is very weak on these questions of honor, and he would be quite capable, Madame, of priding himself upon his chivalrous loyalty, and of disclosing his secret and ours to a common foe." "Once more I say it is a wild, impossible dream," cried Diane, turning pale, nevertheless. "But, Diane, suppose you were to see this dream with your eyes, and touch it with your hands, what would you do!" "Indeed I do not know, my good constable," said Madame de Valentinois; "we should have to consult and look around, and then act. Anything rather than that extremity! If the king abandons us, why, then, we must get along without him; and confidently anticipating that he will never dare to disavow what we have done after the event, we must exercise our own power and our personal influence and credit to the utmost."