Pardaillan appeared at once, sent down by the two Princes of Lorraine and the King. The captain sent for by Mary Stuart followed this young man--a most devoted adherent of the Guises. "Go from me to the King, beg him, with the Cardinal and the Grand Master, to come here at once, and tell them I would not take such a liberty but that something of serious importance has occurred.--Go, Pardaillan.--And you, Lewiston, keep guard over this Reformed traitor," she added to the Scotchman in their native tongue, pointing to Christophe. The two Queens did not speak till the King came. It was a terrible pause. Mary Stuart had shown her mother-in-law the whole extent of the part her uncles made her play; her unsleeping and habitual distrust stood revealed; and her youthful conscience felt how disgraceful such a part must be to a great Queen. Catherine, on her side, had betrayed herself in her alarm, and feared that she had been understood; she was trembling for the future. The two women, one ashamed and furious, the other vicious but calm, withdrew into the window bay, one leaning on the right side, the other on the left; but their looks were so expressive, that each turned away, and with a common instinct looked out of the window at the sky. These two women, clever as they were, at that moment had no more wit than the commonest. Perhaps it is always so when circumstances overpower men. There is always a moment when even genius is conscious of its smallness in the presence of a great catastrophe. As for Christophe, he felt like a man falling into an abyss. Lewiston, the Scotch captain, listened to the silence, looking at the furrier's son and the two Queens with a soldier's curiosity. The King's entrance put an end to this painful situation. The Cardinal went straight up to Queen Catherine. "I have in my hand all the threads of the plot hatched by the heretics; they sent this boy to me carrying this treaty and these documents," said Catherine in an undertone. While Catherine was explaining matters to the Cardinal, Queen Mary was speaking a few words in the Grand Master's ear. "What is this all about?" asked the young King, standing alone amid this conflict of violent interests. "The proofs of what I was telling your Majesty are already to hand," said the Cardinal, seizing the papers. The Duc de Guise, unmindful of the fact that he was interrupting him, drew his brother aside and said in a whisper: "This then makes me Lieutenant-General without any opposition." A keen glance was the Cardinal's only reply, by which he conveyed to his brother that he had already appreciated the advantages to be derived from Catherine's false position. "Who sent you?" asked the Duke of Christophe. "Chaudieu the preacher," he replied. "Young man, you lie," said the Duke roughly. "It was the Prince de Condé."