"Materialist, Sire, which is quite a different thing. Materialism is the outcome of the Indian doctrines transmitted through the mysteries of Isis to Chaldæa and Egypt, and brought back to Greece by Pythagoras, one of the demi-gods among men; his doctrine of transmigration is the mathematics of materialism, the living law of its phases. Each of the different creations which make up the earthly creation possesses the power of retarding the impulse that drags it into another form." "Then alchemy is the science of sciences!" cried Charles IX., fired with enthusiasm. "I must see you at work." "As often as you will, Sire. You cannot be more eager than the Queen your mother." "Ah! That is why she is so much attached to you!" cried the King. "The House of Medici has secretly encouraged our research for almost a century past." "Sire," said Cosmo, "this child will live nearly a hundred years; he will meet with some checks, but will be happy and honored, having in his veins the blood of the Valois." "I will go to see you," said the King, who had recovered his good humor. "You can go." The brothers bowed to Marie and Charles IX. and withdrew. They solemnly descended the stairs, neither looking at each other nor speaking; they did not even turn to look up at the windows from the courtyard, so sure were they that the King's eye was on them; and, in fact, as they turned to pass through the gate, they saw Charles IX. at a window. As soon as the alchemist and the astrologer were in the Rue de l'Autruche, they cast a look in front and behind to see that no one was either following them or waiting for them, and went on as far as the Louvre moat without speaking a word; but there, finding that they were alone, Lorenzo said to Cosmo in the Florentine Italian of the time: "_Affé d'Iddio! como le abbiamo infinocchiato!_" (By God, we have caught them finely!) "_Gran mercés! a lui sta di spartojarsi_"--(Much good may it do him; he must make what he can of it)--said Cosmo. "May the Queen do as much for me! We have done a good stroke for her." * * * * * Some days after this scene, which had struck Marie Touchet no less than the King, in one of those moments when in the fulness of joy the mind is in some sort released from the body, Marie exclaimed: "Charles, I understand Lorenzo Ruggieri; but Cosmo said nothing." "That is true," said the King, startled by this sudden flash of light, "and there was as much falsehood as truth in what they said. Those Italians are as slippery as the silk they spin."