"And the orange-trees. Ah, sweet little King, if you could know how your Mary longs to walk under orange-trees in flower and fruit! Alas! I may never see one! Oh! to hear an Italian song under those fragrant groves, on the shore of a blue sea, under a cloudless sky, and to clasp each other thus!----" "Let us be off," said the King. "Be off!" cried the Grand Master, coming in. "Yes, Sire, you must be off from Blois. Pardon my boldness; but circumstances overrule etiquette, and I have come to beg you to call a Council." Mary and Francis had started apart on being thus taken by surprise, and they both wore the same expression of offended sovereign Majesty. "You are too much the Grand Master, Monsieur de Guise," said the young King, suppressing his wrath. "Devil take lovers!" muttered the Cardinal in Catherine's ear. "My son," replied the Queen-mother, appearing behind the Cardinal, "the safety of your person is at stake as well as of your kingdom." "Heresy was awake while you slept, Sire," said the Cardinal. "Withdraw into the hall," said the little King; "we will hold a Council." "Madame," said the Duke to the Queen, "your furrier's son has come with some furs which are seasonable for your journey, as we shall probably ride by the Loire.--But he also wishes to speak with madame," he added, turning to the Queen-mother. "While the King is dressing, would you and Her Majesty dismiss him forthwith, so that this trifle may no further trouble us." "With pleasure," replied Catherine; adding to herself, "If he thinks to be rid of me by such tricks, he little knows me." The Cardinal and the Duke retired, leaving the two Queens with the King. As he went through the guardroom to go to the council-chamber, the Grand Master desired the usher to bring up the Queen's furrier. When Christophe saw this official coming towards him from one end of the room to the other, he took him, from his dress, to be some one of importance, and his heart sank within him; but this sensation, natural enough at the approach of a critical moment, became sheer terror when the usher, whose advance had the effect of directing the eyes of the whole splendid assembly to Christophe with his bundles and his abject looks, said to him: "Their Highnesses the Cardinal de Lorraine and the Grand Master desire to speak to you in the council-room." "Has any one betrayed me?" was the thought of this hapless envoy of the Reformers. Christophe followed the usher, his eyes bent on the ground, and never looked up till he found himself in the spacious council-room--as large almost as the guardroom. The two Guises were alone, standing in front of the splendid chimney-place that backed against that in the guardroom, where the maids of honor were grouped. "You have come from Paris? Which road did you take?" the Cardinal said to Christophe. "I came by water, monseigneur," replied the lad. "And how did you get into Blois?" said the Grand Master. "By the river port, monseigneur."