And when I told her how Lucas had evaded us in the darkness, she cried:
"Blessed Virgin! M. de Mar has enough to contend with in this Lucas,
without Paul de Lorraine, and Brie, and the Duke of Mayenne himself."
I was silent, being of her opinion. Presently she asked reluctantly:
"Does your master think this Lucas a tool of M. de Mayenne's?"
"Yes, mademoiselle. He says secretaries do not plot against dukedoms for
their own pleasure."
"Asassination was not wont to be my cousin Mayenne's way," she said with
an accent of confidence that rang as false as a counterfeit coin. I saw
well enough that mademoiselle did fear, at least, Mayenne's guilt. I
thought I might tell her a little more.
"M. le Comte told me that since his father's coming to Paris M. de
Mayenne made him offers to join the League, and he refused them. So then
M. de Mayenne, seeing himself losing the whole house of St. Quentin,
invented this."
"But it failed. Thank God, it failed! And now he will leave Paris. He
will--he must!"
"He did mean to seek Navarre's camp to-morrow," I answered; "but--"
"But what?"
"But then the letter came."
"But that makes no difference! He must go for all that. The time is over
for trimming. He must stand on one side or the other. I am a Ligueuse
born and bred, and I tell him to go to King Henry.
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