roop
of the Duc de Nemours, replied tranquilly: "If that is so, I will go
alone to my cousin, and prove to him my innocence."

He dismounted, talked with perfect freedom of mind to Birago, the
Cardinal de Tournon, the chancellor, and the Duc de Nemours, from whom
he asked for particulars of the "tumult."

"Monseigneur," replied the duke, "the rebels had confederates in
Amboise. A captain, named Lanoue, had introduced armed men, who opened
the gate to them, through which they entered and made themselves masters
of the town--"

"That is to say, you opened the mouth of a sack, and they ran into it,"
replied the prince, looking at Birago.

"If they had been supported by the attack which Captain Chaudieu,
the preacher's brother, was expected to make before the gate of the
Bon-Hommes, they would have been completely successful," replied the Duc
de Nemours. "But in consequence of the position which the Duc de Guise
ordered me to take up, Captain Chaudieu was obliged to turn my flank
to avoid a fight. So instead of arriving by night, like the rest, this
rebel and his men got there at daybreak, by which time the king's troops
had crushed the invaders of the town."

"And you had a reserve force to recover the gate which had been opened
to them?" said the prince.

"Monsieur le Marechal de Saint-Andre was there with five hundred
men-at-arms."

The prince gave the highest praise to these military arrangements.

"The lieutenant-general must have been fully aware of the plans of the
Reformers, to have acted as he did," he said in conclusion. "They were
no doubt betrayed."

The prince was treated with increasing harshness. After separating him
from his escort at the gates, the cardinal and the chancellor barred
his way when he reached the staircase which led to the apartments of the
king.

"We are directed by his Majesty, monseigneur, to take you to your own
apartments," they said.

"Am I, then, a prisoner?"

"If that were the king's intention you would not be accompanied by a
prince of the Church, nor by me," replied the chancellor.

These two personages escorted the prince to an apartment, where guards
of honor--so-called--were given him. There he remained, without seeing
any one, for some hours. From his window he looked down upon the Loire
and the meadows of the beautiful valley stretching from Amboise to
Tours. He was reflecting on the situation, and asking himself whether
the Guises would really dare anything ag