The impaled heads of
the victims were still to be recognized. The barbarous sight moved the
elder D'Aubigne's soul to its very depths. "They have beheaded France,
hangmen that they are!" he cried out in the hearing of the hundreds that
were present at the fair. Then, spurring his horse, he scarcely escaped
the hands of the rabble who had caught his words. Afterward, when his
young son had rejoined him, he placed his hand on Agrippa's head, and
exclaimed, full of emotion: "My child, you must not spare your head
after mine, to avenge these chieftains full of honor, whose heads you
have just seen! If you spare yourself in this matter, you will have my
curse."[841]

[Sidenote: Peril of the Prince of Conde.]

[Sidenote: He is summoned by the king.]

[Sidenote: Conde's defiance.]

[Sidenote: Guise's offer.]

The Prince of Conde had set out for the court about the time of the
discovery of the conspiracy. If the coldness of the courtiers whom he
met on the way did not convince him that he was suspected, the position
in which he soon found himself at Amboise left him no doubts. Surrounded
by spies, he was viewed more as a prisoner than as a guest. The Guises
even counselled Francis to stab him with his dagger while pretending to
sport with him. The crime was averted both by the caution of the prince
and by a reluctance on the part of the young king to imbrue his hands in
the blood of his kinsman--a sentiment which the Guises interpreted as
cowardice.[842] But, unable to resist the urgency of those who accused
Conde of being the true head of the conspiracy, and maintained that the
testimony of many of the prisoners rendered the fact indubitable,
Francis at length summoned the young Bourbon to his presence. He
informed him of the accusations, and assured him that, should they prove
true, he would make him feel the difficulty and the danger of attacking
a king of France. At Conde's request an assembly of all the princes, and
of the members of the Privy Council and of the Order of St. Michael, was
summoned, that he might return his answer to the charges laid against
him.[843] In the midst of the august gathering, Louis of Bourbon arose
and recited the conversation which he had had with the king. He knew, he
said, that he had enemies about him who sought his entire ruin and that
of his house. He had, therefore, solicited to be heard in this company,
and his answer was: that, excepting the person of the king, his
brothers, and