tience.

"Uncle, is that just?"

"Well, what have you discovered?"

"That there is no such vile scheme as the King imagines."

"Can you prove that?"

"To me there is proof. Ten days ago, when the boy thanked me for
pulling him off Bertrand's back, he as much as said he had nothing to
pay me with. Now if this lie of a plot against the King were the
truth, would not a self-willed boy like the Dauphin, boastful as boys
are, proud and galled by the debt he thought he owed me, have hinted
that the day would come when he could pay in full, and sooner than some
expected? He surely would. His pride would have run away with his
discretion. Besides, Uncle, what have you discovered in your ten days?"

But Commines returned no answer, and to La Mothe his gloomy face was
inscrutable. He knew his master; knew, without being told in so many
words, that it was the King's purpose to set Charles aside; knew that
the King believed justification for such a course was to be found at
Amboise; knew above all, knew with the knowledge of other men's bitter
experience, that there were no thanks for the man who failed, even
though that failure proved a son innocent of crime against a father.
It was not innocence the King desired but guilt.

And yet, now that La Mothe had brought him face to face with the
question, what had he discovered? Little or nothing. Using all the
arts and artifices which ten years' service under such a master of
subtle craftiness as the eleventh Louis had taught him, he had cajoled
and bribed, probed and sifted, even covertly threatened at times. But
all to no purpose. An indignant sarcasm from Ursula de Vesc, a
politic--and wise--regret for the estrangement from La Follette, a
petulant outburst from Charles, childish and pathetically cynical by
turns, the vague whispers inseparable from such a household as was
gathered together in Amboise were all his reward. But the King
demanded proof; the King demanded articles of conviction which would,
if necessary, satisfy an incredulous world that the terrible tragedy
which followed proof was the justice of the highest law.

"Disaffection is everywhere," he said at last; "disloyalty which only
lacks the spur of opportunity to drive desire into action. If these
things are on the surface, worse lies hidden. You know the proverb of
Smoke and Fire? I see the fire laid, I smell the smoke: it was for you
to find the spark, you who have had a free hand in Amboise.