se. It is not the truth the King
requires. Monsieur d'Argenton, I tell you formally that what Saxe has
said is absolutely untrue."

"Saxe is explicit, you can question him when he has finished," answered
Commines coldly. For him the King stood behind Jean Saxe, and no mere
denial would content Louis or set his fears at rest. "Go on, Saxe.
The King would suspect the truth?"

"So he said, monseigneur, and so there was need for haste," said Saxe.

"Then why wait two days before telling Monsieur d'Argenton? Why wait
two days before warning the King? Why wait until Hugues was dead?"

"There was a courier from Valmy to-day," said Villon, speaking for the
first time, and, as it seemed, irrelevantly.

Commines turned upon him sharply. "What has that to do with it? He
brought letters from the King addressed to me. Monsieur La Mothe knows
their contents."

"And for Jean Saxe," retorted Villon; "letters from the King for Jean
Saxe and Monsieur d'Argenton!"

"Ah!" said mademoiselle the second time, "so that is why Monsieur
d'Argenton is in Amboise."

"That is why," answered Commines, his hand stretched out in
denunciation. "At Valmy we more than guessed your treason. But it was
hard to believe that a woman could so corrupt a boy, that a son could
so conspire against a father, and I came to Amboise probing the truth.
And every day proof has piled upon proof, presumptive proof I grant,
but proof damning and conclusive nevertheless. Every day the King has
been held up to loathing and contempt. Every day the woman--you,
Mademoiselle de Vesc, you--egged on the boy to worse than disaffection.
Every day the son reviled the father, even to telling God's own priest
that his one thought was hate--everlasting hate. The spirit to hurt
and the accursed will were there, more shameless every day, more
shameless and more insolent; but until to-day, until Jean Saxe spoke,
there was no proof that the courage to act, the courage to carry out
the evident ill desire was callously plotting to set France shuddering
with horror. But Saxe has spoken. That he should have spoken earlier
is beside the point. He has spoken at last and the truth is stripped
bare."

"No truth," said mademoiselle, "no truth; before God, no truth." She
was rigidly upright in her chair, her eyes blazing like cold stars, her
face very pale. Every limb, every muscle, was trembling, her hand
pressed under her breast as when La Mothe had seen her for the f