me to do so with a good conscience; I content
myself, as it is, with leaving yours to do its work within you on so
ticklish and so delicate a subject."

"I quite understand your opinions," said the king; "they resolve
themselves almost into one single point: I must not allow the
establishment of any association or show of government having the least
appearance of being able to subsist, by itself or by its members, in any
part of my kingdom, or suffer dismemberment in respect of any one of the
royal prerogatives, as regards things spiritual as well as temporal.
Such is my full determination."

"I answered the king," continues Rosny, "that I was rejoiced to see him
taking so intelligent a view of his affairs, and that, for the present, I
had no advice to give him but to seek repose of body and mind, and to
permit me likewise to seek the same for myself, for I was dead sleepy,
not having slept for two nights; and so, without a word more, the king
gave me good night, and, as for me, I went back to my quarters."

A few days before this conversation between the king and his friend
Rosny, on the 26th of January, 1593, the states-general of the League
had met in the great hall of the Louvre, present the Duke of Mayenne,
surrounded by all the pomp of royalty, but so nervous that his speech in
opening the session was hardly audible, and that he frequently changed
color during its delivery. On leaving, his wife told him that she was
afraid he was not well, as she had seen him turn pale three or four
times. A hundred and twenty-eight deputies had been elected; only fifty
were present at this first meeting. They adjourned to the 4th of
February. In the interval, on the 28th of January, there had arrived,
also, a royalist trumpeter, bringing, "on behalf of the princes,
prelates, officers of the crown, and principal lords of the Catholic
faith, who were with the King of Navarre, an offer of a conference
between the two parties, for to lay down the basis of a peace eagerly
desired." On hearing this message, Cardinal Pelleve, Archbishop of Sens,
one of the most fiery prelates of the League, said, "that he was of
opinion that the trumpeter should be whipped, to teach him not to
undertake such silly errands for the future;" "an opinion," said
somebody, "quite worthy of a thick head like his, wherein there is but
little sense."

The states-general of the League were of a different opinion. After long
and lively discussion, the