er his mysterious
plans with all the eagerness of a gambler who is on the point of
gaining, the Dominican, who thought himself on the eve of a tremendous
event, who by cunning, patience, and labour hoped to scatter his enemies
and to reign as absolute autocrat, now falling suddenly from the edifice
of his dream, stiffened himself by a mighty effort to stand and resist
the mother of his pupil. But fear cried too loud in the heart of
Elizabeth for all the reasonings of the monk to lull it to rest: to
every argument he advanced she simply said that while her son was not
king and had not entire unlimited power, it was imprudent to leave him
exposed to his enemies. The monk, seeing that all was indeed lost and
that he could not contend against the fears of this woman, asked only
the boon of three days' grace, at the end of which time, should a reply
he was expecting have not arrived, he said he would not only give up his
opposition to Andre's departure, but would follow himself, renouncing
for ever a scheme to which he had sacrificed everything.
Towards the end of the third day, as Elizabeth was definitely making
her preparations for departure, the monk entered radiant. Showing her a
letter which he had just hastily broken open, he cried triumphantly--
"God be praised, madam! I can at last give you incontestable proofs of
my active zeal and accurate foresight."
Andre's mother, after rapidly running through the document, turned her
eyes on the monk with yet some traces of mistrust in her manner, not
venturing to give way to her sudden joy.
"Yes, madam," said the monk, raising his head, his plain features
lighted up by his glance of intelligence--"yes, madam, you will believe
your eyes, perhaps, though you would never believe my words: this is
not the dream of an active imagination, the hallucination of a credulous
mind, the prejudice of a limited intellect; it is a plan slowly
conceived, painfully worked out, my daily thought and my whole life's
work. I have never ignored the fact that at the court of Avignon
your son had powerful enemies; but I knew also that on the very day
I undertook a certain solemn engagement in the prince's name, an
engagement to withdraw those laws that had caused coldness between the
pope and Robert; who was in general so devoted to the Church, I knew
very well that my offer would never be rejected, and this argument of
mine I kept back for the last. See, madam, my calculations are correct;
y
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