eins in his great temples
swelled. A moment, nevertheless, and he was himself again. "Armand,"
he said quietly to the servant, "these gentlemen will not sup with me.
Lay for them at the other end."

Men are odd. The moment he gave way to me I repented of my words. It
was almost with reluctance that I followed the servant to the lower
part of the table. More than this, mingled with the hatred I felt for
the Vidame, there was now a strange sentiment towards him--almost of
admiration; that had its birth I think in the moment, when I held his
life in my hand, and he had not flinched.

We ate in silence; even after Croisette by grasping my hand under the
table had begged me not to judge him hastily. The two at the upper end
talked fast, and from the little that reached us, I judged that the
priest was pressing some course on his host, which the latter declined
to take.

Once Bezers raised his voice. "I have my own ends to serve!" he broke
out angrily, adding a fierce oath which the priest did not rebuke, "and
I shall serve them. But there I stop. You have your own. Well, serve
them, but do not talk to me of the cause! The cause? To hell with the
cause! I have my cause, and you have yours, and my lord of Guise has
his! And you will not make me believe that there is any other!"

"The king's?" suggested the priest, smiling sourly.

"Say rather the Italian woman's!" the Vidame answered
recklessly--meaning the queen-mother, Catharine de' Medici, I supposed.

"Well, then, the cause of the Church?" the priest persisted.

"Bah! The Church? It is you, my friend!" Bezers rejoined, rudely
tapping his companion--at that moment in the act of crossing
himself--on the chest. "The Church?" he continued; "no, no, my
friend. I will tell you what you are doing. You want me to help you
to get rid of your branch, and you offer in return to aid me with
mine--and then, say you, there will be no stick left to beat either of
us. But you may understand once for all"--and the Vidame struck his
hand heavily down among the glasses--"that I will have no interference
with my work, master Clerk! None! Do you hear? And as for yours, it
is no business of mine. That is plain speaking, is it not?"

The priest's hand shook as he raised a full glass to his lips, but he
made no rejoinder, and the Vidame, seeing we had finished, rose.
"Armand!" he cried, his face still dark, "take these gentlemen to
their chamber. You unders