and expressed his regrets to see them
charged with a duty which did not belong to them. Then he said to the
clerk, "Write down what I say," and dictated as follows:--

"I, Louis de Bourbon, Prince de Conde, peer of the kingdom,
Marquis de Conti, Comte de Soissons, prince of the blood of
France, do declare that I formally refuse to recognize any
commission appointed to try me, because, in my quality and in
virtue of the privilege appertaining to all members of the royal
house, I can only be accused, tried, and judged by the Parliament
of peers, both Chambers assembled, the king being seated on his
bed of justice."

"You ought to know that, gentlemen, better than others," he added; "and
this reply is all that you will get from me. For the rest, I trust in
God and my right."

The magistrates continued to address him notwithstanding his obstinate
silence. The king of Navarre was left at liberty, but closely watched;
his prison was larger than that of the prince, and this was the only
real difference in the position of the two brothers,--the intention
being that their heads should fall together.

Christophe was therefore kept in the strictest solitary confinement by
order of the cardinal and the lieutenant-general of the kingdom, for no
other purpose than to give the judges proof of the culpability of the
Prince de Conde. The letters seized on Lasagne, the prince's secretary,
though intelligible to statesmen, where not sufficiently plain proof for
judges. The cardinal intended to confront the prince and Christophe by
accident; and it was not without intention that the young Reformer was
placed in one of the lower rooms in the tower of Saint-Aignan, with a
window looking on the prison yard. Each time that Christophe was
brought before the magistrates, and subjected to a close examination,
he sheltered himself behind a total and complete denial, which prolonged
his trial until after the opening of the States-general.

Old Lecamus, who by that time had got himself elected deputy of the
_tiers-etat_ by the burghers of Paris, arrived at Orleans a few days
after the arrest of the Prince de Conde. This news, which reached him at
Etampes, redoubled his anxiety; for he fully understood--he, who alone
knew of Christophe's interview with the prince under the bridge near
his own house--that his son's fate was closely bound up with that of the
leader of the Reformed party. He therefore determined to study the dark
t