e has more interest at Rome than
you have; do you not know him? I mean the Cardinal de Guise."

"Chicot!"

"And if the tonsure disquiets you, for it is rather a delicate
operation, the prettiest hands and the prettiest scissors--golden
scissors, ma foi!--will give you this precious symbol, which would raise
to three the number of the crowns you have worn, and will justify the
device, 'Manet ultima coelo.'"

"Pretty hands, do you say?"

"Yes, do you mean to abuse the hands of Madame de Montpensier? How
severe you are upon your subjects."

The king frowned, and passed over his eyes a hand as white as those
spoken of, but more trembling.

"Well!" said Chicot, "let us leave that, for I see that the conversation
does not please you, and let us return to subjects that interest me
personally."

The king made a gesture, half indifferent, half approving.

"Have you heard, Henri," continued Chicot, "whether those Joyeuses
carried off any woman?"

"Not that I know of."

"Have they burned anything?"

"What?"

"How should I know what a great lord burns to amuse himself; the house
of some poor devil, perhaps."

"Are you mad, Chicot? Burn a house for amusement in my city of Paris!"

"Oh! why not?"

"Chicot!"

"Then they have done nothing that you know of?"

"Ma foi, no."

"Oh! so much the better," said Chicot, drawing a long breath like a man
much relieved.

"Do you know one thing, Chicot?" said Henri.

"No, I do not."

"It is that you have become wicked."

"I?"

"Yes, you."

"My sojourn in the tomb had sweetened me, but your presence, great king,
has destroyed the effect."

"You become insupportable, Chicot; and I now attribute to you ambitious
projects and intrigues of which I formerly believed you incapable."

"Projects of ambition! I ambitious! Henriquet, my son, you used to be
only foolish, now you are mad; you have progressed."

"And I tell you, M. Chicot, that you wish to separate from me all my old
friends, by attributing to them intentions which they have not, and
crimes of which they never thought; in fact, you wish to monopolize me."

"I monopolize you! what for? God forbid! you are too tiresome, without
counting the difficulty of pleasing you with your food. Oh! no, indeed!
Explain to me whence comes this strange idea."

"You began by listening coldly to my praises of your old friend, Dom
Modeste, to whom you owe much."

"I owe much to Dom Modeste! Good."

"Then you tried to cal