La Renaudie must soon discover by my arrangements that we are
warned. Last night Nemours was to follow detachments of the Reformers
who are pouring in along the cross-roads, and the conspirators will be
forced to attack us at Amboise, which place I intend to let them
enter. Here," added the duke, pointing to three sides of the rock on
which the chateau de Blois is built; "we should have an assault
without any result; the Huguenots could come and go at will. Blois is
an open hall with four entrances; whereas Amboise is a sack with a
single mouth."
"I shall not leave Catherine's side," said the cardinal.
"We have made a blunder," remarked the duke, who was playing with his
dagger, tossing it into the air and catching it by the hilt. "We ought
to have treated her as we did the Reformers,--given her complete
freedom of action and caught her in the act."
The cardinal looked at his brother for an instant and shook his head.
"What does Pardaillan want?" said the duke, observing the approach of
the young nobleman who was later to become celebrated by his encounter
with La Renaudie, in which they both lost their lives.
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