I have confidence in Duplessis-Mornay; let him play the leading
part. Are we alone?" he added, with a glance of distrust into the
kitchen, where two shirts and a few collars were stretched on a line
to dry. "Go and shut all the doors. Well," he continued when Theodore
had returned, "we must drive the king of Navarre to join the Guises
and the Connetable by advising him to break with Queen Catherine de'
Medici. Let us all get the benefit of that poor creature's weakness.
If he turns against the Italian she will, when she sees herself
deprived of that support, necessarily unite with the Prince de Conde
and Coligny. Perhaps this manoeuvre will so compromise her that she
will be forced to remain on our side."
Theodore de Beze caught the hem of Calvin's cassock and kissed it.
"Oh! my master," he exclaimed, "how great you are!"
"Unfortunately, my dear Theodore, I am dying. If I die without seeing
you again," he added, sinking his voice and speaking in the ear of his
minister of foreign affairs, "remember to strike a great blow by the
hand of some one of our martyrs."
"Another Minard to be killed?"
"Something better than a mere lawyer.
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