No one answered.

"Quick! quick! the king holds the paper; he is reading!"

Still there was no response.

The king unfolded the paper.

"Thousand devils!" cried Salcede, "if they have deceived me! Yet it was
she--it was really she!"

No sooner had the king read the first lines, than he called out
indignantly, "Oh! the wretch!"

"What is it, my son?"

"He retracts all--he pretends that he confessed nothing; and he declares
that the Guises are innocent of any plot!"

"But," said Catherine, "if it be true?"

"He lies!" cried the king.

"How do you know, my son? Perhaps the Guises have been calumniated: the
judges, in their zeal, may have put false interpretation on the
depositions."

"Oh! no, madame; I heard them myself!" cried Henri.

"You, my son?"