What would you do in my place ?" "Sir, do you hold the Duke of Guise for friend or enemy ?" The king, without speaking, replied by a significant gesture.

"If it please your, Majesty to give me the order, I will this very day lay the duke's head at your feet." The three councillors who happened to be there cried out.

The king held his peace.

During this conversation at the Louvre, the Duke of Guise was advancing along the streets, dressed in a doublet of white damask, a cloak of black cloth, and boots of buffalo-hide; he walked on foot, bareheaded, at the side of the queen-mother in a sedan-chair.

He was tall, with fair clustering hair and piercing eyes; and his scar added to his martial air.