"You have lifted a weight from me.

I fear nothing in comparison of that.

Nothing!" "Alas!" he answered sombrely, "there is much to fear, for others if not for ourselves! Do you know what that is which M.de Tavannes bears always in his belt?
What it is he carries with such care?
What it was he handed to you to keep while he bathed to-day ?" "Letters from the King." "Yes, but the import of those letters ?" "No." "And yet, should they be written in letters of blood!" the minister exclaimed, his face kindling.

"They should scorch the hands that hold them and blister the eyes that read them.

They are the fire and the sword! They are the King's order to do at Angers as they have done in Paris.