And being desirous to evade his question, I asked him if I had not the honour to address M.du Plessis Mornay; for that wise and courtly statesman, now a pillar of Henry's counsels, it was.
'The same, sir,' he replied, abruptly, and without taking his eyes from me.

'I am Mornay.

What of that ?' 'I am M.de Marsac,' I explained.

And there I stopped, supposing that, as he was in the king's confidence, this would make my errand clear to him.
But I was disappointed.

'Well, sir ?' he said, and waited impatiently.
So cold a reception, following such treatment as I had suffered outside, would have sufficed to have dashed my spirits utterly had I not felt the king's letter in my pocket.