secure his fortunes. The marquis protested that such a thought had
never entered his head, but intimated that the reports might come
from his familiar intercourse with the papal nuncius and many French
ecclesiastics. The king asked if, when speaking with the nuncius, he
called the pope his Holiness, as by so doing he would greatly offend God,
in whom alone was holiness. Rosny replied that he commonly used the
style prevalent at court, governing himself according to the rules
adopted in regard to pretenders to crowns and kingdoms which they thought
belonged to them, but the possession of which was in other hands,
conceding to them, in order not to offend them, the titles which they
claimed.

James shook his head portentously, and changed the subject.

The general tone of the royal-conversation was agreeable enough to the
ambassador, who eagerly alluded to the perfidious conduct of a Government
which, ever since concluding the peace of Vervins with Henry, had been
doing its best to promote sedition and territorial dismemberment in his
kingdom, and to assist all his open and his secret enemies.

James assented very emphatically, and the marquis felt convinced that a
resentment against Spain, expressed so publicly and so violently by
James, could hardly fail to, be sincere. He began seriously to, hope
that his negotiations would be successful, and was for soaring at once
into the regions of high politics, when the king suddenly began to talk
of hunting.

"And so you sent half the stag I sent you; to Count Arenberg," said
James; "but he is very angry about it; thinking that you did so to show
how much more I make of you than I do of him. And so I do; for I know