"Oh, madame, what a part you are playing!" cried Christophe, in pity for her.
"He is insulting me! Is he not to be hanged?" said she to the two brothers, who stood lost in thought.
"What a woman!" cried the Grand Master, who was consulting his brother in the window recess.
"I will stay in France and be revenged," thought the Queen. "Proceed, he must confess or let him die!" she exclaimed, addressing Monsieur de Montrésor.
The provost turned away, the executioners were busy, Catherine had an opportunity of giving the martyr a look, which no one else saw, and which fell like dew on Christophe. The great Queen's eyes seemed to glisten with moisture; they were, in fact, full of tears, two tears at once repressed and dry. The wedge was driven home, one of the boards between which it was inserted split. Christophe uttered a piercing cry; then his face became radiant; he thought he was dying.
"Let him die," said the Cardinal, echoing Queen Catherine's words with a sort of irony. "No, no," he added to the provost, "do not let us lose this clue."
The Duke and the Cardinal held a consultation in a low voice.
"What is to be done with him?" asked the executioner.
"Send him to prison at Orleans," said the Duke.--"And, above all," he said to Monsieur de Montrésor, "do not hang him without orders from me."
The excessive sensitiveness of every internal organ, strung to the highest pitch by the endurance which worked upon every nerve in his frame, no less affected every sense in Christophe. He alone heard these words spoken by the Duc de Guise in the Cardinal's ear:
"I have not given up all hope of hearing the truth from this little man."
As soon as the two Princes had left the room, the executioners unpacked the victim's legs, with no attempt at gentle handling.
"Did you ever see a criminal with such fortitude?" said the head man to his assistants. "The rogue has lived through the infliction of the eighth wedge; he ought to have died. I am the loser of the price of his body."
"Untie me without hurting me, my good friends," said poor Christophe. "Some day I will reward you."
"Come, show some humanity," said the doctor. "Monseigneur the Duke esteems the young man, and commended him to my care," cried the leech.