"Yes," I admitted, reluctantly, "with all our leaders slain, or in the hands of the king, we are powerless. And now, my dear Jeanne, you had better go to your room and rest a while."
"But you are hurt!" she exclaimed anxiously.
"The wound is not serious, and it has been skilfully dressed. However, Roger shall fetch a surgeon."
"And you need food," she said, "you are weak and faint. It is you who need rest, and I will take care of you."
"Very well," I said, thinking it would be better perhaps if she had something to occupy her mind, "you shall nurse back my strength."
Now that the excitement of the journey had passed I felt, indeed, painfully weak, and for several days kept to my bed, being waited upon by Jeanne and Roger, while Jacques slept at night in my chamber.
One morning toward the end of the week Roger came as usual to sit with me. Jeanne was in the room, but she disappeared quickly, her pretty cheeks covered with blushes.
"You have frightened Jeanne away!" I exclaimed, laughing.
"She knows that I wish to have a talk with you," he answered, and upon my word he began to blush like an overgrown boy.
"One would fancy it a matter of some importance!"
"Of the greatest importance," he replied earnestly, "since it affects all your future life. Do you realize that unless you desert your faith, and go to mass, your career is ruined? Your account of the massacre was under rather than over the mark. With the exception of Condé and Navarre there does not appear to be a single Huguenot leader left, and it is reported that Condé has recanted in order to save his life."
"The Cause is not dead because Condé has forsaken it."
"No," agreed Roger, "but it is dead nevertheless. Henry is a prisoner in Paris; the Huguenots are scattered and dispirited; they have no leaders, no arms, no money; there is not a single district in which they are not at the mercy of the king's troops. Already the Paris massacre has been repeated in several towns."
"Well," I said, wondering whither all this tended.
"You yourself cannot leave Rochelle except at the risk of your life."
"Because of Cordel. He means to possess your estates; he has a powerful patron in Anjou, and you cannot obtain the ear of the king."
"'Twould do me little service if I could!"