There are Lorraine and the Guises, there are the priests, and there is the turbulent mob of Paris.

It seems to me that, instead of being the fisherman, I should be like a very small fish, enclosed in a very strong net." And he looked thoughtfully into the fire.
"The king is, at present, with us; but his plighted word is worth nothing." "But once married," Francois said, "you would have the princess on your side, and being then brother-in-law to the king, you would be safe from attack." "The king has no great love for his own brothers," Henri said; "but I am not supposing that even Charles would lay hands on me, after inviting me to his court to marry his sister.

He would not venture upon that, before the eyes of all Europe.

It is the strain and the pressure that I fear.

A girl who is sent to a nunnery, however much she may hate becoming a nun, can no more escape than a fly from the meshes of a spider.