"What did Madame say ?" "Nothing." "And Guiche ?" "As much--oh, no! he muttered some impertinent remark or another." "Well, what is your opinion, Philip ?" "That I have been made a fool of; that Buckingham was only a pretext, and that Guiche is the one who is really to blame in the matter." Anne shrugged her shoulders.

"Well," she said, "what else ?" "I wish De Guiche to be dismissed from my household, as Buckingham was, and I shall ask the king, unless--" "Unless what ?" "Unless you, my dear mother, who are so clever and so kind, will execute the commission yourself." "I will not do it, Philip." "What, madame ?" "Listen, Philip; I am not disposed to pay people ill compliments every day; I have some influence over young people, but I cannot take advantage of it without running the chances of losing it altogether.
Besides, there is nothing to prove that M.de Guiche is guilty." "He has displeased me." "That is your own affair." "Very well, I know what I shall do," said the prince, impetuously.
Anne looked at him with some uneasiness.

"What do you intend to do ?" she said.
"I will have him drowned in my fish-pond the very next time I find him in my apartments again." Having launched this terrible threat, the prince expected his mother would be frightened out of her senses; but the queen was unmoved.
"Do so," she said.
Philip was as weak as a woman, and began to cry out, "Every one betrays me,--no one cares for me; my mother, even, joins my enemies." "Your mother, Philip, sees further in the matter than you do, and does not care about advising you, since you will not listen to her." "I will go to the king." "I was about to propose that to you.

I am now expecting his majesty; it is the hour he usually pays me a visit; explain the matter to him yourself." She had hardly finished when Philip heard the door of the ante-room open with some noise.

He began to feel nervous.