He knew that her act would plunge him in
perils which she had not foreseen. If the preachers roused the Papists
of Angers, if he arrived to find men's swords whetted for the massacre
and the men themselves awaiting the signal, then if he did not give that
signal there would be trouble. There would be trouble of the kind in
which the soul of Hannibal de Tavannes revelled, trouble about the
ancient cathedral and under the black walls of the Angevin castle;
trouble amid which the hearts of common men would be as water.
Then, when things seemed at their worst, he would reveal his knowledge.
Then, when forgiveness must seem impossible, he would forgive. With the
flood of peril which she had unloosed rising round them, he would say,
"Go!" to the man who had aimed at his life; he would say to her, "I know,
and I forgive!" That, that only, would fitly crown the policy on which
he had decided from the first, though he had not hoped to conduct it on
lines so splendid as those which now dazzled him.
CHAPTER XXVI. TEMPER.
It was his gaiety, that strange unusual gaiety, still continuing, which
on the following day began by perplexing and ended by terrifying the
Countess. She could not doubt that he had missed the packet on which so
much hung and of which he had indicated the importance.
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