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 Renard.Touching him the middle classes agree with the nobles. If he is not put to death this very day, as your Majesty has promised—

The Queen.Well?

Renard.There will be an uprising of the lower classes.

The Queen.I have my pikemen.

Renard.There will be plots among the nobles.

The Queen.I have the headsman.

Renard.Your Majesty swore upon your royal mother's Book of Hours that you would not pardon him.

The Queen.Here is my signature in blank which he hath caused to be handed to me, wherein I swear by my imperial crown that I will pardon him. My father's crown is as sacred as my mother's Book of Hours. One oath doth offset the other. Moreover, who says that I shall pardon him?

Renard.He was most insolently false to you, Madame!

The Queen.What's that to me? All men do as much. I do not choose that he shall die. Look you, my lord—Monsieur le bailli, I would say—God in Heaven! you do so confuse my wits that I do not know to whom I speak!—look you, I know all that you are about to say to me. That he is a contemptible creature, a coward, a villain, I know it as you do, and I blush for him. But I love him. What would you have me do? Perchance I should love an honest man less fiercely. And in sooth, who are you all? Are you better men than he? You will tell me that he's a favourite, and that the English nation does not love favourites. Do I not know that you would overthrow him only to put in his place the Earl of Kildare, that Irish coxcomb?