"Corresponded?" echoed the king.
"Yes, corresponded; and the most extraordinary thing is that the subject of this correspondence between Madame la Duchesse d'Etampes and the humble carver's apprentice was love."
"The proofs, master! you have proofs, I trust!" cried the king, in a rage.
"O mon Dieu! yes, Sire," replied Benvenuto. "Your Majesty must understand that I should not have allowed myself to form such suspicions without proofs."
"Produce them instantly, then," said the king.
"When I say that I have them, I am in error: your Majesty had them a moment since."
"I!" cried the king.
"And Madame de Poitiers has them now."
"I!" cried Diane.
"Yes," rejoined Benvenuto, who, amid the king's wrath, and the hatred and terror of the two most powerful women in the world, was perfectly cool and complacent. "Yes, for the proofs are in the lily."