"If you
don't confess every morning, my daughter, you will go to hell."
"Cannot you oblige me without forcing me to tell my secret thoughts?"
"Where would be the pleasure?" cried the king, seeing only an
amusement in this affair.
"Ah! do you want your pleasure to cost me grief?"
"Oh! you sly little girl, haven't you any confidence in me?"
"Then, sire, set the young nobleman at liberty."
"So! he is a nobleman, is he?" cried the king. "Then he is not an
apprentice?"
"He is certainly innocent," she said.
"I don't see it so," said the king, coldly. "I am the law and justice
of my kingdom, and I must punish evil-doers."
"Come, don't put on that solemn face of yours! Give me the life of
that young man."
"Is it yours already?"
"Sire," she said, "I am pure and virtuous. You are jesting at--"
"Then," said Louis XI., interrupting her, "as I am not to know the
truth, I think Tristan had better clear it up."
Marie turned pale, but she made a violent effort and cried out:--
"Sire, I assure you, you will regret all this.
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