"My subjects are of many classes."
"All are of one class in resenting this charter. I am told you intend to
proclaim it within a few days. I entreat you at least to delay, to
reconsider your course. Oh, believe me when I say you are in danger! Of
what use to offer a crown to our Lady, when you have it in your heart to
slight her servants? But I will not speak of the clergy, since you
despise them--nor of the nobles, since you ignore their claims. I will
speak only of the people--the people, in whose interest you profess to
act. Believe me, in striking at the Church you wound the poor. It is not
their bodily welfare I mean--though Heaven knows how many sources of
bounty must now run dry! It is their faith you insult. First you turn
them against their masters, then against their God. They may acclaim you
for it now--but I tell you they will hate you for it in the end!"
She paused, flushed with the vehemence of her argument, and eager to
press it farther. But her last words had touched an unexpected fibre in
Odo. He looked at her with his unseeing visionary gaze.
"The end?" he murmured. "Who knows what the end will be?"
"Do you still need to be told?" she exclaimed. "Must you always come to
me to learn that you are in danger?"
"If the state is in danger the danger must be faced. The state exists
for the people; if they do not need it, it has ceased to serve its
purpose."
She clasped her hands in an ecstasy of wonder. "Oh, fool, madman--but it
is not of the state I speak! It is you who are in
danger--you--you--you--"
He raised his head with an impatient gesture.
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