...let pronounced to be worth its weight in arsenic. War or peace hung on the color of a bail-dress, and Madame de Chevreuse knew which party was coming uppermost, by observing whether the binding of Madame de Hautefort 's prayer-book was red or green. Perhaps it was all a little theatrical, but the performers were all Rachels. And behind the crimes and the frivolities stood the Parliaments, calm and undaunted,...