"' 
 
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 t&rAm\\^

 
 2>umas 
 Marguerite de Valois 
 
 Heu> 
 
 . <rott?ell & Co. 
 
 Publishers
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDRE DUMAS 
 
 C OAfPL ETE TRANS LA TION 
 FROM THE LATEST FRENCH EDITION 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1900, 
 BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN .... 1 
 
 II. THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER . 13 
 
 III. THE POET-KING 25 
 
 IV. THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 
 
 1572 36 
 
 V. OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR, AND OF 
 
 VIRTUE IN GENERAL 44 
 
 VI. THE DEBT PAID 53 
 
 VII. THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572, 64 
 
 VIII. THE MASSACRE 78 
 
 IX. THE MURDERERS 89 
 
 X. DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE . . . 102 
 XI. THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY OF 
 
 THE INNOCENTS 114 
 
 XII. MUTUAL CONFIDENCES 125 
 
 XIII. HOW THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS 
 
 THEY ARE NOT MEANT FOR 132 
 
 XIV. THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT .... 142 
 
 XV. WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS . . . 150 
 XVI. A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY ALWAYS SMELLS 
 
 SWEET 164 
 
 XVII. MAITRE AMBROISE PARE'S CONFRERE . . 176 
 
 XVIII. THE GHOSTS 183 
 
 XIX. THE ABODE OF MA?TRE RENE, PERFUMER 
 
 TO THE QUEEN MOTHER 193 
 
 XX. THE BLACK HENS 204 
 
 XXI. MADAME DE SAUVE'S APARTMENT . . . 210 
 
 XXII. "SlRE, YOU SHALL BE KlNG " .... 219 
 
 XXIII. A NEW CONVERT 224 
 
 XXIV. THE RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE 
 
 PERCEE 236 
 
 XXV. THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK .... 248 
 
 XXVI. MARGARITA 257 
 
 XXVII. THE HAND OF GOD . 263 
 
 XXVIII. THE LETTER FROM ROME 268
 
 IV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXIX. THE DEPARTURE 274 
 
 XXX. MAUREVEL 280 
 
 XXXI. THE HUNT 284 
 
 XXXII. FRATERNITY 293 
 
 XXXIII. THE GRATITUDE OF KING CHARLES IX. . 300 
 
 XXXIV. MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES . . . 306 
 XXXV. A NIGHT OF KINGS 316 
 
 XXXVI. THE ANAGRAM 324 
 
 XXXVII. THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE .... 329 
 
 XXXVIII. THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER . . 340 
 
 XXXIX. PROJECTS OF REVENGE 348 
 
 XL. THE ATRIDES 362 
 
 XLI. THE HOROSCOPE 372 
 
 XLII. CONFIDENCES 379 
 
 XLIII. THE AMBASSADORS 389 
 
 XLIV. ORESTES AND PYLADES 395 
 
 XLV. ORTHON 404 
 
 XLVI. THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE .... 415 
 
 XL VII. DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE 423 
 
 XLVIII. Two HEADS FOR ONE CROWN .... 430 
 
 XLIX. THE TREATISE ON HUNTING 441 
 
 L. HAWKING 448 
 
 LI. THE PAVILION OF FRA^OIS 1 456 
 
 LII. THE EXAMINATION 464 
 
 LIII. ACTION 473 
 
 LIV. THE FOREST OF VINCENNES 479 
 
 LV. THE FIGURE OF WAX 486 
 
 LVI. THE INVISIBLE BUCKLERS 497 
 
 LVII. THE JUDGES 503 
 
 LVIII. THE TORTURE OF THE BOOT 512 
 
 LIX. THE CHAPEL 520 
 
 LX. THE PLACE SAINT JEAN EN GREVE . . 525 
 
 LXI. THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER 530 
 
 LXII. THE SWEAT OF BLOOD 538 
 
 LXIII. THE DONJON OF THE PRISON OF VIN- 
 CENNES 542 
 
 LXIV. THE REGENCY 547 
 
 LXV. THE KING is DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE 
 
 KING! 551 
 
 LXVI. EPILOGUE . . 556
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Drawings by Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 u WHAT DO YOU WANT, SIR?" SAID SHE. (Page 48) Frontispiece 
 
 U I DID NOT KILL TOUR FATHER. A CURSE UPON YOU " 81 
 
 COCONNAS AT THE GIBBET 170 
 
 "MONSIEUR DK LA MOLE ! " EXCLAIMED A SWEET VOICE FROM 
 
 THE LITTER 237 
 
 MARIE UTTERED A CRY AND FELL ON HER KNEES 325 
 
 11 UNFORTUNATE MAN!" SHE CRIED, HOLDING OUT THE PAPER .... 357 
 CATHARINE SEIZED THE LETTER AND MADE SURE THAT IT WAS THE 
 
 ONE SHE DESIRED 413 
 
 As THOUGH IT UNDERSTOOD THE WORDS, THE NOBLE BIRD ROSE 
 
 LIKE AN ARROW 453 
 
 MARGUERITE IN THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER 536
 
 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 
 
 ON Monday, the 18th of August, 1572, there was a splendid 
 festival at the Louvre. 
 
 The ordinarily gloomy windows of the ancient royal resi- 
 dence were brilliantly lighted, and the squares and streets ad- 
 jacent, usually so solitary after Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois had 
 struck the hour of nine, were crowded with people, although 
 it was past midnight. 
 
 The vast, threatening, eager, turbulent throng resembled, in 
 the darkness, a black and tumbling sea, each billow of which 
 makes a roaring breaker ; this sea, flowing through the Rue des 
 Fosses Saint Germain and the Rue de 1' Astruce and covering the 
 quay, surged against the base of the walls of the Louvre, and, 
 in its refluent tide, against the Hotel de Bourbon, which faced 
 it on the other side. 
 
 In spite of the royal festival, and perhaps even because of 
 the royal festival, there was something threatening in the ap- 
 pearance of the people, for no doubt was felt that this impos- 
 ing ceremony which called them there as spectators, was only 
 the prelude to another in which they would participate a week 
 later as invited guests and amuse themselves with all their 
 hearts. 
 
 The court was celebrating the marriage of Madame Margue- 
 rite de Valois, daughter of Henry II. and sister of King Charles 
 IX., with Henry de Bourbon, King of Navarre. In truth, that 
 very morning, on a stage erected at the entrance to Notre- 
 Dame, the Cardinal de Bourbon had united the young couple 
 with the usual ceremonial observed at the marriages of the 
 royal daughters of France.
 
 2 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 This marriage had astonished every one, and occasioned 
 much surmise to certain persons who saw clearer than others. 
 They found it difficult to understand the union of two parties 
 who hated each other so thoroughly as did, at this moment, the 
 Protestant party and the Catholic party ; and they wondered 
 how the young Prince de Conde could forgive the Due d'Anjou, 
 the King's brother, for the death of his father, assassinated at 
 Jarnac by Montesquieu. They asked how the young Due de 
 Guise could pardon Admiral de Coligny for the death of his 
 father, assassinated at Orleans by Poltrot de Mere. 
 
 Moreover, Jeanne de Navarre, the weak Antoine de Bourbon's 
 courageous wife, who had conducted her son Henry to the 
 royal marriage awaiting him, had died scarcely two months 
 before, and singular reports had been spread abroad as to her 
 sudden death. It was everywhere whispered, and in some 
 places said aloud, that she had discovered some terrible secret ; 
 and that Catharine de Medicis, fearing its disclosure, had 
 poisoned her with perfumed gloves, which had been made by a 
 man named Rene, a Florentine deeply skilled in such matters. 
 This report was the more widely spread and believed when, 
 after this great queen's death, at her son's request, two cel- 
 ebrated physicians, one of whom was the famous Ambroise 
 Pare, were instructed to open and examine the body, but not 
 the skull. As Jeanne de Navarre had been poisoned by a per- 
 fume, only the brain could show any trace of the crime (the 
 one part excluded from dissectiqn). We say crime, for no one 
 doubted that a crime had been committed. 
 
 This was not all. King Charles in particular had, with a per- 
 sistency almost approaching obstinacy, urged this marriage, 
 which not only reestablished peace in his kingdom, but also 
 attracted to Paris the principal Huguenots of France. As the 
 two betrothed belonged one to the Catholic religion and the 
 other to the reformed religion, they had been obliged to 
 obtain a dispensation from Gregory XIII., who then filled 
 the papal chair. The dispensation was slow in coming, and 
 the delay had caused the late Queen of Navarre great uneasi- 
 ness. She one day expressed to Charles IX. her fears lest the 
 dispensation should not arrive ; to which the King replied : 
 
 " Have no anxiety, my dear aunt. I honor you more than 
 I do the Pope, and I love my sister more than I fear him. I 
 am not a Huguenot, neither am I a blockhead ; and if the 
 Pope makes a fool of himself, I will myself take Margot by
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 8 
 
 the hand, and have her married to your son in some Protestant 
 meeting-house ! " 
 
 This speech was soon spread from the Louvre through the 
 city, and, while it greatly rejoiced the Huguenots, had given the 
 Catholics something to think about ; they asked one another, 
 in a whisper, if the King was really betraying them or was 
 only playing a comedy which some tine morning or evening 
 might have an unexpected ending. 
 
 Charles IX. 's conduct toward Admiral de Coligny, who for 
 five or six years had been so bitterly opposed to the King, 
 appeared particularly inexplicable; after having put on his 
 head a price of a hundred and fifty thousand golden crowns, 
 the King now swore by him, called him his father, and declared 
 openly that he should in future confide the conduct of the war 
 to him alone. To such a pitch was this carried that Catharine 
 de Medicis herself, who until then had controlled the young 
 prince's actions, will, and even desires, seemed to be growing 
 really uneasy, and not without reason ; for, in a moment of 
 confidence, Charles IX. had said to the admiral, in reference 
 to the war in Flanders, 
 
 " My father, there is one other thing against which we must 
 be on our guard that is, that the queen, my mother, who 
 likes to poke her nose everywhere, as you well know, shall learn 
 nothing of this undertaking ; we must keep it so quiet that she 
 will not have a suspicion of it, or being such a mischief-maker 
 as I know she is, she would spoil all." 
 
 Now, wise and experienced as he was, Coligny had not been 
 able to keep such an absolute secret ; and, though he had come 
 to Paris with great suspicions, and albeit at his departure from 
 Chatillon a peasant woman had thrown herself at his feet, cry- 
 ing, " Ah ! sir, our good master, do not go to Paris, for if you 
 do, you will die you and all who are with you ! " these 
 suspicions were gradually lulled in his heart, and so it was with 
 Teligny, his son-in-law, to whom the King was especially kind 
 and attentive, calling him his brother, as he called the admiral 
 his father, and addressing him with the familiar " thou," as 
 he did his best friends. 
 
 The Huguenots, excepting some few morose and suspicious 
 spirits, were therefore completely reassured. The death of 
 the Queen of Navarre passed as having been caused by 
 pleurisy, and the spacious apartments of the Louvre were filled 
 with all those gallant Protestants to whom the marriage of
 
 4 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 their young chief, Henry, promised an unexpected return of 
 good fortune. Admiral Coligny, La Rochefoucault, the young 
 Prince de Conde, Teligny, in short, all the leaders of the 
 party, were triumphant when they saw so powerful at the 
 Louvre and so welcome in Paris those whom, three months 
 before, King Charles and Queen Catharine would have hanged 
 on gibbets higher than those of assassins. 
 
 The Marechal de Montmorency was the only one who was 
 missing among all his brothers, for no promise could move him, 
 no specious appearances deceive him, and he remained secluded 
 in his chateau de 1'Isle Adam, offering as his excuse for not 
 appearing the grief which he still felt for his father, the Con- 
 stable Anne de Montmorency, who had been killed at the 
 battle of Saint Denis by a pistol-shot fired by Robert Stuart. 
 But as this had taken place more than three years before, and 
 as sensitiveness was a virtue little practised at that time, 
 this unduly protracted mourning was interpreted just as people 
 cared to interpret it. 
 
 However, everything seemed to show that the Marechal de 
 Montmorency was mistaken. The King, the Queen, the Due 
 d'Anjou, and the Due d'Alengon did the honors of the royal 
 festival with all courtesy and kindness. 
 
 The Due d'Anjou received from the Huguenots themselves 
 well-deserved compliments on the two battles of Jarnac and 
 Montcontour, which he had gained before he was eighteen 
 years of age, more precocious in that than either Caesar or 
 Alexander, to whom they compared him, of course placing the 
 conquerors of Pharsalia and the Issus as inferior to the living 
 prince. The Due d'Alengon looked on, with his bland, false 
 smile, while Queen Catharine, radiant with joy and overflow- 
 ing with honeyed phrases, congratulated Prince Henry de 
 Conde on his recent marriage with Marie de Cleves ; even the 
 Messieurs de Guise themselves smiled on the formidable 
 enemies of their house, and the Due de Mayenne discoursed 
 with M. de Tavannes and the admiral on the impending war, 
 which was now more than ever threatened against Philippe II. 
 
 In the midst of these groups a young man of about nineteen 
 years of age was walking to and fro, his head a little on one 
 side, his ear open to all that was said. He had a keen eye, 
 black hair cut very close, thick eyebrows, a nose hooked 
 like an eagle's, a sneering smile, and a growing mustache and 
 beard. This young man, who by his reckless daring had first
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 5 
 
 attracted attention at the battle of Arnay-le-Duc and was the 
 recipient of numberless compliments, was the dearly beloved 
 pupil of Coligny and the hero of the day. Three months before 
 that is to say, when his mother was still living he was 
 called the Prince de Beam, now he was called the King of 
 Navarre, afterwards he was known as Henry IV. 
 
 From time to time a swift and gloomy cloud passed over his 
 brow ; unquestionably it was at the thought that scarce had 
 two months elapsed since his mother's death, and he, less than 
 any one, doubted that she had been poisoned. But the cloud 
 was transitory, and disappeared like a fleeting shadow, for 
 they who spoke to him, they who congratulated him, they who 
 elbowed him, were the very ones who had assassinated the 
 brave, Jeanne d'Albret. 
 
 Some paces distant from the King of Navarre, almost as 
 pensive, almost as gloomy as the king pretended to be joy- 
 ous and open-hearted, was the young Due de Guise, con- 
 versing with Teligny. More fortunate than the Bearnais, at 
 two-and-twenty he had almost attained the reputation of his 
 father, Franqois, the great Due de Guise. He was an elegant 
 gentleman, very tall, with a noble and haughty look, and 
 gifted with that natural majesty which caused it to be said 
 that in comparison with him other princes seemed to belong 
 to the people. Young as he was, the Catholics looked up to 
 him as the chief of their party, as the Huguenots saw theirs 
 in Henry of Navarre, whose portrait we have just drawn. 
 At first he had borne the title of Prince de Joinville, and at 
 the siege of Orleans had fought his first battle under his 
 father, who died in his arms, denouncing Admiral Coligny as 
 his assassin. The young duke then, like Hannibal, took a 
 solemn oath to avenge his father's death on the admiral and 
 his family, and to pursue the foes to his religion without 
 truce or respite, promising God to be his destroying angel on 
 earth until the last heretic should be exterminated. So with 
 deep astonishment the people saw this prince, usually so faith- 
 ful to his word, offering his hand to those whom he had sworn 
 to hold as his eternal enemies, and talking familiarly with the 
 son-in-law of the man whose death he had promised to his 
 dying father. 
 
 But as we have said, this was an evening of astonishments. 
 
 Indeed, an observer privileged to be present at this festival, 
 endowed with the knowledge of the future which is fortu-
 
 6 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 nately hidden from men, and with that power of reading men's 
 hearts which unfortunately belongs only to God, would have 
 certainly enjoyed the strangest spectacle to be found in all 
 the annals of the melancholy human comedy. 
 
 But this observer who was absent from the inner courts of 
 the Louvre was to be found in the streets gazing with flashing 
 eyes and breaking out into loud threats ; this observer was the 
 people, who, with its marvellous instinct made keener by hatred, 
 watched from afar the shadows of its implacable enemies and 
 translated the impressions they made with as great clearness 
 as an inquisitive person can do before the windows of a her- 
 metically sealed ball-room. The music intoxicates and governs 
 the dancers, but the inquisitive person sees only the movement 
 and laughs at the puppet jumping about without reason, be- 
 cause the inquisitive person hears no music. 
 
 The music that intoxicated the Huguenots was the voice of 
 their pride. 
 
 The gleams which caught the eyes of the Parisians that 
 midnight were the lightning flashes of their hatred illuminat- 
 ing the future. 
 
 And meantime everything was still festive within, and a 
 murmur softer and more flattering than ever was at this mo- 
 ment pervading the Louvre, for the youthful bride, having 
 laid aside her toilet of ceremony, her long mantle and flow- 
 ing veil, had just returned to the ball-room, accompanied by 
 the lovely Duchesse de Nevers, her most intimate friend, and 
 led by her brother, Charles IX., who presented her to the 
 principal guests. 
 
 The bride was the daughter of Henry II., was the pearl of 
 the crown of France, was MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, whom in 
 his familiar tenderness for her King Charles IX. always 
 called "ma sceur Margot" "my sister Margot." 
 
 Assuredly never was any welcome, however flattering, more 
 richly deserved than that which the new Queen of Navarre 
 was at this moment receiving. Marguerite at this period 
 was scarcely twenty, and she was already the object of all the 
 poets' eulogies, some of whom compared her to Aurora, others 
 to Cytherea ; she was, in truth, a beauty without rival in that 
 court in which Catharine de Medicis had assembled the loveli- 
 est women she could find, to make of them her sirens. 
 
 Marguerite had black hair and a brilliant complexion ; a 
 voluptuous eye, veiled by long lashes ; delicate coral lips ; a
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 7 
 
 slender neck ; a graceful, opulent figure, and concealed in a 
 satin slipper a tiny foot. The French, who possessed her, were 
 proud to see such a lovely flower flourishing in their soil, and 
 foreigners who passed through France returned home dazzled 
 with her beauty if they had but seen her, and amazed at her 
 knowledge if they had discoursed with her ; for Marguerite was 
 not only the loveliest, she was also the most erudite woman of 
 her time, and every one was quoting the remark of an Italian 
 scholar who had been presented to her, and who, after having 
 conversed with her for an hour in Italian, Spanish, Latin, and 
 Greek, had gone away saying : 
 
 " To see the court without seeing Marguerite de Valois is 
 to see neither France nor the court." 
 
 Thus addresses to King Charles JX. and the Queen of 
 Navarre were not wanting. It is well known that the Hugue- 
 nots were great hands at addresses. Many allusions to the 
 past, many hints as to the future, were adroitly slipped into 
 these harangues ; but to all such allusions and speeches the 
 King replied, with his pale lips and artificial smiles : 
 
 "In giving my sister Margot to Henry of Navarre, I give 
 my sister to all the Protestants of the kingdom." 
 
 This phrase assured some and made others smile, for it had 
 really a double sense : the one paternal, with which Charles 
 IX. would not load his mind; the other insulting to the 
 bride, to her husband, and also to him who said it, for it recalled 
 some scandalous rumors with which the chroniclers of the 
 court had already found means to smirch the nuptial robe of 
 Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 However, M. de Guise was conversing, as we have said, 
 with Teligny ; but he did not pay to the conversation such sus- 
 tained attention but that he turned away somewhat, from time 
 to time, to cast a glance at the group of ladies, in the centre of 
 whom glittered the Queen of Navarre. When the princess's 
 eye thus met that of the young duke, a cloud seemed to over- 
 spread that lovely brow, around which stars of diamonds 
 formed a tremulous halo, and some agitating thought might be 
 divined in her restless and impatient manner. 
 
 The Princess Claude, Marguerite's eldest sister, who had 
 been for some years married to the Due de Lorraine, had 
 observed this uneasiness, and was going up to her to inquire 
 the cause, when all stood aside at the approach of the queen 
 mother, who came forward, leaning on the arm of the young
 
 8 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Prince de Conde, and the princess was thus suddenly separated 
 from her sister. There was a general movement, by which 
 the Due de Guise profited to approach Madame de Nevers, 
 his sister-in-law, and Marguerite. 
 
 Madame de Lorraine, who had not lost sight of her sister, 
 then remarked, instead of the cloud which she had before 
 observed on her forehead, a burning blush come into her 
 cheeks. The duke approached still nearer, and when he was 
 within two steps of Marguerite, she appeared rather to feel 
 than see his presence, and turned round, making a violent 
 effort over herself in order to give her features an appearance 
 of calmness and indifference. The duke, then respectfully 
 bowing, murmured in a low tone, 
 
 " Ipse attuli." 
 
 That meant : " I have brought it, or brought it myself." 
 
 Marguerite returned the young duke's bow, and as she 
 straightened herself, replied, in the same tone, 
 
 " Noctu pro more." 
 
 That meant : " To-night, as usual." 
 
 These soft words, absorbed by the enormous collar which 
 the princess wore, as in the bell of a speaking-trumpet, were 
 heard only by the person to whom they were addressed ; but 
 brief as had been the conference, it doubtless composed all 
 the young couple had to say, for after this exchange of two 
 words for three, they separated, Marguerite more thoughtful 
 and the duke with his brow less clouded than when they met. 
 This little scene took place without the person most interested 
 appearing to remark it, for the King of Navarre had eyes but 
 for one lady, and she had around her a suite almost as numer- 
 ous as that which followed Marguerite de Valois. This was 
 the beautiful Madame de Sauve. 
 
 Charlotte de Beaune Semblangay, granddaughter of the 
 unfortunate Semblanqay, and wife of Simon de Fizes, Baron 
 de Sauve, was one of the ladies-in-waiting to Catharine 
 de Medicis, and one of the most redoubtable auxiliaries of 
 this queen, who poured forth to her enemies love-philtres 
 when she dared not pour out Florentine poison. Delicately 
 fair, and by turns sparkling with vivacity or languishing in 
 melancholy, always ready for love and intrigue, the two great 
 occupations which for fifty years employed the court of the 
 three succeeding kings, a woman in every acceptation of the 
 word and in all the charm of the idea, from the blue eye
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 9 
 
 languishing or flashing with fire to the small rebellious feet 
 arched in their velvet slippers, Madame de Sauve had already 
 for some months taken complete possession of every faculty 
 of the King of Navarre, then beginning his career as a lover 
 as well as a politician ; thus it was that Marguerite de Valois, 
 a magnificent and royal beauty, had not even excited admira- 
 tion in her husband's heart ; and what was more strange, 
 and astonished all the world, even from a soul so full of dark- 
 ness and mystery, Catharine de Medicis, while she prosecuted 
 her project of union between her daughter and the King of 
 Navarre, had not ceased to favor almost openly his amour 
 with Madame de Sauve. But despite this powerful aid, and 
 despite the easy manners of the age, the lovely Charlotte had 
 hitherto resisted ; and this resistance, unheard of, incredible, 
 unprecedented, even more than the beauty and wit of her who 
 resisted, had excited in the heart of the Bearnais a passion 
 which, unable to satisfy itself, had destroyed in the young 
 king's heart all timidity, pride, and even that carelessness, 
 half philosophic, half indolent, which formed the basis of his 
 character. 
 
 Madame de Sauve had been only a few minutes in the ball- 
 room ; from spite or grief she had at first resolved on not 
 being present at her rival's triumph, and under the pretext of 
 an indisposition had allowed her husband, who had been for 
 five years secretary of state, to go alone to the Louvre ; but 
 when Catharine de Medicis saw the baron without his wife, 
 she asked the cause that kept her dear Charlotte away, and 
 when she found that the indisposition was but slight, she 
 wrote a few words to her, which the lady hastened to obey. 
 Henry, sad as he had at first been at her absence, had yet 
 breathed more freely when he saw M. de Sauve enter alone ; 
 but just as he was about to pay some court to the charming 
 creature whom he was condemned, if not to love, at least to 
 treat as his wife, he unexpectedly saw Madame de Sauve arise 
 from the farther end of the gallery. He remained stationary 
 on the spot, his eyes fastened on the Circe who enthralled him 
 as if by magic chains, and instead of proceeding towards his 
 wife, by a movement of hesitation which betrayed more aston- 
 ishment than alarm he advanced to meet Madame de Sauve. 
 
 The courtiers, seeing the King of Navarre, whose inflamma- 
 ble heart they knew, approach the beautiful Charlotte, had 
 not the courage to prevent their meeting, but drew aside com-
 
 10 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 plaisantly ; so that at the very moment when Marguerite de 
 Valois and Monsieur de Guise exchanged the few words in 
 Latin which we have noted above, Henry, having approached 
 Madame de Sauve, began, in very intelligible French, al- 
 though with somewhat of a Gascon accent, a conversation by 
 no means so mysterious. 
 
 " Ah, ma mie ! " he said, " you have, then, come at the very 
 moment when they assured me that you were ill, and I had 
 lost all hope of seeing you." 
 
 " Would your majesty perhaps wish me to believe that it 
 had cost you something to lose this hope ? " replied Madame 
 de Sauve. 
 
 " By Heaven ! I believe it ! " replied the Bearnais ; " know 
 you not that you are my sun by day and my star by night ? 
 By my faith, I was in deepest darkness till you appeared and 
 suddenly illumined all." 
 
 " Then, monseigneur, I serve you a very ill turn." 
 
 " What do you. mean, ma mie ? " inquired Henry. 
 
 " I mean that he who is master of the handsomest woman 
 in France should only have one desire that the light should 
 disappear and give way to darkness, for happiness awaits you 
 in the darkness." 
 
 " You know, cruel one, that my happiness is in the hands of 
 one woman only, and that she laughs at poor Henry." 
 
 " Oh ! " replied the baroness, " I believed, on the contrary, 
 that it was this person who was the sport and jest of the King 
 of Navarre." Henry was alarmed at this hostile attitude, 
 and yet he bethought him that it betrayed jealous spite, and 
 that jealous spite is only the mask of love. 
 
 " Indeed, dear Charlotte, you reproach me very unjustly, and 
 I do not comprehend how so lovely a mouth can be so cruel. 
 Do you suppose for a moment that it is I who give myself in 
 marriage ? No, venire, saint gris, it is not I ! " 
 
 " It is I, perhaps," said the baroness, sharply, if ever the 
 voice of the woman who loves us and reproaches us for not 
 loving her can seem sharp. 
 
 " With your lovely eyes have you not seen farther, baron- 
 ess ? No, no ; Henry of Navarre is not marrying Marguerite 
 de Valois." 
 
 " And who, pray, is ? " 
 
 " Why, by Heaven ! it is the reformed religion marrying 
 the pope that 's all."
 
 MONSIEUR DE GUISE'S LATIN. 11 
 
 " No, no, I cannot be deceived by your jests. Monseigneur 
 loves Madame Marguerite. And can I blame you ? Heaven 
 forbid ! She is beautiful enough to be adored.'' 
 
 Henry reflected for a moment, and, as he reflected, a mean- 
 ing smile curled the corner of his lips. 
 
 " Baroness," said he, " you seem to be seeking a quarrel 
 with me, but you have no right to do so. What have you 
 done to prevent me from marrying Madame Marguerite ? 
 Nothing. On the contrary, you have always driven me to 
 despair." 
 
 "And well for me that I have, monseigneur," replied 
 Madame de Sauve. 
 
 " How so ? " 
 
 " Why, of course, because you are marrying another 
 woman ! " 
 
 " I marry her because you love me not." 
 
 " If I had loved you, sire, I must have died in an hour." 
 
 " In an hour ? What do you mean ? And of what death 
 would you have died ? " 
 
 "Of jealousy ! for in an hour the Queen of Navarre will 
 send away her women, and your majesty your gentlemen." 
 
 " Is that really the thought that is uppermost in your mind, 
 ma mie ? " 
 
 " I did not say so. I only say, that if I loved you it would 
 be uppermost in my mind most tormentingly." 
 
 " Very well," said Henry, at the height of joy on hearing 
 this confession, the first which she had made to him, " suppose 
 the King of Navarre should not send away his gentlemen 
 this evening ? " 
 
 " Sire," replied Madame de Sauve, looking at the king with 
 astonishment for once unfeigned, " you say things impossible 
 and incredible." 
 
 " What must I do to make you believe them ? " 
 
 " Give me a proof and that proof you cannot give me." 
 
 " Yes, baroness, yes ! By Saint Henry, I will give it you ! " 
 exclaimed the king, gazing at the young woman with eyes hot 
 with love. 
 
 " Oh, your majesty ! " exclaimed the lovely Charlotte in an 
 undertone and with downcast eyes, " I do not understand No ! 
 no, it is impossible for you to turn your back on the happiness 
 awaiting you." 
 
 " There are four Henrys in this room, my adorable ! "
 
 12 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 replied the king, " Henry de France, Henry de Conde, Henry 
 de Guise, but there is only one Henry of Navarre." 
 Well ? " 
 " Well ; if this Henry of Navarre is with you all night " 
 
 All night ! " 
 
 " Yes ; will that be a certain proof to you that he is not with 
 any other ? " 
 
 " Ah ! if you do that, sire," cried Madame Sauve. 
 
 " On the honor of a gentleman I will do it ! " 
 
 Madame de Sauve raised her great eyes dewy with volup- 
 tuous promises and looked at the king, whose heart was filled 
 with an intoxicating joy. 
 
 " And then," said Henry, " what will you say ? " 
 
 "I will say," replied Charlotte, "that your majesty really 
 loves me." 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! then you shall say it, baroness, for it is 
 true." 
 
 " But how can you manage it ? " murmured Madame de 
 Sauve. 
 
 " Oh ! by Heaven ! baroness, have you not about you some 
 waiting-woman, some girl whom you can trust ? " 
 
 " Yes, Dariole is so devoted to me that she would let herself 
 be cut in pieces for me ; she is a real treasure." 
 
 " By Heaven ! then say to her that I will make her fortune 
 when I am King of France, as the astrologers prophesy." 
 
 Charlotte smiled, for even at this period the Gascon reputa- 
 tion of the Bearnais was already established with respect to 
 his promises. 
 
 " Well, then, what do you want Dariole to do ? " 
 
 " Little for her, a great deal for me. Your apartment is 
 over mine ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Let her wait behind the door. I will knock gently three 
 times ; she will open the door, and you will have the proof 
 that I have promised you." 
 
 Madame de Sauve kept silence for several seconds, and then, 
 as if she had looked around her to observe if she were over- 
 heard, she fastened her gaze for a moment on the group clus- 
 tering around the queen mother ; brief as the moment was, it 
 was sufficient for Catharine and her lady-in-waiting to ex- 
 change a look. 
 
 " Oh, if I were inclined," said Madame de Suave, with a
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 13 
 
 siren's accent that would have melted the wax in Ulysses' ears, 
 " if I were inclined to make your majesty tell a falsehood " 
 
 " Ma mie, try " 
 
 "Ah, mafoif I confess I am tempted to do so." 
 
 " Give in ! Women are never so strong as after they are 
 defeated." 
 
 " Sire, I hold you to your promise for Dariole when you 
 shall be King of France." 
 
 Henry uttered an exclamation of joy. 
 
 At the precise moment when this cry escaped the lips of the 
 Bearnais, the Queen of Navarre was replying to the Due de 
 Guise : 
 
 " Noctu pro more to-night as usual." 
 
 Then Henry turned away from Madame de Suave as happy as 
 the Due de Guise had been when he left Marguerite de Valois. 
 
 An hour after the double scene we have just related, King 
 Charles and the queen mother retired to their apartments. 
 Almost immediately the rooms began to empty ; the galleries 
 exhibited the bases of their marble columns. The admiral and 
 the Prince de Conde were escorted home by four hundred Hu- 
 guenot gentlemen through the middle of the crowd, which 
 hooted as they passed. Then Henry de Guise, with the Lor- 
 raine gentlemen and the Catholics, left in their turn, greeted 
 by cries of joy and plaudits of the people. 
 
 But Marguerite de Valois, Henry de Navarre, and Madame 
 de Sauve lived in the Louvre. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVABBE's BEDCHAMBER. 
 
 THE Due de Guise escorted his sister-in-law, the Duchess de 
 Nevers, to her hotel in the Rue du Chaume, facing the Rue de 
 Brae, and after he had put her into the hands of her women, he 
 went to his own apartment to change his dress, put on a night 
 cloak, and armed himself with one of those short, keen pon- 
 iards which are called " foi de gentil/wmme," and were worn 
 without swords ; but as he took it off the table on which it lay, 
 he perceived a small billet between the blade and the scabbard. 
 
 He opened it, and read as follows :
 
 14 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 11 1 hope M. de Guise will not return to the Louvre to-night ; 
 or if he does, that he will at least take the precaution to arm 
 himself with a good coat of mail and a proved sword." 
 
 "Aha!" said the duke, addressing his valet, "this is a 
 singular warning, Maitre Robin. Now be kind enough to tell 
 me who has been here during my absence." 
 
 " Only one person, monseigneur." 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 " Monsieur du Gast." 
 
 " Aha ! In fact, methinks I recognize the handwriting. And 
 you are sure that Du Gast came ? You saw him ? " 
 
 " More than that, monseigneur ; I spoke with him." 
 
 " Very good ; then I will follow his advice my steel 
 jacket and my sword." 
 
 The valet, accustomed to these changes of costume, brought 
 both. The duke put on his jacket, which was made of rings 
 of steel so fine that it was scarcely thicker than velvet; he 
 then drew on over his coat of mail his small clothes and a 
 doublet of gray and silver, his favorite colors, put on a pair 
 of long boots which reached to the middle of his thighs, cov- 
 ered his head with a velvet toque unadorned with feathers 
 or precious stones, threw over his shoulders a dark-colored 
 cloak, hung a dagger by his side, handed his sword to a page, 
 the only attendant he allowed to accompany him, and took the 
 way to the Louvre. 
 
 As he went down the steps of the hotel, the watchman of 
 Saint Germain FAuxerrois had just announced one o'clock in 
 the morning. 
 
 Though the night was far gone and the streets at this time 
 were very far from safe, no accident befell the adventurous 
 prince on the way, and safe and sound he approached the 
 colossal mass of the ancient Louvre, all the lights of which 
 had been extinguished one after the other, so that it rose por- 
 tentous in its silence and darkness. 
 
 In front of the royal chateau was a deep fosse, looking into 
 which were the chambers of most of the princes who inhabited 
 the palace. Marguerite's apartment was on the first floor. 
 But this first floor, easily accessible but for the fosse, was, in 
 consequence of the depth to which that was cut, thirty feet 
 from the bottom of the wall, and consequently out of the reach 
 of robbers or lovers ; nevertheless the Due de Guise approached 
 it without hesitation.
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 15 
 
 At the same moment was heard the noise of a window 
 which opened on the ground floor. This window was grated, 
 but a hand appeared, lifted out one of the bars which had 
 been loosened, and dropped from it a silken lace. 
 
 " Is that you, Gillonne ? " said the duke, in a low voice. 
 
 "Yes, monseigneur," replied a woman's voice, in a still 
 lower tone. 
 
 " And Marguerite ? " 
 
 " Is waiting for you." 
 
 " 'T is well." 
 
 Hereupon the duke made a signal to his page, who, opening 
 his cloak, took out a small rope ladder. The prince fastened 
 one end to the silk lace, and Gillonne, drawing it up, tied it 
 securely. Then the prince, after having buckled his sword to 
 his belt, ascended without accident. When he had entered, 
 the bar was replaced and the window closed, while the page, 
 having seen his master quietly enter the Louvre, to the windows 
 of which he had accompanied him twenty times in the same 
 way, laid himself down in his cloak on the grass of the fosse, 
 beneath the shadow of the wall. 
 
 The night was extremely dark, and large drops of warm rain 
 were falling from the heavy clouds charged with electric fluid. 
 
 The Due de Guise followed his guide, who was no other 
 than the daughter of Jacques de Matignon, marechal of 
 France. She was the especial confidante of Marguerite, who 
 kept no secret from her ; and it was said that among the 
 number of mysteries entrusted to her incorruptible fidelity, 
 there were some so terrible as to compel her to keep the rest. 
 
 There was no light left either in the low rooms or in the 
 corridors, only from time to time a livid glare illuminated the 
 dark apartments with a vivid flash, which as instantly dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 The duke, still guided by his conductress, who held his hand, 
 reached a staircase built in the thick wall, and opening by a 
 secret and invisible door into the antechamber of Marguerite's 
 apartment. 
 
 In this antechamber, which like all the other lower rooms 
 was perfectly dark, Gillonne stopped. 
 
 " Have you brought what the queen requested ? " she in- 
 quired, in a low voice. 
 
 " Yes," replied the Due de Guise ; " but I will give it only 
 to her majesty in person."
 
 16 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Come, then, and do not lose an instant ! " said a voice 
 from the darkness, which made the duke start, for he recog- 
 nized it as Marguerite's. 
 
 At the same moment a curtain of violet velvet covered with 
 golden fleurs-de-lis was raised, and the duke made out the form 
 of the queen, who in her impatience had come to meet him. 
 
 " I am here, madame," he then said ; and he passed the 
 curtain, which fell behind him. So Marguerite de Valois her- 
 self now became the prince's guide, leading him into the 
 room which, however, he knew already, while Gillonne, stand- 
 ing at the door, had raised her finger to her lips and reassured 
 her royal mistress. 
 
 As if she understood the duke's jealous apprehensions, Mar- 
 guerite led him to the bedchamber, and there paused. 
 
 " Well," she said, " are you satisfied, duke ? " 
 
 " Satisfied, madame ? " was the reply, " and with what ? " 
 
 '"Of the proof I give you," retorted Marguerite, with a 
 slight tone of vexation in her voice, " that I belong to a man 
 who, on the very night of his marriage, makes me of such 
 small importance that he does not even come to thank me for 
 the honor I have done him, not in selecting, but in accepting 
 him for my husband." 
 
 " Oh ! madame," said the duke, sorrowfully, " be assured he 
 will come if you desire it." 
 
 " And do you say that, Henry ? " cried Marguerite ; " you, 
 who better than any know the contrary of what you say ? If 
 I had that desire, should I have asked you to come to the 
 Louvre ? " 
 
 " You have asked me to come to the Louvre, Marguerite, 
 because you are anxious to destroy every vestige of our past, 
 and because that past lives not only in my memory, but in 
 this silver casket which I bring to you. 
 
 " Henry, shall I say one thing to you ? " replied Mar- 
 guerite, gazing earnestly at the duke ; " it is that you are more 
 like a schoolboy than a prince. I deny that I have loved you ! 
 I desire to quench a flame which will die, perhaps, but the 
 reflection of which will never die ! For the loves of persons of 
 my rank illumine and frequently devour the whole epoch 
 contemporary with them. No, no, duke ; you may keep the 
 letters of your Marguerite, and the casket she has given you. 
 She asks but one of these letters, and that only because it is 
 as dangerous for you as for herself."
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 17 
 
 " It is all yours," said the duke. " Take the one that you 
 wish to destroy." 
 
 Marguerite searched anxiously in the open casket, and with 
 a tremulous hand took, one after the other, a dozen letters, 
 only the addresses of which she examined, as if by merely 
 glancing at these she could recall to her memory what the 
 letters themselves contained ; but after a close scrutiny she 
 looked at the duke, pale and agitated. 
 
 " Sir," she said, " what I seek is not here. Can you have 
 lost it, by any accident ? for if it should fall into the hands 
 of"- 
 
 " What letter do you seek, madame ? " 
 
 " That in which I told you to marry without delay." 
 
 " As an excuse for your infidelity ? " 
 
 Marguerite shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " No ; but to save your life. The one in which I told you 
 that the king, seeing our love and my exertions to break off 
 your proposed marriage with the Infanta of Portugal, had 
 sent for his brother, the Bastard of Angoulgme, and said to 
 him, poin'ting to two swords, ' With this slay Henry de Guise 
 tliis night, or with the other I will slay thee in the morning ' 
 that letter ? " 
 ' said the duke, drawing it from his breast. 
 
 Marguerite almost snatched it from his hands, opened it 
 anxiously, assured herself that it was really the one she desired, 
 uttered an exclamation of joy, and applying the lighted candle 
 to it, the flames instantly consumed the paper; then, as if 
 Marguerite feared that her imprudent words might be read in 
 the very ashes, she trampled them under foot. 
 
 During all this the Due de G-uise had watched his mistress 
 attentively. 
 
 " Well, Marguerite," he said, when she had finished, " are 
 you satisfied now ? " 
 
 "Yes, for now that you have wedded the Princesse de 
 Porcian, my brother will forgive me your love ; while he 
 would never have pardoned me for revealing a secret such as 
 that which in my weakness for you I had not the strength to 
 conceal from you." 
 
 " True," replied De Guise, " then you loved me." 
 
 " And I love you still, Henry, as much more than ever ! " 
 
 You " 
 
 " I do ; for never more than at this moment did I need a
 
 18 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 sincere and devoted friend. Queen, I have no throne : wife, I 
 have no husband ! " 
 
 The young prince shook his head sorrowfully. 
 
 " I tell you, I repeat to you, Henry, that my husband not only 
 does not love me, but hates despises me ; besides, methinks, 
 your presence in the chamber in which he ought to be is proof 
 enough of this hatred, this contempt." 
 
 " It is not yet late, madame, and the King of Navarre 
 requires time to dismiss his gentlemen ; and if he has not 
 already come, it will not be long before he is here." 
 
 " And I tell you," cried Marguerite, with increasing vexa- 
 tion, " I tell you that he will not come ! " 
 
 " Madame ! " exclaimed Gillonne, opening the door and rais- 
 ing the portiere, " the King of Navarre is just leaving his 
 apartment ! " 
 
 " Oh, I knew he would come ! " exclaimed the Due de Guise. 
 
 " Henry," said Marguerite, in a quick tone, and seizing the 
 duke's hand, " Henry, you shall see if I am a woman of my 
 word, and if what I have once promised may be relied on. 
 Henry, enter that closet." 
 
 " Madame, allow me to go while there is still time, for re- 
 flect that the first mark of love he bestows on you, I shall 
 leave the cabinet, and then woe to him ! " 
 
 " You are mad ! go in go in, I say, and I will be respon- 
 sible for all." 
 
 And she pushed the duke into the closet. 
 
 It was time. 'The door was scarcely closed behind the 
 prince when the King of Navarre, escorted by two pages, who 
 carried eight flambeaux of yellow wax in two candelabra, ap- 
 peared, smiling, on the threshold of the chamber. 
 
 Marguerite concealed her nervousness by making a very low 
 courtesy. 
 
 " You are not yet in bed, madame," observed the Bearnais, 
 with his frank and joyous look. " Were you by chance wait- 
 ing for me ? " 
 
 " No, sire," replied Marguerite ; " for yesterday you repeated 
 to me that you understood our marriage was a political alliance, 
 and that you would never thwart my wishes." 
 
 " Assuredly ; but that is no reason why we should not confer 
 a little together. Gillonne, close the door and leave us." 
 
 Marguerite, who was sitting, then rose and extended her 
 hand, as if to desire the pages to remain.
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 19 
 
 "Must I call your women ? " inquired the king. " I will do 
 so, if such be your desire, although I confess that what I have 
 to say to you would make me prefer our being alone." 
 
 And the King of Navarre advanced toward the closet. 
 
 "No!" exclaimed Marguerite, hastily going before him; 
 " no there is no occasion for that ; I am ready to hear you." 
 
 The Bearnais had learned what he desired to know he 
 threw a rapid and penetrating glance toward the cabinet, as if, 
 in spite of the portiere which hung before it, he would force 
 bis way into its darkest depths, and then, turning his looks to 
 his lovely wife, pale with terror, he said with the utmost com- 
 posure : 
 
 " In that case, madame, let us confer for a few moments." 
 
 " As your majesty pleases," said the lady, falling into, rather 
 than sitting upon, the seat which her husband pointed out to her. 
 
 The Bearnais placed himself beside her. 
 
 " Madame," he continued, " whatever many persons may 
 have said, I think our marriage is a good marriage. I stand 
 well with you you stand well with me." 
 
 " But " said Marguerite, alarmed. 
 
 " Consequently," observed the King of Navarre, seeming not 
 to notice Marguerite's hesitancy, " we ought to treat each other 
 like good allies, since we were to-day allied in the presence of 
 God. Don't you think so ? " 
 
 " Unquestionably, sire." 
 
 " I know, madame, how great your penetration is ; I know 
 how the ground at court is intersected with dangerous abysses. 
 Now I am young, and although I never injured any one, I 
 have a great many enemies. In which camp, madame, ought I 
 to range her who bears my name, and who has vowed her 
 affection to me at the foot of the altar ? " 
 
 " Sire, could you think " 
 
 " I think nothing, madame ; I hope, and I am anxious to 
 know that my hope is well founded. It is certain that our 
 marriage is merely a pretext or a snare." 
 
 Marguerite started, for perchance the same thought had 
 occurred to her own mind. 
 
 " Now, then, which of the two ? " continued Henry of Na- 
 varre. " The King hates me, the Due d'Anjou hates me, 
 the Due d'Alenqon hates me, Catharine de Medicis hated my 
 mother too much not to hate me." 
 
 " Oh, sire, what are you saying ? "
 
 20 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " The truth, madame," replied the king ; " and in order that 
 it may not be supposed that I am deceived as to Monsieur 
 de Mouy's assassination and the poisoning of my mother, I 
 wish that some one were here who could hear me." 
 
 " Oh, sire," replied Marguerite, with an air as calm and 
 smiling as she could assume, " you know very well that there 
 is no person here but you and myself." 
 
 "It is for that very reason that I thus give vent to my 
 thoughts ; this it is that emboldens me to declare that I am 
 not deceived by the caresses showered on me by the House of 
 France or the House of Lorraine." 
 
 " Sire, sire ! " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 
 " Well, what is it, ma mie ? " inquired Henry, smiling in his 
 turn. 
 
 " Why, sire, such remarks are very dangerous." 
 
 "Not when we are alone," observed the king. "I was 
 saying " 
 
 Marguerite was evidently distressed ; she desired to stop 
 every word the king uttered, but he continued, with his 
 apparent good nature : 
 
 " I was telling you that I was threatened on all sides : 
 threatened by the King, threatened .by the Due d'Alenqon, 
 threatened by the Due d'Anjou, threatened by the queen 
 mother, threatened by the Due de Guise, by the Due de 
 Mayenne, by the Cardinal de Lorraine threatened, in fact, 
 by every one. One feels that instinctively, as you know, 
 madame. Well, against all these threats, which must soon 
 become attacks, I can defend myself by your aid, for you are 
 beloved by all the persons who detest me." 
 
 " I ? " said Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes, you," replied Henry, with the utmost ease of man- 
 ner ; " yes, you are beloved by King Charles, you are beloved " 
 (he laid strong emphasis on the word) "by the Due d'Alengon, 
 you are beloved by Queen Catharine, and you are beloved by 
 the Due de Guise." 
 
 " Sire ! " murmured Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes ; and what is there astonishing in the fact that every 
 one loves you ? All I have mentioned are your brothers or 
 relatives. To love one's brothers and relatives is to live ac- 
 cording to God's heart." 
 
 " But what, then," asked Marguerite, greatly overcome, 
 " what do you mean ? "
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 21 
 
 "What I have just said, that if you will be I do not 
 mean my love but my ally, I can brave everything ; while, 
 on the other hand, if you become my enemy, I am lost." 
 
 " Oh, your enemy ! never, sir ! " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 
 " And my love never either ? " 
 
 " Perhaps " - 
 
 " And my ally ? " 
 
 " Most decidedly." 
 
 And Marguerite turned round and offered her hand to the 
 king. 
 
 Henry took it, kissed it gallantly, and retaining it in his 
 own, more from a desire of investigation than from any senti- 
 ment of tenderness, said : 
 
 " Very well, I believe you, madame, and accept the alli- 
 ance. They married us without our knowing each other 
 without our loving each other ; they married us without con- 
 sulting us us whom they united. We therefore owe noth- 
 ing to each other as man and wife ; you see that I even go 
 beyond your wishes and confirm this evening what I said to 
 you yesterday ; but we ally ourselves freely and without any 
 compulsion. We ally ourselves, as two loyal hearts who owe 
 each other mutual protection should ally themselves; 'tis as 
 such you understand it ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Marguerite, endeavoring to withdraw her 
 hand. 
 
 " Well, then," continued the Bearnais, with his eyes fastened 
 on the door of the cabinet, " as the first proof of a frank alli- 
 ance is the most perfect confidence, I will now relate to you, 
 madame, in all its details, the plan I have formed in order that 
 we may victoriously meet and overcome all these enmities." 
 
 " Sire " said Marguerite, in spite of herself turning her 
 eyes toward the closet, whilst the Bearnais, seeing his trick 
 succeed, laughed in his sleeve. 
 
 " This is what I mean to do," he continued, without appear- 
 ing to remark his young wife's nervousness, " I intend " 
 
 " Sire," said Marguerite, rising hastily, and seizing the king's 
 arm, " allow me a little breath ; my emotion the heat 
 overpowers me." 
 
 And, in truth, Marguerite was as pale and trembling as if 
 she was about to fall on the carpet. 
 
 Henry went straight to a window some distance off, and 
 opened it. This window looked out on the river.
 
 22 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Marguerite followed him. 
 
 " Silence, sire, silence, for your own sake ! " she mur- 
 mured. 
 
 " What, madame," said the Bearnais, with his peculiar 
 smile, " did you not tell me we were alone ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire ; but did you not hear me say that by the aid of 
 a tube introduced into the ceiling or the wall everything could 
 be heard ? " 
 
 " Well, madame, well," said the Bearnais, earnestly and in 
 a low voice, " it is true you do not love me, but you are, at 
 least, honorable." 
 
 " What do you mean, sire ? " 
 
 " I mean that if you were capable of betraying me, you 
 would have allowed me to go on, as I was betraying myself. 
 You stopped me I now know that some one is concealed 
 here that you are an unfaithful wife, but a faithful ally ; 
 and just now, I confess, I have more need of fidelity in poli- 
 tics than in love." 
 
 " Sire ! " replied Marguerite, confused. 
 
 " Good, good ; we will talk of this hereafter," said Henry, 
 " when we know each other better." 
 
 Then, raising his voice " Well," he continued, " do you 
 breathe more freely now, madame ? " 
 
 "Yes, sire, yes!" 
 
 " Well, then," said the Bearnais, " I will no longer intrude 
 on you. I owed you my respects, and some advances toward 
 better acquaintance ; deign, then, to accept them, as they are 
 offered, with all my heart. Good-night, and happy slumbers ! " 
 
 Marguerite raised her eyes, shining with gratitude, and 
 offered her husband her hand. 
 
 " It is agreed," she said. 
 
 " Political alliance, frank and loyal ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " Frank and loyal," was the reply. 
 
 And the Bearnais went toward the door, followed by 
 Marguerite's look as if she were fascinated. Then, when the 
 curtain had fallen between them and the bedchamber : 
 
 " Thanks, Marguerite," he said, in a quick low tone, 
 " thanks ! You are a true daughter of France. I leave you 
 quite tranquil : lacking your love, your friendship will not fail 
 me. I rely on you, as you, on your side, may rely on me. 
 Adieu, madame." 
 
 And Henry kissed his wife's hand, and pressed it gently.
 
 THE QUEEN OF NAVARRE'S BEDCHAMBER. 23 
 
 Then with a quick step he returned to his own apartment, 
 saying to himself, in a low voice, in the corridor : 
 
 " Who the devil is with her ? Is it the King, or the Due 
 d'Anjou, or the Due d'Alenqon, or the Due de Guise ? is it a 
 brother or a lover ? is it both ? I' faith, I am almost sorry 
 now I asked the baroness for this rendezvous ; but, as my word 
 is pledged, and Dariole is waiting for me no matter. 
 Yet, venire saint gris ! this Margot, as my brother-in-law, King 
 Charles, calls her, is an adorable creature." 
 
 And with a step which betrayed a slight hesitation, Henry 
 of Navarre ascended the staircase which led to Madame de 
 Sauve's apartments. 
 
 Marguerite had followed him with her eyes until he disap- 
 peared. Then she returned to her chamber, and found the 
 duke at the door of the cabinet. The sight of him almost 
 touched her with remorse. 
 
 The duke was grave, and his knitted brow bespoke bitter 
 reflection. 
 
 " Marguerite is neutral to-day," he said ; " in a week Mar- 
 guerite will be hostile." 
 
 " Ah ! you have been listening ? " said Marguerite. 
 
 " What else could I do in the cabinet ? " 
 
 " And did you find that I behaved otherwise than the Queen 
 of Navarre should behave ? " 
 
 " No ; but differently from the way in which the mistress of 
 the Due de Guise should behave." 
 
 " Sir," replied the queen, " I may not love my husband, but 
 no one has the right to require me to betray him. Tell me 
 honestly : would you reveal the secrets of the Princesse de 
 Porcian, your wife ? " 
 
 "Come, come, madame," answered the duke, shaking his 
 head, " this is very well ; I see that you do not love me as in 
 those days when you disclosed to me the plot of the King against 
 me and my party." 
 
 " The King was strong and you were weak ; Henry is weak 
 and you are strong. You see I always play a consistent part." 
 
 " Only you pass from one camp to another." 
 
 " That was a right I acquired, sir, in saving your life." 
 
 " Good, madame ; and as when lovers separate, they return 
 all the gifts that have passed between them, I will save your 
 life, in my turn, if ever the need arises, and we shall be 
 quits."
 
 24 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 And the duke bowed and left the room, nor did Marguerite 
 attempt to retain him. 
 
 In the antechamber he found Gillonne, who guided him to 
 the window on the ground floor, and in the fosse he found his 
 page, with whom he returned to the Hotel de Guise. 
 
 Marguerite, in a dreamy mood, went to the opened window. 
 
 " What a marriage night ! " she murmured to herself ; " the 
 husband flees from me the lover forsakes me ! " 
 
 At that moment, coming from the Tour de Bois, and going 
 up toward the Moulin de la Monnaie, on the other side of the 
 fosse passed a student, his hand on his hip, and singing : 
 
 " Tell me why, O maiden fair, 
 When I burn to bite thy hair, 
 
 And to kiss thy rosy lips, 
 And to touch thy lovely breast, 
 Like a nun thou feign'st thee blest 
 In the cloister's sad eclipse? 
 
 " Who will win the precious prize 
 Of thy brow, thy mouth, thine eyes 
 
 Of thy bosom sweet what lover? 
 Wilt thou all thy charms devote 
 To grim Fluton when the boat 
 
 Charon rows shall take thee over ? 
 
 " After thou hast sailed across, 
 Loveliest, thou wilt find but loss 
 
 All thy beauty will decay. 
 When I die and meet thee there 
 In the shades I '11 never swear 
 
 Thou wert once my mistress gay ! 
 
 " Therefore, darling, while we live, 
 Change thy mind and tokens give 
 
 Kisses from thy honey mouth ! 
 Else when thou art like to die 
 Thou 'It repent thy cruelty, 
 
 Filling all my life with drouth ! " 
 
 Marguerite listened with a melancholy smile ; then when the 
 student's voice was lost in the distance, she shut the window, 
 and called Gillonne to help her to prepare for bed.
 
 THE POET-KING. 25 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE POET KING. 
 
 THE next day and those that followed were devoted to festi- 
 vals, balls, and tournaments. 
 
 The same amalgamation continued to take place between the 
 two parties. The caresses and compliments lavished were 
 enough to turn the heads of the most bigoted Huguenots. 
 Pere Cotton was to be seen dining and carousing with the Baron 
 de Courtaumer ; the Due de Guise went boating on the Seine 
 with the Prince de Conde. King Charles seemed to have 
 laid aside his usual melancholy, and could not get enough of 
 the society of his new brother-in-law, Henry. Moreover, the 
 queen mother was so gay, and so occupied with embroidery, 
 ornaments, and plumes, that she could not sleep. 
 
 The Huguenots, to some degree contaminated by this new 
 Capua, began to assume silken pourpoints, wear devices, and 
 parade before certain balconies, as if they were Catholics. 
 
 On every side there was such a reaction in favor of the 
 Protestants that it seemed as if the whole court was about to 
 become Protestant; even the admiral, in spite of his experi- 
 ence, was deceived, and was so carried away that one evening 
 he forgot for two whole hours to chew on his toothpick, which 
 he always used from two o'clock, at which time he finished his 
 dinner, until eight o'clock at night, when he sat down to 
 supper. 
 
 The evening on which the admiral thus unaccountably de- 
 viated from his usual habit, King Charles IX. had invited 
 Henry of Navarre and the Due de Guise to sup with him. 
 After the repast he took them into his chamber, and was 
 busily explaining to them the ingenious mechanism of a wolf- 
 trap he had invented, when, interrupting himself, 
 
 " Isn't the admiral coming to-night ? " he asked. "Who has 
 seen him to-day and can tell me anything about him ? " 
 
 " I have," said the King of Navarre ; " and if your Majesty 
 is anxious about his health, I can reassure you, for I saw him 
 this morning at six, and this evening at seven o'clock." 
 
 " Aha ! " replied the King, whose eyes were instantly fixed 
 with a searching expression on his brother-in-law ; " for a 
 new-married man, Harry, you are very early." . -
 
 26 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, sire," answered the King of Navarre, " I wished to 
 inquire of the admiral, who knows everything, whether some 
 gentlemen I am expecting are on their way hither." 
 
 " More gentlemen ! why, you had eight hundred on the day 
 of your wedding, and fresh ones join you every day. You are 
 surely not going to invade us ? " said Charles IX., smiling. 
 
 The Due de Guise frowned. 
 
 " Sire," returned the Bearnais, " a war with Flanders is 
 spoken of, and I am collecting round me all those gentlemen 
 of my country and its neighborhood whom I think can be use- 
 ful to your Majesty." 
 
 The duke, calling to mind the pretended project Henry had 
 mentioned to Marguerite the day of their marriage, listened 
 still more attentively. 
 
 " Well, well," replied the King, with his sinister smile, " the 
 more the better ; let them all come, Henry. But who are these 
 gentlemen ? brave ones, I trust." 
 
 " I know not, sire, if my gentlemen will ever equal those of 
 your Majesty, or the Due d'Anjou's, or the Due de Guise's, but 
 I know that they will do their best." 
 
 " Do you expect many ? " 
 
 " Ten or a dozen more." 
 
 " What are their names ? " 
 
 " Sire, their names escape me, and with the exception of one, 
 whom Teligny recommended to me as a most accomplished 
 gentleman, and whose name is De la Mole, I cannot tell." 
 
 " De la Mole ! " exclaimed the King, who was deeply skilled 
 in the science of genealogy ; "is he not a Lerac de la Mole, a 
 Provencal ? " 
 
 " Exactly so, sire ; you see I recruit even in Provence." 
 
 " And I," added the Due de Guise, with a sarcastic smile, 
 " go even further than his majesty the King of Navarre, for I 
 seek even in Piedmont all the trusty Catholics I can find." 
 
 " Catholic or Huguenot," interrupted the King, " it little 
 matters to me, so they are brave." 
 
 The King's face while he uttered these words, which thus 
 united Catholics and Huguenots in his thoughts, bore such an 
 expression of indifference that the duke himself was surprised. 
 
 "Your Majesty is occupied with the Flemings," said the 
 admiral, to whom Charles had some days previously accorded 
 the favor of entering without being announced, and who had 
 overheard the King's last words.
 
 THE POET-KING. 27 
 
 " Ah ! here is my father the admiral ! " cried Charles, open- 
 ing his arms. " We were speaking of war, of gentlemen, of 
 brave men and he comes. It is like the lodestone which 
 attracts the iron. My brother-in-law of Navarre and my cousin 
 of Guise are expecting reinforcements for your army. That 
 was what we were talking about." 
 
 " And these reinforcements are on their way," said the 
 admiral. 
 
 " Have you had news of them ? " asked the Bearnais. 
 
 " Yes, my son, and particularly of M. de la Mole ; he was 
 at Orleans yesterday, and will be in Paris to-morrow or the 
 day after." 
 
 " The devil ! You must be a sorcerer, admiral," said the 
 Due de Guise, " to know what is taking place at thirty or forty 
 leagues' distance. I should like to know for a certainty what 
 happened or is happening before Orleans." 
 
 Coligny remained unmoved at this savage onslaught, which 
 evidently alluded to the death of Francois de Guise, the duke's 
 father, killed before Orleans by Poltrot de Mere, and not with- 
 out a suspicion that the admiral had advised the crime. 
 
 " Sir," replied he, coldly and with dignity, " I am a sorcerer 
 whenever I wish to know anything positively that concerns 
 my own affairs or the King's. My courier arrived an hour ago 
 from Orleans, having travelled, thanks to the post, thirty-two 
 leagues in a day. As M. de la Mole has only his own horse, 
 he rides but ten leagues a day, and will not arrive in Paris 
 before the 24th. Here is all my magic." 
 
 " Bravo, my father, a clever answer ! " cried Charles IX. ; 
 "teach these young men that wisdom as well as age has 
 whitened your hair and beard ; so now we will send them to 
 talk of their tournaments and their love-affairs and you and I 
 will stay and talk of our wars. Good councillors make good 
 kings, my father. Leave us, gentlemen. I wish to talk with 
 the admiral." 
 
 The two young men took their departure ; the King of Na- 
 varre first, then the Due de Guise ; but outside the door they 
 separated, after a formal salute. 
 
 Coligny followed them with his eyes, not without anxiety, 
 for he never saw those two personified hatreds meet without 
 a dread that some new lightning flash would leap forth. 
 Charles IX. saw what was passing in his mind, and, going to 
 him, laid his hand on his arm :
 
 28 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Have no fear, my father ; I am here to preserve peace and 
 obedience. I am really a king, now that my mother is no 
 longer queen, and she is no longer queen now that Coligny is 
 my father." 
 
 " Oh, sire ! " said the admiral, " Queen Catharine " 
 
 " Is a marplot. Peace is impossible with her. These Italian 
 Catholics are furious, and will hear of nothing but extermina- 
 tion ; now, for my part, I not only wish to pacify, but I wish 
 to put power into the hands of those that profess the reformed 
 religion. The others are too dissolute, and scandalize me by 
 their love affairs and their quarrels. Shall I speak frankly to 
 you ? " continued Charles, redoubling in energy. " I mistrust 
 every one about me except my new friends. I suspect Ta- 
 vannes's ambition. Vieilleville cares only for good wine, and 
 would betray his king for a cask of Malvoisie ; Montmorency 
 thinks only of the chase, and spends all his time among his 
 dogs and falcons; the Comte de Eetz is a Spaniard; the 
 De Guises are Lorraines. I think there are no true French- 
 men in France, except myself, my brother-in-law of Navarre, 
 and you ; but I am chained to the throne, and cannot command 
 armies; it is as much as I can do to hunt at my ease at Saint 
 Germain or Rambouillet. My brother-in-law of Navarre is 
 too young and too inexperienced ; besides, he seems to me 
 exactly like his father Antoine, ruined by women. There is but 
 you, my father, who can be called, at the same time, as brave 
 as Caesar and as wise as Plato ; so that I scarcely know what 
 to do keep you near me, as my adviser, or send you to the 
 army, as its general. If you act as my counsellor, who will com- 
 mand ? If you command, who will be my counsellor ? " 
 
 " Sire," said Coligny, " we must conquer first, and then take 
 counsel after the victory." 
 
 " That is your advice so be it ; Monday you shall leave 
 for Flanders, and I for Amboise." 
 
 " Your Majesty leaves Paris, then ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I am weary of this confusion, and of these f gtes. I 
 am not a man of action ; I am a dreamer. I was not born to 
 be a king ; I was born to be a poet. You shall form a council 
 which shall govern while you are at war, and provided my 
 mother is not in it, all will go well. I have already sent word 
 to Ronsard to join me; and yonder, we two together, far from 
 all tumult, far from the world, far from evil men, under our 
 mighty trees on the banks of the river, with the murmur of
 
 THE POET-KING. 29 
 
 brooks in our ears, will talk about divine things, the only 
 compensation which there is in the world for the affairs of 
 men. Wait ! Hear these lines in which I invite him to join 
 me ; I wrote them this morning." 
 
 Coligny smiled. Charles IX. rubbed his hand over his 
 brow, yellow and shining like ivory, and repeated in a kind of 
 sing-song the following couplets : 
 
 " Ronsard, I am full sure t'mt if you see me not, 
 Your great King's voice by you will shortly be forgot. 
 But as a slight reminder know I still persevere 
 In making skill of poesy my sole endeavor. 
 And that is why I send to you this warm appeal, 
 To fill your mind with new, enthusiastic zeal. 
 
 " No longer then amuse yourself with home distractions; 
 Past is the time for gardening and its attractions. 
 Come, follow with your King, who loves you most of all, 
 For that the sweet strong verses from your lips do fall. 
 And if Ardoise shall not behold you shortly present, 
 A mighty quarrel will break out and prove unpleasant ! " 
 v 
 
 " Bravo ! sire, bravo ! " cried Coligny, " I am better versed 
 in matters of war than in matters of poetry, but it seems to me 
 that those lines are equal to the best, even written by Eonsard, 
 or Dorat, or even Michel de 1'Hopital, Chancellor of France." 
 
 "Ah! my father!" exclaimed Charles IX.; "would what 
 you said were true ! For the title of poet, you see, is what I 
 am ambitious, above all things, to gain ; and as I said a few 
 days ago to my master in poetry : 
 
 " ' The ait of making verse, if one were criticised, 
 Should ever be above the art of reigning prized. 
 The crowns that you and I upon our brows are wearing, 
 I as the King receive, as poet you are sharing. 
 Your lofty soul, enkindled by celestial beams, 
 Flames of itself, while mine with borrowed glory gleams. 
 If 'mid the gods I ask which has the better showing, 
 Ronsard is their delight : J, but their image glowing. 
 Your lyre, which ravishes with sounds so sweet and bold, 
 Subdues men's minds, while I their bodies only hold ! 
 It makes you master, lifts you into lofty regions, 
 Where even the haughty tyrant ne'er dared claim allegiance.' " 
 
 " Sire," said Coligny, " I was well aware that your Majesty 
 conversed with the Muses, but I did not know that you were 
 their chief counsellor." 
 
 " After you, my father, after you. And in order that I may
 
 30 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 not be disturbed in my relations with them, I wish to put 
 you at the head of everything. So listen : I must now go and 
 reply to a new madrigal my dear and illustrious poet has sent 
 me. I cannot, therefore, give you the documents necessary to 
 make you acquainted with the question now debating between 
 Philip II. and myself. There is, besides, a plan of the cam- 
 paign drawn up by my ministers. I will find it all for you, 
 and give it to you to-morrow." 
 
 " At what time, sire ? " 
 
 " At ten o'clock ; and if by chance I am busy making verses, 
 or in my cabinet writing, well you will come in just the same, 
 and take all the papers which you will find on the table in 
 this red portfolio. The color is remarkable, and you cannot 
 mistake it. I am now going to write to Ronsard." 
 
 " Adieu, sire ! " 
 
 " Adieu, my father ! " 
 
 Your hand ? " 
 
 " What, my hand ? In my arms, in my heart, there is 
 your place ! Come, my old soldier, come ! " 
 
 And Charles IX., drawing Coligny toward him as he bowed, 
 pressed his lips to his white hair. 
 
 The admiral left the room, wiping away a tear. 
 
 Charles IX. followed him with his eyes as long as he could see, 
 and listened as long as he could catch a sound ; then, when he 
 could no longer hear or see anything, he bent his head over 
 toward his shoulder, as his custom was, and slowly entered 
 his armory. 
 
 This armory was the king's favorite apartment; there he 
 took his fencing-lessons with Pompee, and his poetry lessons 
 with Ronsard. He had gathered there a great collection of the 
 most costly weapons he had been able to find. The walls were 
 hung with axes, shields, spears, halberds, pistols, and muskets, 
 and that day a famous armorer had brought him a magnifi- 
 cent arquebuse, on the barrel of which were inlaid in silver 
 these four lines, composed by the royal poet himself : 
 
 "Pour maintenir lafoy, 
 Je suis belle etjidele. 
 Aux ennemis du Roi, 
 Je suis belle et cruelle." ' 
 
 1 " To uphold the faith 
 
 I am beautiful and trusty. 
 To the king's enemies 
 I am beautiful and cruel."
 
 THE POET-KING. 31 
 
 Charles, as we have said, entered this room, and after having 
 shut the door by which he had entered, he raised the tapestry 
 that masked a passage leading into a little chamber, where a 
 woman kneeling before a priedieu was saying her prayers. 
 
 As this movement was executed noiselessly, and the footsteps 
 of the king, deadened by the thick carpet, made no more noise 
 than a phantom's, the kneeling woman heard 110 sound, and con- 
 tinued to pray. Charles stood for a moment pensively looking 
 at her. 
 
 She was a woman of thirty -four or thirty-five years of age, 
 whose vigorous beauty was set off by the costume of the pea- 
 sants of Caux. She wore the high cap so much the fashion at 
 the court of France during the time of Isabel of Bavaria, and 
 her red bodice was embroidered with gold, like those of the 
 contadine of Nettuno and Sora. The apartment which she 
 had for nearly twenty years occupied was close to the King's 
 bed-chamber and presented a singular mixture of elegance 
 and rusticity. In equal measure the palace had encroached 
 upon the cottage, and the cottage upon the palace, so that the 
 room combined the simplicity of the peasant woman and the 
 luxury of the court lady. 
 
 The priedieu on which she knelt was of oak, marvellously 
 carved, covered with velvet and with gold fringes, while the 
 Bible from which she was reading (for she was of the re- 
 formed religion ) was very old and torn, like those found in 
 the poorest cottages ; now everything in the room was typi- 
 fied by the priedieu and the Bible. 
 
 " Eh, Madelon ! " said the King. 
 
 The kneeling woman lifted her head smilingly at the well- 
 known voice, and rising from her knees, 
 
 " Ah ! it is you, my son," said she. 
 
 " Yes, nurse; come here." 
 
 Charles IX. let fall the curtain, and sat down on the arm of 
 an easy-chair. The nurse appeared. 
 
 " What do you want with me, Chariot ? " 
 
 " Come near, and answer in a low tone." 
 
 The nurse approached him with a familiarity such as might 
 come from that maternal affection felt by a woman for her 
 nursling, but attributed by the pamphlets of the time to a 
 source infinitely less pure. 
 
 " Here I am," said she ; " speak ! " 
 
 " Is the man I sent for come ? "
 
 32 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " He has been here half an hour." 
 
 Charles rose, approached the window, looked to assure him- 
 self there were no eavesdroppers, went to the door and looked 
 out there also, shook the dust from his trophies of arms, patted 
 a large greyhound which followed him wherever he went, 
 stopping when he stopped and moving when he moved, then 
 returning to his nurse : 
 
 " Very well, nurse, let him come in," said he. 
 
 The worthy woman disappeared by the same passage by 
 which she had entered, while the king went and leaned against 
 a table on which were scattered arms of every kind. 
 
 Scarcely had he done so when the portiere was again lifted, 
 and the person whom he expected entered. 
 
 He was a man of about forty, his eyes gray and false, his 
 nose curved like the beak of a screech-owl, his cheek-bones 
 prominent. His face tried to look respectful, but all that he 
 could do was to wear a hypocritical smile on his lips blanched 
 with fear. 
 
 Charles gently put his hand behind him, and grasped the 
 butt of a pistol of a new construction, that was discharged, not 
 by a match, as formerly, but by a flint brought in contact with 
 a wheel of steel. He fixed his dull eyes steadily on the new- 
 comer ; meantime he whistled, with perfect precision and with 
 remarkable sweetness, one of his favorite hunting-airs. 
 
 After a pause of some minutes, during which the expression 
 of the stranger's face grew more and more discomposed, 
 
 " You are the person," said the King, " called Francois de 
 Louviers Maurevel ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " Captain of petardeers ? " 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 " I wanted to see you." 
 
 Maurevel made a low bow. 
 
 " You know," continued Charles, laying a stress on each 
 word, " that I love all my subjects equally ? " 
 
 " I know," stammered Maurevel, " that your Majesty is the 
 father of your people." 
 
 " And that the Huguenots and Catholics are equally my, 
 children?" 
 
 Maurevel remained silent, but his agitation was manifest to 
 the King's piercing eyes, although the person whom he was 
 addressing was almost concealed in the darkness.
 
 THE POET-KING. 33 
 
 " Does this displease you," said the King, " you who have 
 waged such a bitter war on the Huguenots ? " 
 
 Maurevel fell on his knees. 
 
 " Sire," stammered he, " believe that " 
 
 " I believe," continued Charles, looking more and more 
 keenly at Maurevel, while his eyes, which at first had seemed 
 like glass, now became almost fiery, " I believe that you had 
 a great desire at Moncontour to kill the admiral, who has just 
 left me ; I believe you missed your aim, and that then you 
 entered the army of my brother, the Due d'Anjou ; I believe 
 that then you went for a second time over to the prince's 
 and there took service in the company of M. de Mouy de Saint 
 Phale"- 
 
 " Oh, sire ! " 
 
 " A brave gentleman from Picardy " 
 
 " Sire, sire ! " cried Maurevel, " do not overwhelm me." 
 
 " He was a brave officer," continued Charles, whose feat- 
 ures assumed an aspect of almost ferocious cruelty, " who 
 received you as if you had been his son ; fed you, lodged you, 
 and clothed you." 
 
 Maurevel uttered a despairing sigh. 
 
 " You called him your father, I believe," continued the King, 
 pitilessly, " and a tender friendship existed between you and 
 the young De Mouy, his son." 
 
 Maurevel, still on his knees, bowed low, more and more 
 crushed under the indignation of the King, who stood immova- 
 ble, like a statue whose lips only are endowed with vitality. 
 
 " By the way," continued the King, " M. de Guise was to 
 give you ten thousand crowns if you killed the admiral was 
 he not ? " 
 
 The assassin in consternation struck his forehead against 
 the floor. 
 
 "As regards your worthy father, the Sieur de Mouy, you 
 were one day acting as his escort in a reconnaissance toward 
 Chevreux. He dropped his whip and dismounted to pick it up. 
 You were alone with him ; you took a pistol from your holster, 
 and while he was bending over, you shot him in the back ; 
 then seeing he was dead for you killed him on the spot 
 you escaped on the horse he had given you. This is your 
 history, I believe ? " 
 
 And as Maurevel remained mute under this accusation, 
 every circumstance of which was true, Charles IX. began to
 
 34 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 whistle again, with the same precision and melody, the same 
 hunting-air. 
 
 " Now, then, murderer ! " said he after a little, " do you 
 know I have a great mind to have you hanged ? " 
 
 " Oh, your Majesty !" cried Maurevel. 
 
 " Young De Mouy entreated me to do so only yesterday, and 
 I scarcely knew what answer to make him, for his demand was 
 perfectly just." 
 
 Maurevel clasped his hands. 
 
 " All the more just, because I am, as you say, the father of 
 my people; and because, as I answered you, now that I am 
 reconciled to the Huguenots, they are as much my children 
 as the Catholics." 
 
 " Sire," said Maurevel, in despair, " my life is in your hands ; 
 do with it what you will." 
 
 " You are quite right, and I would not give a groat for it." 
 
 " But, sire," asked the assassin, " is there no means of re- 
 deeming my crime ? " 
 
 " None that I know of ; only if I were in your place but 
 thank God I am not " 
 
 " Well, sire, if you were in my place ? " murmured Maurevel, 
 his eyes fixed on the King's lips. 
 
 " I think I could extricate myself," said the King. 
 
 Maurevel raised himself on one knee and one hand, fixing 
 his eyes upon Charles to make certain that he was not jesting. 
 
 " I am very fond of young De Mouy," said the King ; " but 
 I am equally fond of my cousin De Guise ; and if my cousin 
 asked me to spare a man that the other wanted me to hang, I 
 confess I should be embarrassed ; but for policy as well as re- 
 ligion's sake I should comply with my cousin De Guise's re- 
 quest, for De Mouy, brave captain though he be, is but a petty 
 personage compared with a prince of Lorraine." 
 
 During these words, Maurevel slowly rose, like a man whose 
 life is saved. 
 
 " In your critical situation it would be a very important thing 
 to gain my cousin De Guise's favor. So I am going to tell 
 you what he said to me last night." 
 
 Maurevel drew nearer. 
 
 " ' Imagine, sire,' said he to me, ' that every morning, at ten 
 o'clock, my deadliest enemy passes down the Rue Saint Ger- 
 main PAuxerrois, on his return from the Louvre. I see him 
 from a barred window in the room of my old preceptor, the
 
 THE POET-KING. 35 
 
 Canon Pierre Piles, and I pray the devil to open the earth 
 and swallow him in its abysses.' Now, Maitre Maurevel," 
 continued the King, " perhaps if you were the devil, or if for 
 an instant you should take his place, that would perhaps please 
 my cousin De Guise." 
 
 Maurevel's infernal smile came back to his lips, though they 
 were still bloodless with terror, and he stammered out these 
 words : 
 
 " But, sire, I cannot make the earth open." 
 
 " Yet you made it open wide enough for the worthy De 
 Mouy, if I remember correctly. After this you will tell me 
 how with a pistol have you not that pistol still ? " 
 
 " Forgive me, sire, I am a still better marksman with an 
 arquebusethan a pistol," replied Maurevel, now quite reassured. 
 
 " Pistol or arquebuse makes no difference," said the King ; 
 " I am sure my cousin De Guise will not cavil over the choice 
 of methods." 
 
 " But," said Maurevel, " I must have a weapon I can rely 
 on, as, perhaps, I shall have to fire from a long distance." 
 
 " I have ten arquebuses in this room," replied Charles IX., 
 " with which I can hit a crown-piece at a hundred and fifty 
 paces will you try one ? " 
 
 " Most willingly, sire ! " cried Maurevel, with the greatest 
 joy, going in the direction of one which was standing in a 
 corner of the room. It was the one which that day had been 
 brought to the King. 
 
 " No, not that one," said the King, " not that one ; I reserve 
 that for myself. Some day I am going to have a grand hunt 
 and then I hope to use it. Take any other you like." 
 
 Maurevel took one down from a trophy. 
 
 " And who is this enemy, sire ? " asked the assassin. 
 
 " How should I know," replied Charles, withering the 
 wretch with his contemptuous look. 
 
 " I must ask M. de Guise, then," faltered Maurevel. 
 
 The King shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Do not ask," said he ; " for M. de Guise will not answer. 
 Do people generally answer such questions ? Those that do 
 not wish to be hanged must guess them." 
 
 " But how shall I know him ? " 
 
 " I tell you he passes the Canon's house every morning at 
 ten o'clock."
 
 36 MARGUERITE DE V A LOTS. 
 
 " But many pass that house. Would your Majesty deign to 
 give me any certain sign ? " 
 
 " Oh, that is easy enough ; to-morrow, for example, he will 
 carry a red morocco portfolio under his arm." 
 
 " That is sufficient, sire." 
 
 " You still have the fast horse M. de Mouy gave you ? " 
 
 " Sire, I have one of the fleetest of horses." 
 
 " Oh, I am not in the least anxious about you ; only it is as 
 well to let you know the monastery has a back door." 
 
 " Thanks, sire ; pray Heaven for me ! " 
 
 " Oh, a thousand devils ! pray to Satan rather ; for only by 
 his aid can you escape a halter." 
 
 " Adieu, sire." 
 
 " Adieu ! By the way, M. de Maurevel, remember that if 
 you are heard of before ten to-morrow, or are not heard of 
 afterward, there is a dungeon at the Louvre." 
 
 And Charles IX. calmly began to whistle, with more than 
 usual precision, his favorite air. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 
 
 OUR readers have not forgotten that in the previous chapter 
 we mentioned a gentleman named De la Mole whom Henry of 
 Navarre was anxiously expecting. 
 
 This young gentleman, as the admiral had announced, en- 
 tered Paris by the gate of Saint Marcel the evening of the 
 24th of August, 1572 ; and bestowing a contemptuous glance 
 on the numerous hostelries that displayed their picturesque 
 signs on either side of him, he spurred his steaming horse on 
 into the heart of the city, and after having crossed the Place 
 Maubert, Le Petit Pont, the Pont Notre-Dame, and skirted the 
 quays, he stopped at the end of the Rue de Bresec, which we have 
 since corrupted into the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, and for the greater 
 convenience of our readers we will call by its modern name. 
 
 The name pleased him, no doubt, for he entered the street, 
 and finding on his left a large sheet-iron plate swinging, creak- 
 ing on its hinges, with an accompaniment of little bells, he 
 stopped and read these words, " La Belle JStoilc" written on
 
 THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 37 
 
 a scroll beneath the sign, which was a most attractive one for 
 a famished traveller, as it represented a fowl roasting in the 
 midst of a black sky, while a man in a red cloak held out his 
 hands and his purse toward this new-fangled constellation. 
 
 " Here," said the gentleman to himself, " is an inn that prom- 
 ises well, and the landlord must be a most ingenious fellow. 
 I have always heard that the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec was near the 
 Louvre ; and, provided that the interior answers to the exterior, 
 I shall be admirably lodged." 
 
 While the newcomer was thus indulging in this monologue 
 another horseman who had entered the street at the other end, 
 that is to say, by the Rue Samt-Honore, stopped also to admire 
 the sign of La Belle. JlJtoile. 
 
 The gentleman whom we already know, at least by name, 
 rode a white steed of Spanish lineage and wore a black doub- 
 let ornamented with jet ; his cloak was of dark violet velvet ; 
 his boots were of black leather, and he had a sword and pon- 
 iard with hilts of chased steel. 
 
 Now if we pass from his costume to his features we shall 
 conclude that he was twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. 
 His complexion was dark ; his eyes were blue ; he had a deli- 
 cate mustache and brilliant teeth which seemed to light up 
 his whole face when his exquisitely modelled lips parted in a 
 sweet and melancholy smile. 
 
 The contrast between him and the second traveller was very 
 striking. Beneath his cocked hat escaped a profusion of 
 frizzled hair, red rather than brown ; beneath this mop of hair 
 sparkled a pair of gray eyes which at the slightest opposition 
 grew so fierce that they seemed- black ; a fair complexion, thin 
 lips, a tawny mustache, and admirable teeth completed the 
 description of his face. Taken all in all, with his Avhite skin, 
 lofty stature, and broad shoulders, he was indeed a beau cava- 
 lier in the ordinary acceptation of the term, and during the 
 last hour which he had employed in staring up at all the 
 windows, under the pretext of looking for signs, he had at- 
 tracted the general attention of women, while the men, though 
 they may have felt inclined to laugh at his scanty cloak, his 
 tight-fitting small-clothes, and his old-fashioned boots, checked 
 their rising mirth with a most cordial Dieu vous garde, after 
 they had more attentively studied his face, which every moment 
 assumed a dozen different expressions, but never that good- 
 natured one characteristic of a bewildered provincial.
 
 38 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 He it was who first addressed the other gentleman who, as I 
 have said, was gazing at the hostelry of La Belle Etolle. 
 
 " By Heaven ! monsieur," said he, with that horrible moun- 
 tain accent which would instantly distinguish a native of Pied- 
 mont among a hundred strangers, " we are close to the Louvre, 
 are we not ? At all events, I think your choice is the same 
 as mine, and I am highly flattered by it." 
 
 "Monsieur," replied the other, with a Provenqal accent 
 which rivalled that of his companion, " I believe this inn is 
 near the Louvre. However, I am still deliberating whether or 
 not I shall have the honor of sharing your opinion. I am in a 
 quandary." 
 
 " You have not yet decided, sir ? Nevertheless, the house is 
 attractive. But perhaps, after all, I have been won over to it 
 by your presence. Yet you will grant that is a pretty paint- 
 ing?" 
 
 "Very ! and it is for that very reason I mistrust it. Paris, 
 I am told, is full of sharpers, and you may be just as well 
 tricked by a sign as by anything else." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " replied the Piedmontese, " I don't care a fig 
 for their tricks ; and if the host does not serve me a chicken as 
 well roasted as the one on his sign, I will put him on the spit, 
 nor will I let him off till I have done him to a turn. Come, 
 let us go in." 
 
 " You have decided me," said the Provencal, laughing ; " pre- 
 cede me, I beg." 
 
 " Oh, sir, on my soul I could not think of it, for I am 
 only your most obedient servant, the Comte Annibal de 
 Cocoimas." 
 
 " And I, monsieur, but the Comte Joseph Hyacinthe Boni- 
 face de Lerac de la Mole, equally at your service." 
 
 " Since that is the case, let us go in together, arm in arm." 
 
 The result of this conciliatory proposition was that the two 
 young men got off their horses, threw the bridles to the ostler, 
 linked arms, adjusted their swords, and approached the door 
 of the inn, where the landlord was standing. But contrary to 
 the custom of men of his profession, the worthy proprietor 
 seemed not to notice them, so busy was he talking with a tall, 
 sallow man, wrapped in a drab-colored cloak like an owl buried 
 in his feathers. 
 
 The two gentlemen were so near the landlord and his friend 
 in the drab-colored cloak that Coconnas, indignant that he
 
 THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 39 
 
 and his companion should be treated with such lack of consider- 
 ation, touched the landlord's sleeve. 
 
 He appeared suddenly to perceive them, and dismissed his 
 friend with an " Au revoir ! come soon and let me know the 
 hour appointed." 
 
 " Well, monsieur le drole" said Coconnas, " do not you see 
 we have business with you ? " 
 
 " I beg pardon, gentlemen," said the host ; " I did not see 
 you." 
 
 " Eh, by Heaven ! then you ought to have seen us ; and now 
 that you do see us, say, ' Monsieur le Comte,' and not merely 
 ' Monsieur,' if you please." 
 
 La Mole stood by, leaving Coconnas, who seemed to have 
 undertaken the affair, to speak ; but by the scowling on his 
 face it was evident that he was ready to come to his assistance 
 when the moment of action should present itself. 
 
 " Well, what is your pleasure, Monsieur le Comte ? " asked 
 the landlord, in a quiet tone. 
 
 " Ah, that 's better ; is it not ? " said Coconnas, turning to 
 La Mole, who nodded affirmatively. " Monsieur le Comte and 
 myself, attracted by the sign of your establishment, wish to 
 sup and sleep here to-night." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said the host, " I am very sorry, but I have 
 only one chamber, and I am afraid that would not suit you." 
 
 " So much the better," said La Mole ; " we will go and 
 lodge somewhere else." 
 
 " By no means," said Coconnas, " I shall stay here ; my 
 horse is tired. I will have the room, since you will not." 
 
 "Ah! that is quite different," replied the host, with the 
 same cool tone of impertinence. " If there is only one of you 
 I cannot lodge you at all, then." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas, " here 's a witty animal ! 
 Just now you could not lodge us because we were two, and now 
 you have not room for one. You will not lodge us at all, 
 then ? " 
 
 " Since you take this high tone, gentlemen, I will answer you 
 frankly." 
 
 " Answer, then ; only answer quickly." 
 
 " Well, then, I should prefer not to have the honor of lodg- 
 ing you at all." 
 
 " For what reason ? " asked Coconnas, growing white with 
 rage.
 
 40 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Because you have no servants, and for one master's room 
 full, I should have two servants' rooms empty ; so that, if I let 
 you have the master's room, I run the risk of not letting the 
 others." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole," said Coconnas, " do you not think we 
 ought to massacre this fellow ? " 
 
 " Decidedly," said La Mole, preparing himself, together with 
 Coconnas, to lay his whip over the landlord's back. 
 
 But the landlord contented himself with retreating a step or 
 two, despite this two-fold demonstration, which was not partic- 
 ularly reassuring, considering that the two gentlemen appeared 
 so full of determination. 
 
 " It is easy to see," said he, in a tone of raillery, " that these 
 gentlemen are just from the provinces. At Paris it is no 
 longer the fashion to massacre innkeepers who refuse to let 
 them rooms only great men are massacred nowadays and 
 not the common people ; and if you make any disturbance, I 
 will call my neighbors, and you shall be beaten yourselves, and 
 that would be an indignity for two such ,gentlemeu." 
 
 " Why ! he is laughing at us," cried Coconnas, in a rage. 
 
 " Gregoire, my arquebuse," said the host, with the same 
 voice with which he would have said, " Give these gentleman 
 a chair." 
 
 " Trippe del papa ! " cried Coconnas, drawing his sword ; 
 " warm up, Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " No, no ; for while we warm up, our supper will get cold." 
 
 " What, you think " cried Coconnas. 
 
 " That Monsieur de la Belle Etoile is right ; only he does not 
 know how to treat his guests, especially when they are gentle- 
 men, for instead of brutally saying, ' Gentlemen, I do not want 
 you,' it would have been better if he had said, ' Enter, gentle- 
 men ' at the same time reserving to himself the right to 
 charge in his bill, master's room, so much ; servants' room, 
 so much." 
 
 With these words, La Mole gently pushed by the landlord, 
 who was just on the point of taking his arquebuse, and entered 
 with Coconnas. 
 
 " Well," said Coconnas, " I am sorry to sheathe my swora 
 before I have ascertained that it is as sharp as that rascal's 
 larding-needle." 
 
 " Patience, my dear friend, patience," said La Mole. " All 
 the inns in Paris are full of gentlemen come to attend the
 
 THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 41 
 
 King of Navarre's marriage or attracted by the approaching 
 war with Flanders ; we should not find another lodging ; 
 besides, perhaps it is the custom at Paris to receive strangers 
 in this manner." 
 
 " By Heaven ! how patient you are, Monsieur de la Mole ! " 
 muttered Coconnas, curling his red mustache with rage and 
 hurling the lightning of his eyes on the landlord. " But let 
 the scoundrel take care ; for if his cooking be bad, if his bed 
 be hard, his wine less than three years in bottle, and his 
 waiter be not as pliant as a reed " 
 
 " There ! there ! my dear gentleman ! " said the landlord, 
 whetting his knife on a strap, " you may make yourself easy ; 
 you are in the land of Cocagne." 
 
 Then in a low tone he added : 
 
 " These are some Huguenots ; traitors have grown so inso- 
 lent since the marriage of their Bearnais with Mademoiselle 
 Margot ! " 
 
 Then, with a smile that would have made his guests shudder 
 had they seen it : 
 
 " How strange it would be if I were just to have two Hugue- 
 nots come to my house, when " 
 
 " Now, then," interrupted Coconnas, pointedly, " are we 
 going to have any supper ? " 
 
 " Yes, as soon as you please, monsieur," returned the land- 
 lord, softened, no doubt, by the last reflection. 
 
 " Well, then, the sooner the better," said Coconnas ; and 
 turning to La Mole : 
 
 " Pray, Monsieur le Comte, while they are putting our room 
 in order, tell me, do you think Paris seems a gay city ? " 
 
 " Faith ! no," said La Mole. " All the faces I have seen 
 looked scared or forbidding ; perhaps the Parisians also are 
 afraid of the storm ; see how very black the sky Is, and the 
 air feels heavy." 
 
 " Tell me, count, are you not bound for the Louvre ? " 
 
 " Yes ! and you also, Monsieur de Coconnas." 
 
 " Well, let us go together." 
 
 " It is rather late to go out, is it not ? " said La Mole. 
 
 " Early or late, I must go ; my orders are peremptory 
 * Come instantly to Paris, and report to the Due de Guise with- 
 out delay.' " 
 
 At the Due de Guise's name the landlord drew nearer. 
 
 " I think the rascal is listening to us," said Coconuas, who,
 
 42 MARGUERITE DE VALOJS. 
 
 as a true son of Piedmont, was very truculent, and could not 
 forgive the proprietor of La Belle Etoile his rude reception of 
 them. 
 
 " I am listening, gentlemen," replied he, taking off his cap ; 
 "but it is to serve you. I heard the great duke's name men- 
 tioned, and I came immediately. What can I do for you, 
 gentlemen ? " 
 
 " Aha ! that name is magical, since it renders you so polite. 
 Tell me, maitre, what 's your name ? " 
 
 " Maitre la Huriere," replied the host, bowing. 
 
 " Well, Maitre la Huriere, do you think my arm is lighter 
 than the Due de Guise's, who makes you so civil ? " 
 
 " No, Monsieur le Comte, but it is not so long," replied La 
 Huriere ; " besides," he added, " I must tell you that the 
 great Henry is the idol of us Parisians." 
 
 Which Henry ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " It seems to me there is only one," replied the landlord. 
 
 " You are mistaken ; there is another, whom I desire you 
 do not speak ill of, and that is Henry of Navarre ; and then 
 there is Henry de Conde, who has his share of merit." 
 
 " I do not know them," said the landlord. 
 
 " But I do ; and as I am on my way to the King of Navarre, 
 I desire you not to speak slightingly of him before me." 
 
 The landlord replied by merely touching his cap, and con- 
 tinued to lavish his assiduities on Coconnas : 
 
 " So monsieur is going to see the great Due de Guise ? Mon- 
 sieur is a very fortunate gentleman ; he has come, no doubt, 
 for" 
 
 " What ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 "For the festivity," replied the host, with a singular smile. 
 
 " You should say for the festivities," replied Coconnas ; 
 " for Paris, I hear, runs riot with festivals ; at least there is 
 nothing talked about but balls, festivals, and orgies. Does not 
 every one find plenty of amusement ? " 
 
 " A moderate amount, but they will have more soon, I hope." 
 
 " But the marriage of his majesty the King of Navarre has 
 brought a great many people to Paris, has it not ? " said La 
 Mole. 
 
 " A great many Huguenots yes," replied La Huriere, but 
 suddenly changing his tone : 
 
 "Pardon me, gentlemen," said he, "perhaps you are of 
 that religion ? "
 
 THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 43 
 
 " I," cried Coconnas, " I am as good a Catholic as the pope 
 himself." 
 
 La Huriere looked at La Mole, but La Mole did not or 
 would not comprehend him. 
 
 " If you do not know the King of Navarre, Maitre La 
 Huriere," said La Mole, " perhaps you know the admiral. I 
 have heard he has some influence at court, and as I have 
 letters for him, perhaps you will tell me where he lives, if his 
 name does not take the skin off your lips." 
 
 " He did live in the Rue de Bethisy down here at the right," 
 replied the landlord, with an inward satisfaction he could not 
 conceal. 
 
 " He did live ? " exclaimed La Mole. " Has he changed his 
 residence ? " 
 
 " Yes from this world, perhaps." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " cried both the gentlemen together, 
 " the admiral removed from this world ? " 
 
 " What, Monsieur de Coconnas," pursued the landlord, with 
 a shrewd smile, " are you a f rieud of the Due de Guise, and 
 do not know that ? " 
 
 " Know what ? " 
 
 " That the day before yesterday, as the admiral was passing 
 along the place Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois before the house of 
 the Canon Pierre Piles, he was fired at " 
 
 " And killed ? " said La Mole. 
 
 " No ; he had his arm broken and two fingers taken off ; 
 but it is hoped the balls were poisoned." 
 
 " How, wretch ! " cried La Mole ; " hoped ? " 
 
 " Believed, I mean," said the landlord, winking at Coconnas ; 
 " do not take a word too seriously, it was a slip of the tongue." 
 
 And Maitre La Huriere, turning his back on La Mole, poked 
 out his tongue at Coconnas in the most insulting way, accom- 
 panying this action with a meaning wink. 
 
 " Eeally ! " said Coconnas, joyfully. 
 
 " Eeally ! " said La Mole, with sorrowful stupefaction. 
 
 " It is just as I have the honor of telling you, gentlemen," 
 said the landlord. 
 
 " In that case," said La Mole, " I must go instantly to the 
 Louvre. Shall I find the King of Navarre there ? " 
 
 " Most likely, since he lives there." 
 
 " And I," said Coconnas, " must also go to the Louvre. 
 Shall I find the Due de Guise there ? "
 
 44 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Most likely ; for only a moment ago I saw him pass with 
 two hundred gentlemen." 
 
 " Come, then, Monsieur de Coconnas," said La Mole. 
 
 " I will follow you, sir," replied Coconnas. 
 
 " But your supper, gentlemen ! " cried La Huriere. 
 
 " Ah," said La Mole, " I shall most likely sup with the 
 King of Navarre." 
 
 " And I," said Coconnas, " with the Due de Guise." 
 
 " And I," said the landlord, after having watched the two 
 gentlemen on their way to the Louvre, " I will go and burnish 
 my sallet, put a match to my arquebuse, and sharpen my parti- 
 san, for no one knows what may happen." 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR, AND OF VIRTUE IN GENERAL. 
 
 THE two young men, directed by the first person they met, 
 went down the Rue d'Averon, the Rue Saint Germain 1'Auxer- 
 rois, and soon found themselves before the Louvre, the towers 
 of which were beginning to be lost in the early shades of the 
 gloaming. 
 
 " What is the matter with you ? " asked Coconnas of La 
 Mole, who, as they came in sight of the old chateau, stopped 
 and gazed, not without awe, on the drawbridges, the narrow 
 windows, and the pointed belfries, which suddenly rose before 
 his vision. 
 
 " I scarcely know," said La Mole ; " my heart beats 
 strangely. I am not timid, but somehow this old palace seems 
 so gloomy and terrible." 
 
 " Well, as for me, I don't know any reason for it," replied 
 Coconnas, " but I feel in excellent spirits. My dress is some- 
 what disordered," he went on to say, glancing at his travelling 
 costume, " but never mind, it looks as if I had been riding. 
 Besides, my instructions commanded promptness and I shall 
 be welcome because I shall have obeyed punctually." 
 
 The two young men continued their way, each under the in- 
 fluence of the feelings he had expressed. 
 
 There was a strong guard at the Louvre and the sentinels 
 were doubled. Our two cavaliers were somewhat embarrassed,
 
 OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR. 45 
 
 therefore, but Coconnas, who had noticed that the Due de 
 Guise's name acted like a talisman on the Parisians, ap- 
 proached a sentinel, and making use of the all-powerful name, 
 asked if by means of it he might not be allowed to enter. 
 
 The name seemed to produce its ordinary effect upon the 
 soldier ; nevertheless he asked Coconnas if he had the counter- 
 sign. 
 
 Coconnas was forced to confess he had not. 
 
 " Stand back, then," said the soldier. 
 
 At this moment a person who was talking with the officer 
 of the guard and who .had overheard Coconnas ask leave to 
 enter, broke off his conversation and came to him. 
 
 " Vat do you vant with Monsieur dee Gouise ? " asked he. 
 
 " I wish to see him," said Coconnas, smiling. 
 
 " Imbossible ! the duke is mit the King." 
 
 " But I have a letter for him." 
 
 " Ah, you haf a ledder for him ? " 
 
 " Yes, and I have come a long distance." 
 
 " Ah ! you haf gome a long tistance ? " 
 
 " I have come from Piedmont." 
 
 " Veil, veil ! dat iss anodder ting. And vat iss your name ? " 
 
 " The Comte Annibal de Coconnas." 
 
 " Goot ! goot ! kif me the ledder, Monsieur Annibal, kif it 
 to me ! " 
 
 " On my word," said La Mole to himself, " a very civil man. 
 I hope I may find one like him to conduct me to the King of 
 Navarre." 
 
 " But kif me the ledder," said the German gentleman, hold- 
 ing out his hand toward Coconnas, who hesitated. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " replied the Piedmontese, distrustful like a 
 half-Italian, " I scarcely know whether I ought, as I have not 
 the honor of knowing you." 
 
 " I am Pesme ; I 'm addached to Monsir le Douque de 
 Gouise." 
 
 " Pesme," murmured Coconnas ; " I am not acquainted with 
 that name." 
 
 " It is Monsieur de Besme, my dear sir," said the sentinel. 
 " His pronunciation misled you, that is all ; you may safely 
 give him your letter, I '11 answer for it." 
 
 " Ah ! Monsieur de Besme ! " cried Coconnas ; " of course I 
 know you ! with the greatest pleasure. Here is the letter. 
 Pardon my hesitation ; but fidelity requires one to be careful."
 
 46 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Goot, goot ! dere iss no need of any egscuse," said De 
 Besrae. 
 
 " Perhaps, sir," said La Mole, " you will be so kind as to do 
 the same for my letter that you have done for. my friend ? " 
 
 " And vat iss your name, monsir ? " 
 
 " The Comte Lerac de la Mole." 
 
 " Gount Lerag dee la Mole ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " I don't know de name." 
 
 " It is not strange that I have not the honor of being known 
 to you, sir, for like the Comte de Coconnas I am only just 
 arrived in Paris." 
 
 " Where do you gome from ? " 
 
 " From Provence." 
 
 " Vit a ledder ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " For Monsir dee Gouise ? " 
 
 "No ; for his majesty the King of Navarre." 
 
 " I do not pelong to de King of Navarre," said De Besme, 
 coldly, " and derefore I gannot dake your ledder." 
 
 And turning on his heel, he entered the Louvre, bidding 
 Coconnas follow him. 
 
 La Mole was left alone. 
 
 At this moment a troop of cavaliers, about a hundred in 
 number, came out from the Louvre by a gate alongside that by 
 which Besme and Coconnas had entered. 
 
 " Aha ! " said the sentinel to his comrade, " there are De 
 Mouy and his Huguenots ! See how joyous they all are ! The 
 King has probably promised them to put to death the assassin 
 of the admiral ; and as it was he who murdered De Mouy's 
 father, the son will kill two birds with one stone." 
 
 " Excuse me, my good fellow," interrupted La Mole, " did 
 you not say that officer is M. de Mouy ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 " And that those with him are " 
 
 " Are heretics I said so." 
 
 " Thank you," said La Mole, affecting not to notice the 
 scornful word parpaillots, employed by the sentinel. " That 
 was all I wished to know ; " and advancing to the chief of the 
 cavaliers : 
 
 " Sir," said he, "I am told you are M. de Mouy." 
 
 " Yes, sir," returned the officer, courteously.
 
 OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR. 47 
 
 " Your name, well known among those of our faith, emboldens 
 me to address you, sir, to ask a special favor." 
 
 " What may that be, sir, but first whom have I the honor of 
 addressing ? " 
 
 " The Comte Lerac de la Mole." 
 
 The young men bowed to each other. 
 
 " What can I do for you, sir ? " asked De Mouy. 
 
 " Sir, I am just arrived from Aix, and bring a letter from 
 M. d'Auriac, Governor of Provence. This letter is directed 
 to the King of Navarre and contains important and pressing 
 news. How can I give it to him ? How can I enter the 
 Louvre ? " 
 
 " Nothing is easier than to enter the Louvre, sir," replied 
 De Mouy ; " but I fear the King of Navarre will be too busy 
 to see you at this hour. However, if you please, I will take 
 you to his apartments, and then you must manage for your- 
 self." 
 
 " A thousand thanks ! " 
 
 " Come, then," said De Mouy. 
 
 De Mouy dismounted, threw the reins to his lackey, stepped 
 toward the wicket, passed the sentinel, conducted La Mole 
 into the chateau, and, opening the door leading to the king's 
 apartments : 
 
 " Enter, and inquire for yourself, sir," said he. 
 
 And saluting La Mole, he retired. 
 
 La Mole, left alone, looked round. 
 
 The ante-room was vacant. One of the inner doors was 
 open. He advanced a few paces and found himself in a 
 passage. 
 
 He knocked and spoke, but no one answered. The pro- 
 foundest silence reigned in this part of the Louvre. 
 
 ' ; What was told me about the stem etiquette of this place ? " 
 said he to himself. " One may come and go in this palace as 
 if it were a public place." 
 
 Then he called again, but without obtaining any better 
 result than before. 
 
 " Well, let us walk straight on," thought he, " I must 
 meet some one," and he proceeded down the corridor, which 
 grew darker and darker. 
 
 Suddenly the door opposite that by which he had entered 
 opened, and two pages appeared, lighting a lady of noble 
 bearing and exquisite beauty.
 
 48 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 The glare of the torches fell full on La Mole, who stood 
 motionless. 
 
 The lady stopped also. 
 
 " What do you want, sir ? " said she, in a voice which fell 
 upon his ears like exquisite music. 
 
 " Oh, madame," said La Mole, casting down his eyes, 
 " pardon me ; I have just parted from M. de Mouy, who was 
 so good as to conduct me here, and I wish to see the King of 
 Navarre." 
 
 " His majesty is not here, sir ; he is with his brother-in- 
 law. But, in his absence, could you not say to the queen " 
 
 " Oh, yes, madame," returned La Mole, " if I could obtain 
 audience of her." 
 
 " You have it already, sir." 
 
 " What ? " cried La Mole. 
 
 " I am the Queen of Navarre." 
 
 La Mole made such a hasty movement of surprise and alarm 
 that it caused the queen to smile. 
 
 " Speak, sir," said Marguerite, " but speak quickly, for the 
 queen mother is waiting for me." 
 
 " Oh, madame, if the queen mother is waiting for you," said 
 La Mole, " suffer me to leave you, for just now it would be 
 impossible for me to speak to you. I am incapable of collect- 
 ing my ideas. The sight of you has dazzled me. I no longer 
 think, I can only admire." 
 
 Marguerite advanced graciously toward the handsome young 
 man, who, without knowing it, was acting like a finished 
 courtier. 
 
 " Eecover yourself, sir," said she ; " I will wait and they will 
 wait for me." 
 
 " Pardon me, madame," said La Mole, " if I did not salute 
 your majesty at first with all the respect which you have a 
 right to expect from one of your humblest servants, but " 
 
 " You took me for one of my ladies ? " said Marguerite. 
 
 " No, madame ; but for the shade of the beautiful Diane de 
 Poitiers, who is said to haunt the Louvre." 
 
 " Come, sir," said Marguerite, " I see you will make your 
 fortune at court ; you said you had a letter for the king, it 
 was not needed, but no matter ! Where is it ? I will give it 
 to him only make haste, I beg of you." 
 
 In a twinkling La Mole threw open his doublet, and drew 
 from his breast a letter enveloped in silk.
 
 OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR. 49 
 
 Marguerite took the letter, and glanced at the writing. 
 
 " Are you not Monsieur de la Mole ? " asked she. 
 
 " Yes, madame. Oh, mon Dieu ! Can I hope my name is 
 known to your majesty ? " 
 
 "I have heard the king, my husband, and the Due d'Alen- 
 QOII, my brother, speak of you. I know they expect you." 
 
 And in her corsage, glittering with embroidery and dia- 
 monds, she slipped the letter which had just come from the 
 young man's doublet and was still warm from the vital heat of 
 his body. La Mole eagerly watched Marguerite's every move- 
 ment. 
 
 " Now, sir," said she, " descend to the gallery below, and 
 wait until some one comes to you from the King of Navarre or 
 the Due d'Alenqon. One of my pages will show you the way." 
 
 And Marguerite, as she said these words, went on her way. 
 La Mole drew himself up close to the wall. But the passage 
 was so narrow and the Queen of Navarre's farthingale was so 
 voluminous that her silken gown brushed against the young 
 man's clothes, while a penetrating perfume hovered where she 
 passed. 
 
 La Mole trembled all over and, feeling that he was in danger 
 of falling, he tried to find a support against the wall. 
 
 Marguerite disappeared like a vision. 
 
 " Are you coming, sir ? " asked the page who was to conduct 
 La Mole to the lower gallery. 
 
 " Oh, yes yes ! " cried La Mole, joyfully ; for as the page 
 led him the same way by which Marguerite had gone, he hoped 
 that by making haste he might see her again. 
 
 And in truth, as he reached the top of the staircase, he per- 
 ceived her below ; and whether she heard his step or looked 
 round by chance, Marguerite raised her head, and La Mole 
 saw her a second time. 
 
 " Oh," said he, as he followed the page, " she is not a 
 mortal she is a goddess, and as Vergilius Maro says : ' Et 
 vera incessu patuit, dea.' " 
 
 " Well ? " asked the page. 
 
 '' Here I am," replied La Mole, " excuse me, here I am." 
 
 The page, preceding La Mole, descended a story lower, 
 opened one door, then another, and stopping, 
 
 " You are to wait here," said he. 
 
 La Mole entered the gallery, the door of which closed after 
 him.
 
 50 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 The gallery was vacant except for one gentleman, who was 
 sauntering up and down, and seemed also waiting for some 
 one. 
 
 The evening was by this time beginning to scatter monstrous 
 shadows from the depths of the vaulted ceiling, and though 
 the two gentlemen were not twenty paces apart, it was impos- 
 sible for either to recognize the other's face. 
 
 La Mole drew nearer. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " muttered he as soon as he was within a few 
 feet of the other, " here is Monsieur le Comte de Coconnas 
 again ! " 
 
 At the sound of footsteps Coconnas had already turned, and 
 was staring at La Mole with no less astonishment than the 
 other showed. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried he. " The devil take me but here is 
 Monsieur de la Mole ! What am I doing ? Swearing in the 
 King's palace ? Well, never mind ; it seems the King swears 
 in a different way from mine, and even in churches. Here we 
 are at last, then, in the Louvre ! " 
 
 " Yes ; I suppose Monsieur de Besme introduced you ? " 
 
 " Oh, he is a charming German. Who brought you in ? " 
 
 " M. de Mouy I told you the Huguenots had some interest 
 at court. Have you seen Monsieur de Guise ? " 
 
 " No, not yet. Have you obtained your audience with the 
 King of Navarre ? " 
 
 "No, but I soon shall. I was brought here and told to 
 wait." 
 
 " Ah, you will see there is some great supper under way and 
 we shall be placed side by side. What a strange chance ! For 
 two hours fortune has joined us ! But what is the matter ? 
 You seem ill at ease." 
 
 " I ? " exclaimed La Mole, shivering, for in truth he was 
 still dazzled by the vision which had been vouchsafed him. 
 " Oh, no, but the place in which we are brings into my mind a 
 throng of reflections." 
 
 " Philosophical ones, I suppose. Just the same as it is with 
 me. When you came in I was just going over in my mind 
 all my tutor's recommendations. Monsieur le Comte, are you 
 acquainted with Plutarch ? " 
 
 " Certainly I am ! " exclaimed La Mole, smiling, " he is one 
 of my favorite authors." 
 
 " Very well," Coconnas went on gravely, " this great man
 
 OF THE LOUVRE IN PARTICULAR. 51 
 
 does not seem to me so far wrong when he compares the gifts 
 of nature to brilliant but ephemeral flowers, while he regards 
 virtue as a balsamic plant of imperishable perfume and sover- 
 eign efficacy for the healing of wounds." 
 
 " Do you know Greek, Monsieur de Coconnas ? " said La 
 Mole, gazing keenly at his companion. 
 
 " No, I do not ; but my tutor did, and he strongly advised 
 me when I should be at court to talk about virtue. 'That 
 looks well/ he said. So I assure you I am well fortified with 
 it. By the way, are you hungry ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " And yet you seemed anxious to taste the broiled fowl of 
 La Belle Etoile. As for me, I am dying of starvation!" 
 
 " Well, Monsieur de Coconnas, here is a fine chance for you 
 to make use of your arguments on virtue and to put your ad- 
 miration for Plutarch to the proof, for that great writer says 
 somewhere : l It is good to accustom the soul to pain and the 
 stomach to hunger ' - ' Prepon esti ten men psvchen odune, ton 
 de gastera semo aske'in.' " 
 
 " Ah, indeed ! So you know Greek ? " exclaimed Coconnas 
 in surprise. 
 
 " Faith, yes," replied La Mole, " my tutor taught me." 
 
 " By Heaven ! count, your fortune is made if that is so ; you 
 will compose poetry with Charles IX. and you will talk Greek 
 with Queen Marguerite ! " 
 
 " Not to reckon that I can still talk Gascon with the King 
 of Navarre ! " added La Mole, laughing. 
 
 At this moment the door communicating with the King's 
 apartment opened, a step was heard, and a shade was seen 
 approaching in the darkness. This shade materialized into a 
 body. This body belonged to Monsieur de Besme. 
 
 He scrutinized both gentlemen, so as to pick out the one he 
 wanted, and then motioned Coconnas to follow him. 
 
 Coconnas waved his hand to La Mole. 
 
 De Besme conducted Coconnas to the end of the gallery, 
 opened a door, and stood at the head of a staircase. 
 
 He looked cautiously round, then up and down. 
 
 " Monsir de Gogonnas," said he, " vere are you staying ? " 
 
 " At La Belle Etoile, Rue de 1'Arbre Sec." 
 
 " Goot, goot ! dat is glose by. Go pack to your hodel gwick 
 and to-nide " 
 
 He looked around him again.
 
 52 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 "Well, to-night?" 
 
 " Veil, gome here mit a vite gross in your hat. De bass- 
 vord is ' Gouise.' Hush ! nod a vord." 
 
 " What time am I to come ? " 
 
 " Ven you hear de dogsin." 
 
 " What 's the dogsin ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " Ja ! de dogsin pum ! pum ! " 
 
 " Oh ! the tocsin ! " 
 
 " Ja, vot elus tid I zay ? " 
 
 " Good I shall be here," said Coconnas. 
 
 And, saluting De Besme, he took his departure, asking 
 himself : 
 
 " What the devil does he mean and why should the tocsin 
 be rung ? No matter ! I persist in my opinion : Monsieur de 
 Besme is a charming Tedesco Why not wait for the Comte 
 de la Mole ? Ah faith, no ! he will probably be invited to 
 supper with the King of Navarre." 
 
 And Coconnas set fojth for the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, where 
 the sign of La Belle Etoile like a lodestone attracted him. 
 
 Meantime a gallery door which led to the King of Navarre's 
 apartment opened, and a page approached Monsieur de la 
 Mole. 
 
 " You are the Comte de la Mole ? " said he. 
 
 " That is my name." 
 
 " Where do you lodge ? " 
 
 " At La, Belle fitoile, Eue de 1'Arbre Sec." 
 
 " Good, that is close to the Louvre. Listen his majesty 
 the King of Navarre has desired me to inform you that he 
 cannot at present receive you ; perhaps he may send for 
 you to-night ; but if to-morrow morning you have received 110 
 word, come to the Louvre." 
 
 " But supposing the sentinel refuse me admission." 
 
 " True : the countersign is ' Navarre ; ' that word will open 
 all doors to you." 
 
 Thanks." 
 
 " Wait, my dear sir, I am ordered to escort you to the 
 wicket gate for fear you should get lost in the Louvre." 
 
 " By the way, how about Coconnas ? " said La Mole to him- 
 self as soon as he was fairly in the street. " Oh, he will remain 
 to supper with the Due de Guise." 
 
 But as soon as he entered Maitre la Huriere's the first thing 
 La Mole saw was Coconnas seated before a gigantic omelet.
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 53 
 
 " Oho ! " cried Coconnas, laughing heartily, " I see you have 
 no more dined with the King of Navarre than I have supped 
 with the Due de Guise." 
 
 " Faith, no." 
 
 " Are you hungry now ? " 
 
 " I believe I am." 
 
 " In spite of Plutarch ? " 
 
 " Count," said La Mole, laughing, " Plutarch says in another 
 place : ( Let him that hath, share with him that hath not.' 
 Are you willing for the love of Plutarch to share your omelet 
 with me ? Then while we eat we will converse on virtue ! " 
 
 " Oh, faith, not on that subject," cried Coconnas. " It is all 
 right when one is at the Louvre and there is danger of eaves- 
 droppers and one's stomach is empty. Sit down and have 
 something to eat with me." 
 
 " There, now I see that fate has decidedly made us insepar- 
 able. Are you going to sleep here ? " 
 
 " I have not the least idea." 
 
 " Nor I either." 
 
 " At any rate, I know where I shall spend the night." 
 
 Where ? " 
 
 " Wherever you do : that is settled." 
 
 And both burst out laughing and then set to work to do 
 honor to Maitre la Huriere's omelet. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 
 
 Now if the reader is curious to know why Monsieur de la 
 Mole was not received by the King of Navarre, why Monsieur 
 de Coconnas was not permitted to see Monsieur de Guise, and 
 lastly, why instead of eating pheasants, partridges, and^venison 
 at the Louvre, both supped at the hotel of the Belle Etoile on 
 an omelet, he must kindly accompany us to the old palace of 
 kings, and follow the queen, Marguerite of Navarre, whom La 
 Mole had lost from sight at the entrance of the grand gallery. 
 
 While Marguerite was descending the staircase, the duke, 
 Henry de Guise, whom she had not seen since the night of her 
 marriage, was in the King's closet. To this staircase which
 
 54 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Marguerite was descending there was an outlet. To the closet 
 in. which Monsieur de Guise was there was a door, and this 
 door and this outlet both led to a corridor, which corridor led 
 to the apartments of the queen mother, Catharine de Medicis. 
 
 Catharine de Medicis was alone, seated near a table, with 
 her elbow leaning on a prayer-book half open, and her head 
 leaning on a hand still remarkably beautiful, by reason of 
 the cosmetics with which she was supplied by the Florentine 
 Rene, who united the double duty of perfumer and poisoner to 
 the queen mother. 
 
 The widow of Henry II. was clothed in mourning, which 
 she had not thrown off since her husband's death. At this 
 period she was about fifty-two or fifty-three years of age, and 
 owing to her stoutness and fair complexion she preserved much 
 of her early beauty. 
 
 Her rooms, like her dress, paraded her widowhood. Every- 
 thing in them bore the impress of bereavement : hangings, 
 walls, and furniture were all in mourning. Only above a kind 
 of dais covering a throne, where at that moment lay sleeping 
 the little greyhound presented to the queen mother by her son- 
 in-law, Henry of Navarre, and bearing the mythological name 
 of Phoebe, was a painted rainbow surrounded by that Greek 
 motto which King Francois I. had given her : " Phos pherei 
 de kai aithzen ; " which may be translated : 
 
 " He brings light and serenity." 
 
 Suddenly, and at a moment when the queen mother appeared 
 deeply plunged in some thought which brought a half-hesitat- 
 ing smile to her carmen-painted lips, a man opened the door, 
 raised the tapestry, and showed his pale face, saying : 
 
 " Everything is going badly." 
 
 Catharine raised her head and recognized the Due de Guise. 
 
 " Why do you say ' Everything is going badly ' ? " she re- 
 plied. "What do you mean, Henry." 
 
 " I mean that the King is more than ever taken with the 
 accursed Huguenots ; and if we await his leave to execute the 
 great enterprise, we shall wait a very long time, and perhaps 
 forever." 
 
 " Tell me what has happened," said Catharine, still preserv- 
 ing the tranquillity of countenance habitual to her, yet to 
 which, when occasion served, she could give such different 
 expressions. 
 
 " Why, just now, for the twentieth time, I asked his Majesty
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 55 
 
 whether he would still permit all those bravadoes which the 
 gentlemen of the reformed religion indulge in, since their 
 admiral was wounded." 
 
 " And what did my son reply ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " He replied, ' Monsieur le Due, you must necessarily be 
 suspected by the people as the author of the attempted assassi- 
 nation of my second father, the admiral ; defend yourself from 
 the imputation as best you may. As to me, I will defend my- 
 self properly, if I am insulted ; ' and then he turned away to 
 feed his dogs." 
 
 " And you made no attempt to retain him ? " 
 
 " Certainly I did ; but he replied to me, in that tone which 
 you so well know, and looking at me with the gaze peculiar to 
 him, ' Monsieur le Due, my dogs are hungry ; and they are not 
 men, whom I can keep waiting.' Whereupon I came straight 
 to you." 
 
 " And you have done right," said the queen mother. 
 
 " But what is now to be done ? " 
 
 " Try a last effort." 
 
 And who will try it ? " 
 
 " I will ! Is the King alone ? " 
 
 " No ; M. de Tavannes is with him." 
 
 " Await me here ; or, rather, follow me at a distance." 
 
 Catharine instantly rose and went to the chamber, where on 
 Turkey carpets and velvet cushions were the King's favorite 
 greyhounds. On perches ranged along the wall were two or 
 three valuable falcons and a small shrike, with which Charles 
 IX. amused himself in bringing down the little birds in the 
 garden of the Louvre, and that of the Tuileries, which they 
 had just begun building. 
 
 On her way the queen mother put 011 a pale and anguished 
 expression, while down her cheeks rolled a last or rather a 
 first tear. 
 
 She noiselessly approached Charles IX. as he was giving his 
 dogs fragments of cakes cut into equal portions. 
 
 " My son," said the queen, with a trembling in her voice so 
 cleverly affected that the King started. 
 
 " What is it, madame ? " said Charles, turning round sud- 
 denly. 
 
 " My son," replied Catharine, " I would ask your leave to 
 retire to one of your chateaux, no matter which, so that it be 
 as distant as possible from Paris."
 
 56 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " And wherefore, madame ? " inquired Charles IX., fixing 
 on his mother that glassy eye which, on certain occasions, 
 became so penetrating. 
 
 " Because every day I receive new insults from persons of the 
 new faith ; because to-day I hear that you have been threatened 
 by the Protestants even in your own Louvre, and I do not 
 desire to be present at such spectacles." 
 
 " But then, madame," replied Charles IX., with an expres- 
 sion full of conviction, "an attempt has been made to kill 
 their admiral. An infamous murderer has already assassinated 
 the brave M. de Mouy. Mart de ma vie, mother, there must 
 be justice in a kingdom !" 
 
 " Oh, be easy on that head, my son," said Catharine ; " they 
 will not fail justice ; for if you should refuse it, they will still 
 have it in their own way : on M. de Guise to-day, on me to- 
 morrow, and yourself later." 
 
 " Oh, madame ! " said Charles, allowing a first accent of 
 doubt to show in his voice, " do you think so ? " 
 
 " Oh, my son," replied Catharine, giving way entirely to the 
 violence of her thoughts, " do you not see that it is no longer 
 a question of Francois de Guise's death or the admiral's, 
 of the Protestant religion or the Catholic religion, but simply 
 of the substitution of Antoine de Bourbon's son for the son of 
 Henry the Second ? " 
 
 " Come, come, mother, you are falling again into your usual 
 exaggeration," said the King. 
 
 " What, then, have you in mind, my son ? " 
 
 " To wait, mother, to wait. All human wisdom is in this 
 single word. The greatest, the strongest, the most skilful is 
 he who knows how to wait." 
 
 " You may wait, then ; I will not." 
 
 Catharine made a courtesy, and stepping towards the door, 
 was about to return to her apartment. 
 
 Charles IX. stopped her. 
 
 " Well, then, really, what is best to be done, mother ? " he 
 asked, " for above all I am just, and I would have every one 
 satisfied with me." 
 
 Catharine turned toward him. 
 
 " Come, count," she said to Tavannes, who was caressing 
 the King's shrike, "tell the King your opinion as to what 
 should be done." 
 
 " Will your Majesty permit me ? " inquired the count.
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 57 
 
 " Speak, Tavannes ! speak." 
 
 " What does your Majesty do when, in the chase, the wounded 
 boar turns on you ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! monsieur, I wait for him, with firm foot," re- 
 plied Charles, " and stab him in the throat with my boar-spear." 
 
 " Simply that he may not hurt you," remarked Catharine. 
 
 " And to amuse myself," said the King, with a sigh which 
 indicated courage easily aroused even to ferocity ; " but I should 
 not amuse myself killing my subjects ; for, after all, the Hugue- 
 nots are my subjects, as well as the Catholics." 
 
 "Then, sire," said Catharine, "your subjects, the Huguenots, 
 will do like the wild boar who escapes the spear thrust into 
 his throat : they will bring down the throne." 
 
 " Nonsense ! Do you really think so, madame ? " said 
 Charles IX., with an air which denoted that he did not place 
 great faith in his mother's predictions. 
 
 " But have you not seen M. de Mouy and his party to-day ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I have seen them, for I have just left them. But 
 what does he ask for that is not just ? He has requested that 
 his father's murderer and the admiral's assassin be put to 
 death. Did we not punish M. de Montgommery for the death 
 of my father and your husband, although that death was a 
 simple accident ? " 
 
 " Very well, sire," said Catharine, piqued, " let us say no 
 more. Your majesty is under the protection of that God who 
 gives you strength, wisdom, and confidence. But I, a poor 
 woman whom God abandons, no doubt on account of my sins, 
 fear and yield." 
 
 And having said this, Catharine again courteseyed and left 
 the room, making a sign to the Due de Guise, who had at that 
 moment entered, to remain in her place, and try a last effort. 
 
 Charles IX. followed his mother with his eye, but this time 
 did not recall her. He then began to caress his dogs, whistling 
 a hunting-air. 
 
 He suddenly paused. 
 
 " My mother," said he, " is a royal spirit, and has scruples ! 
 Really, now, it is a cool proposal, to kill off some dozens of 
 Huguenots because they come to demand justice ! Is it not 
 their right?" 
 
 " Some dozens ! " murmured the Due de Guise. 
 
 " Ah ! are you here, sir ? " said the King, pretending to see 
 him for the first time. " Yes, some dozens. A tolerable waste
 
 58 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 of life ! Ah ! if any one came to me and said ; ' Sire, you shall 
 be rid of all your enemies at once, and to-morrow there shall 
 not remain one to reproach you with the death of the others,' 
 why, then, I do not say "- 
 
 Well, sire ? " 
 
 " Tavannes," said the King, " you will tire Margot ; put her 
 back on her perch. It is no reason, because she bears the 
 name of my sister, the Queen of Navarre, that every one 
 should caress her." 
 
 Tavannes put the hawk on her perch, and amused himself by 
 curling and uncurling a greyhound's ears. 
 
 " But, sire, if any one should say to your Majesty : ' Sire, 
 your Majesty shall be delivered from all your enemies to- 
 morrow ' ? " 
 
 " And by the intercession of what saint would this miracle 
 be wrought ? " 
 
 " Sire, to-day is the 24th of August, and therefore it would 
 be by the interposition of Saint Bartholomew." 
 
 " A worthy saint," replied the King, " who allowed himself 
 to be skinned alive !" 
 
 " So much the better ; the more he suffered, the more he 
 ought to have felt a desire for vengeance on his executioners." 
 
 " And will you, my cousin," said the King, " will you, with 
 your pretty little gold-hilted sword, slay ten thousand Hugue- 
 nots between now and to-morrow ? Ha ! ha ! ha ! mort de ma 
 vie ! you are very amusing, Monsieur de Guise ! " 
 
 And the King burst into a loud laugh, but a laugh so forced 
 that the room echoed with its sinister sound. 
 
 " Sire, one word and one only," continued the duke, shud- 
 dering in spite of himself at the sound of that laugh, which had 
 nothing human in it, " one signal, and all is ready. I have 
 the Swiss and eleven hundred gentlemen ; I have the light 
 horse and the citizens ; your Majesty has your guards, your 
 friends, the Catholic nobility. We are twenty to one." 
 
 " Well, then, cousin, since you are so strong, why the devil 
 do you come to fill my ears with all this ? Act without me 
 act" 
 
 And the King turned again to his dogs. 
 
 Then the portiere was raised, and Catharine reappeared. 
 
 " All goes well," she said to the duke ; " urge him, and he 
 will yield."
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 59 
 
 And the portiere fell on Catharine, without Charles IX. see- 
 ing, or at least appearing to see her. 
 
 " But yet," continued De Guise, " I must know if, in acting 
 as I desire, I shall act agreeably to your Majesty's views." 
 
 " Really, cousin Henry, you put the knife to my throat ! 
 But I shall live. By Heaven ! am I not the king ? " 
 
 " No, not yet, sire ; but, if you will, you shall be so to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " Ah what ! " continued Charles, "-. you would kill the King 
 of Navarre, the Prince de Conde in my Louvre ah ! " 
 
 Then he added, in a voice scarcely audible, " Without 
 the walls, I do not say " 
 
 " Sire," cried the duke, " they are going out this evening to 
 join in a revel with your brother, the Due d'Alenqon." 
 
 " Tavannes," said the King, with well-affected impatience, 
 " do not you see that you are teasing the dog ? Here, Actaeon, 
 come ! " 
 
 And Charles IX. went out without waiting to hear more, 
 and Tavannes and the Due de Guise were left almost as un- 
 certain as before. 
 
 Meantime another scene was passing in Catharine's apart- 
 ment. After she had given the Due de Guise her counsel to re- 
 main firm, she returned to her rooms, where she found assem- 
 bled the persons who were usually present when she went to 
 bed. 
 
 Her face was now as full of joy as it had been downcast 
 when she set out. With her most agreeable manner she dis- 
 missed her women one by one and her courtiers, and there 
 remained only Madame Marguerite, who, seated on a coffer 
 near the open window, was looking at the sky, absorbed in 
 thought. 
 
 Two or three times, when she thus found herself alone with 
 her daughter, the queen mother opened her mouth to speak, 
 but each time a gloomy thought withheld the words ready to 
 escape her lips. 
 
 Suddenly the portiere was raised, and Henry of Navarre 
 appeared. 
 
 The little greyhound, which was asleep on the throne, 
 leaped up and bounded towards him. 
 
 " You here, my son ! " said Catharine, starting. " Do you 
 sup in the Louvre to-night ? "
 
 60 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " No, madame," replied Henry, " we are going into the city 
 to-night, with Messieurs d'Alenqon and Be Conde. I almost 
 expected to find them here paying their court to you." 
 
 Catharine smiled. 
 
 " Go, gentlemen, go men are so fortunate in being able to 
 go about as they please ! Are they not, my daughter ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Marguerite, " liberty is so glorious, so sweet 
 a thing." 
 
 " Does that imply that I restrict yours, madame ? " inquired 
 Henry, bowing to his wife. 
 
 " No, sire ; I do not complain for myself, but for women in 
 general." 
 
 " Are you going to see the admiral, my son ? " asked Catha- 
 rine. 
 
 " Yes, possibly." 
 
 " Go, that will set a good example, and to-morrow you will 
 give me news of him." 
 
 " Then, madame, I will go, since you approve of this step." 
 
 " Oh," said Catharine, " my approval is nothing But who 
 goes there ? Send him away, send him away." 
 
 Henry started to go to the door to carry out Catharine's 
 order ; but at the same instant the portiere was raised and 
 Madame de Sauve showed her blond head. 
 
 " Madame," said she, " it is Rene, the perfumer, whom your 
 majesty sent for." 
 
 Catharine cast a glance as quick as lightning at Henry of 
 Navarre. 
 
 The young prince turned slightly red and then fearfully 
 pale. Indeed, the name of his mother's assassin had been 
 spoken ; he felt that his face betrayed his emotion, and he went 
 and leaned against the bar of the window. 
 
 The little greyhound growled. 
 
 At the same moment two persons entered the one an- 
 nounced, and the other having no need to be so. 
 
 The first was Rene, the perfumer, who approached Catha- 
 rine with all the servile obsequiousness of Florentine servants. 
 He held in his hand a box, which he opened, and all the com- 
 partments were seen filled with powders and flasks. 
 
 The second was Madame de Lorraine, Marguerite's eldest 
 sister. She entered by a small secret door, which led from 
 the King's closet, and, all pale and trembling, and hoping not 
 to be observed by Catharine, who was examining, with Madame
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 61 
 
 de Sauve, the contents of the box brought by Rene, seated 
 herself beside Marguerite, near whom the King of Navarre 
 was standing, with his hand on his brow, like one who tries 
 to rouse himself from some sudden shock. 
 
 At this instant Catharine turned round. 
 
 " Daughter," she said to Marguerite, " you may retire to 
 your room. My son, you may go and amuse yourself in the 
 city." 
 
 Marguerite rose, and Henry turned half round. 
 
 Madame de Lorraine seized Marguerite's hand. 
 
 " Sister," she whispered, with great quickness, " in the name 
 of the Due de Guise, who now saves you, as you saved him, 
 do not go from here do not go to your apartments." 
 
 " Eh ! what say you, Claude ? " inquired Catharine, turning 
 round. 
 
 " Nothing, mother." 
 
 " You were whispering to Marguerite." 
 
 " Simply to wish her good-night, and convey a greeting to 
 her from the Duchesse de Nevers." 
 
 " And where is that fair duchess ? " 
 
 " At her brother-in-law's, M. de Guise's." 
 
 Catharine looked suspiciously at the women and frown- 
 ing: 
 
 " Come here, Claude," said the qiieen mother. 
 
 Claude obeyed, and the queen seized her hand. 
 
 " What did you say to her, indiscreet girl that you are ? " 
 she murmured, squeezing her daughter's wrist until she nearly 
 shrieked with pain. 
 
 " Madame," said Henry to his wife, having lost nothing 
 of the movements of the queen, Claude, or Marguerite, 
 " madam e, will you allow me the honor of kissing your 
 hand ? " 
 
 Marguerite extended her trembling hand. 
 
 " What did she say to you ? " whispered Henry, as he 
 stooped to imprint a kiss on her hand. 
 
 " Not to go out. In the name of Heaven, do not you go 
 out either ! " 
 
 This was like a flash ; but by its light, swift as it was, 
 Henry at once detected a complete plot. 
 
 " This is not all," added Marguerite ; " here is a letter, 
 which a country gentleman brought." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ? "
 
 62 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Thank you," he said, taking the letter and putting it 
 under his doublet ; and, passing in front of his bewildered wife, 
 he placed his hand on the shoulder of the Florentine. 
 
 " Well, Maitre Rene ! " he said, " and how go commercial 
 affairs ? 
 
 " Pretty well, monseigneur, pretty well," replied the poi- 
 soner, with his perfidious smile. 
 
 " I should think so," said Henry, " with men who, like you, 
 supply all the crowned heads at home and abroad." 
 
 " Except the King of Navarre," replied the Florentine, 
 impudently. 
 
 " Venire saint gris, Maitre Rene," replied the king, " you are 
 right ; and yet my poor mother, who also bought of you, rec- 
 ommended you to me with her dying breath. Come to me 
 to-morrow, Maitre Rene, or day after to-morrow, and bring 
 your best perfumes." 
 
 " That would not be a bad notion," said Catharine, smiling; 
 " for it is said " 
 
 " That I need some perfumery," interrupted Henry, laugh- 
 ing ; " who told you that, mother ? Was it Margot ? " 
 
 " No, my son," replied Catharine, " it was Madame de 
 Sauve." 
 
 At this moment the Duchesse de Lorraine, who in spite of all 
 her efforts could no longer contain herself, burst into loud sobs. 
 
 Henry did not even turn toward her. 
 
 " Sister, what is the matter ? " cried Marguerite, darting 
 toward Claude. 
 
 " Nothing," said Catharine, passing between the two young 
 women, " nothing ; she has those nervous attacks, for which 
 Mazille prescribes aromatic preparations." 
 
 And again, and with still more force than before, she pressed 
 her eldest daughter's arm ; then, turning toward the youngest : 
 
 " There, Margot," she said, " did you not hear me request 
 you to retire to your room ? If that is not sufficient, I com- 
 mand you." 
 
 "Excuse me, madame," replied Marguerite, trembling and 
 pale; "I wish your majesty good-night." 
 
 " I hope your wishes may be heard. Good-night good- 
 night ! " 
 
 Marguerite withdrew, staggering, and in vain seeking to 
 meet her husband's eyes, but he did not even turn toward her.
 
 THE DEBT PAID. 63 
 
 There was a moment's silence, during which Catharine 
 remained with her eyes fastened on the Duchess of Lorraine, 
 who, without speaking, looked at her mother with clasped 
 hands. 
 
 Henry's back was still turned, but he was watching the 
 scene in a mirror, while seeming to curl his mustache with a 
 pomade which Rene had just given to him. 
 
 " And you, Henry," said Catharine, " are you still intending 
 to go out ? " 
 
 "Yes, that's true," exclaimed the king. "Farth, I was for- 
 getting that the Due d'Alenqon and the Prince de Conde are 
 waiting for me ! These are admirable perfumes ; they quite 
 overpower one, and destroy one's memory. Good evening, ma- 
 dame." 
 
 " Good evening ! To-morrow you will perhaps bring me 
 tidings of the admiral." 
 
 " Without fail - Well, Phoebe, what is it ? " 
 
 " Phoebe ! " said the queen mother, impatiently. 
 
 " Call her, madame," said the Bearnais, " for she will not 
 allow me to go out." 
 
 The queen mother rose, took the little greyhound by the 
 collar, and held her while Henry left the apartment, with his 
 features as calm and smiling as if he did not feel in his heart 
 that his life was in imminent peril. 
 
 Behind him the little dog, set free by Catharine de Medicis, 
 rushed to try and overtake him, but the door was closed, and 
 Phoebe could only put her long nose under the tapestry and 
 give a long and mournful howl. 
 
 "Now, Charlotte," said Catharine to Madame de Sauve, 
 " go and find Messieurs de Guise and Tavannes, who are in 
 my oratory, and return with them ; then remain with the 
 Duchess of Lorraine, who has the vapors."
 
 64 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 
 
 WHEN La Mole and Coconnas had finished their supper 
 and it was meagre enough, for the fowls of La Belle 
 Etoile had their pin feathers singed only on the sign 
 Coconnas whirled his chair around on one leg, stretched out 
 his feet, leaned one elbow on the table, and drinking a last 
 glass of wine, said : 
 
 " Do you mean to go to bed instantly, Monsieur de la 
 Mole ? " 
 
 " Ma foil I am very much inclined, for it is possible that I 
 may be called up in the night." 
 
 " And I, too," said Coconnas ; " but it appears to me that, 
 under the circumstances, instead of going to bed and making 
 those wait who are to come to us, we should do better to call 
 for cards and play a game. They would then find us quite 
 ready." 
 
 " I would willingly accept your proposal, sir, but I have very 
 little money for play. I have scarce a hundred gold crowns in 
 my valise, for my whole treasure. I rely on that with which 
 to make my fortune ! " 
 
 " A hundred gold crowns ! " cried Coconnas, " and you com- 
 plain ? By Heaven ! I have but six ! " 
 
 " Why," replied La Mole, " I saw you draw from your pocket 
 a purse which appeared not only full, but I should say bloated." 
 
 " Ah," said Coconnas, " that is to defray an old debt which 
 I am compelled to pay to an old friend of my father, whom I 
 suspect to be, like yourself, somewhat of a Huguenot. Yes, 
 there are here a hundred rose nobles," he added, slapping his 
 pocket, " but these hundred rose nobles belong to Maitre Mer- 
 candon. My personal patrimony, as I tell you, is limited to 
 six crowns." 
 
 " How, then, can you play ? " 
 
 " Why, it is because of that I wished to play. Besides, an 
 idea occurs to me." 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " We both came to Paris on the same errand." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Each of us has a powerful protector."
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 65 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " You rely on yours, as I rely on mine." 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Well, then, it occurred to me that we should play first 
 for our money, and afterwards for the first favor which came 
 to us, either from the court or from our mistress" 
 
 " Really, a very ingenious idea," said La Mole, with a smile, 
 " but I confess I am not such a gamester as to risk my whole 
 life on a card or a turn of the dice ; for the first favor which 
 may come either to you or to me will, in all probability, involve 
 our whole life." 
 
 " Well, let us drop out of account the first favor from the 
 court and play for our mistress's first favor." 
 
 " I see only one objection to that," said La Mole. 
 
 " What objection ? " 
 
 " I have no mistress ! " 
 
 " Nor I either. But I expect to have one soon. Thank 
 God ! we are not cut out to want one long ! " 
 
 " Undoubtedly, as you say, you will have your wish, Mon- 
 sieur de Coconnas, but as I have not the same confidence in 
 my love-star, I feel that it would be robbery, I to pit my 
 fortune against yours. But, if you will, let us play until your 
 six crowns be lost or doubled, and if lost, and you desire to 
 continue the game, you are a gentleman, and your word is as 
 good as gold." 
 
 " Well and good ! " cried Coconnas, " that 's the talk ! You 
 are right, sir, a gentleman's word is as good as gold, especially 
 when he has credit at court. Thus, believe me, I did not risk 
 too much when I proposed to play for the first favor we might 
 receive." 
 
 " Doubtless, and you might lose it, but I could not gain it ; 
 for, as I am with the King of Navarre, I could not receive 
 anything from the Due de Guise." 
 
 " Ah, the heretic ! " muttered the landlord as he was at 
 work polishing up his old helmet, " I got on the right scent, 
 did I ? " And he stopped his work long enough to cross him- 
 self piously. 
 
 " Well, then," continued Coconnas, shuffling the cards which 
 the waiter had just brought him, " you are of the " 
 
 " Of the what ? " 
 
 " Of the new religion." 
 
 " I ? "
 
 66 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, you." 
 
 "Well, say that I am," said La Mole, with a smile, "have 
 you anything against us ? " 
 
 " Oh ! thank God, no ! It is all the same to me. I hate 
 Huguenotry with all niy heart, but I do not hate the Huguenots ; 
 besides, they are in fashion just now." 
 
 " Yes," replied La Mole, smiling ; " to wit, the shooting at 
 the admiral with an arquebuse ; but supposing we have a game 
 of arquebusades." 
 
 " Anything you please," said Coconnas, " provided I get to 
 playing, it is all the same to me." 
 
 11 Well, let us play, then," said La Mole, picking up his cards 
 and arranging them in his hand. 
 
 " Yes, play ahead and with all confidence, for even if I were 
 to lose a hundred crowns of gold against yours I shall have 
 the wherewithal to pay you to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Then your fortune will come while you are asleep." 
 
 "No; I am going to find it." 
 
 " Where ? Tell me and I '11 go with you." 
 
 " At the Louvre." 
 
 " Are you going back there to-night ? " 
 
 " Yes ; to-night I have a private audience with the great 
 Due de Guise." 
 
 As soon as Coconnas began to speak about going to seek his 
 fortune at the Louvre, La Huriere stopped polishing his sallet 
 and went and stood behind La Mole's chair, so that Coconnas 
 alone could see him, and made signs to him, which the Pied- 
 montese, absorbed in his game and the conversation, did not 
 notice. 
 
 " Well, it is miraculous," remarked La Mole ; " and you 
 were right when you said that we were born under the same 
 star. I have also an appointment at the Louvre to-night, but 
 not with the Due de Guise ; mine is with the King of 
 Navarre." 
 
 " Have you a pass-word ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " A rallying sign ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " Well, I have one, and my pass-word is " 
 
 As the Piedmontese was saying these words, La Huriere 
 made such an expressive gesture that the indiscreet gentleman, 
 who happened at that instant to raise his head, paused petri-
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 67 
 
 fied more by the action than by the turn of the cards which 
 had just caused him to lose three crowns. 
 
 La Mole looked around, but saw only his landlord standing 
 behind him with folded arms and wearing on his head the 
 sallet which he had seen him polishing the moment before. 
 
 " What is the matter, pray ? " inquired La Mole of Coconnas. 
 
 Coconuas looked at the landlord and at his companion with- 
 out answering, for he could make nothing out of Maitre La 
 Huriere's redoubled gestures. 
 
 La Huriere saw that he must go to his aid : 
 
 " It is only that I am very fond of cards myself," said he, 
 speaking rapidly, " and I came closer to see the trick which 
 made you gain, and the gentleman saw me with my war hel- 
 met on, and as I am only a poor bourgeois, it surprised him." 
 
 " You make a fine figure, indeed you do ! " cried La Mole, 
 with a burst of laughter. 
 
 " Oh, sir," replied La Huriere with admirably pretended 
 good nature and a shrug of the shoulders expressive of his 
 inferiority, " we poor fellows are not very valiant and our 
 appearance is not elegant. It is all right for you fine gentle- 
 men to wear glittering helmets and carry keen rapiers, and 
 provided we mount guard strictly " 
 
 " Aha ! " said La Mole, taking his turn at shuffling the cards. 
 " So you mount guard, do you ? " 
 
 " Eh, mon Dieu, oui, Monsieur le Comte ! I am sergeant in a 
 company of citizen militia." 
 
 After having said this while La Mole was engaged in deal- 
 ing the cards, La Huriere withdrew, putting his finger on his 
 lips as a sign of discretion for Coconnas, who was more amazed 
 than ever. 
 
 This signal for caution was doubtless the reason that he lost 
 almost as rapidly the second time as the first. 
 
 " Well," observed La Mole, " this makes exactly your six 
 crowns. Will you have your revenge on your future fortune ? " 
 
 " Willingly," replied Coconnas. 
 
 " But before you begin, did you not say you had an appoint- 
 ment with the Due de Guise ? " 
 
 Coconnas looked toward the kitchen, and saw the great eyes 
 of La Huriere, who was repeating his warning. 
 
 " Yes," he replied, " but it is not yet time. But now let us 
 talk a little about yourself, Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " We should do better, I think, by talking of the game, my
 
 68 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 dear Monsieur de Coconnas ; for unless I am very much mis- 
 taken, I am in a fair way of gaining six more crowns." 
 
 " By Heaven ! that is true ! I always heard that the Hugue- 
 nots had good luck at cards. Devil take me if I have n't a 
 good mind to turn Huguenot ! " 
 
 La Huriere's eyes sparkled like two coals ; but Coconnas, 
 absorbed in his game, did not notice them. " Do so, count, do 
 so," said La Mole, " and though the way in which the change 
 came about is odd, you will be well received among us." 
 
 Coconnas scratched his ear. 
 
 " If I were sure that your good luck came from that," he 
 said, " I would ; for I really do not stickle so overwhelmingly 
 for the mass, and as the King does not think so much of it 
 either " 
 
 " Then it is such a beautiful religion," said La Mole ; " so 
 simple, so pure " 
 
 " And, moreover, it is in fashion," said Coconnas ; " and, 
 moreover, it brings good luck at cards ; for the devil take me 
 if you do not hold all the aces, and yet I have watched you 
 closely, and -you play very fairly; you do not cheat; it must 
 be the religion " 
 
 " You owe me six crowns more," said La Mole, quietly. 
 
 " Ah, how you tempt me ! " said Coconnas ; " and if I am not 
 satisfied with Monsieur de Guise to-night " 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well, to-morrow I will ask you to present me to the King 
 of Navarre and, be assured, if once I become a Huguenot, I 
 will out-Huguenot Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, and all the 
 reformers on earth ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " said La Mole, " you will get into a quarrel with 
 our host." 
 
 " Ah, that is true," said Coconnas, looking toward the 
 kitchen ; " but no, he is not listening ; he is too much occu- 
 pied at this moment." 
 
 " What is he doing, pray ? " inquired La Mole, who could 
 not see him from where he was. 
 
 " He is talking with devil take me ! it is he ! " 
 
 Who ? " 
 
 " Why, that night-bird with whom he was discoursing when 
 we arrived. The man in the yellow doublet and drab-colored 
 cloak. By Heaven ! how earnestly he talks. Say, Maitre La 
 Huriere, are you engaged in politics ? "
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 69 
 
 But this time Maitre La Huriere's answer was a gesture so 
 energetic and imperious that in spite of his love for the pict- 
 ure card Coconnas got up and went to him. 
 
 " What is the matter with you ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " You wish wine, sir ? " said La Huriere, seizing Coconnas' 
 hand eagerly. " You shall have it. Gregoire, wine for these 
 gentlemen ! " 
 
 Then he whispered in his ear : 
 
 " Silence, if you value your life, silence ! And get rid of 
 your companion." 
 
 La Huriere was so pale, the sallow man so lugubrious, that 
 Coconnas felt a shiver run over him, and turning to La Mole 
 said : 
 
 " My dear sir, I must beg you to excuse me. I have lost 
 fifty crowns in the turn of a hand I am in bad luck to-night, 
 and I fear I may get into difficulties." 
 
 " Well, sir, as you please," replied La Mole ; " besides, I 
 shall not be sorry to lie down for a time. Maitre la Huriere ! " 
 
 " Monsieur le Comte ? " 
 
 " If any one comes for me from the King of Navarre, wake 
 me ; I shall be dressed, and consequently ready." 
 
 " So shall I, 1 ' said Coconnas ; " and that I may not keep his 
 highness waiting, I will prepare the sign. Maitre la Huriere, 
 some white paper and scissors ! " 
 
 " Gregoire ! " cried La Huriere, " white paper to write a 
 letter on and scissors to cut the envelope with." 
 
 " Ah ! " said the Piedmontese to himself. " Something 
 extraordinary is going on here ! " 
 
 " Good-night, Monsieur de Coconnas," said La Mole ; " and 
 you, landlord, be so good as to light me to my room. Good 
 luck, my friend ! " and La Mole disappeared up the winding 
 staircase, followed by La Huriere. 
 
 Then the mysterious man, taking Coconnas by the arm, said 
 to him, speaking very rapidly : 
 
 " Sir, you have very nearly betrayed a secret on which 
 depends the fate of a kingdom. God saw fit to have you close 
 your mouth in time. One word more, and I should have brought 
 you down with my arquebuse. Now we are alone, fortunately ; 
 listen ! " 
 
 " But who are you that you address me with this tone of 
 authority ? " 
 
 " Did you ever hear talk of the Sire de Maurevel ? "
 
 70 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " The assassin of the admiral ? " 
 
 " And of Captain de Mouy." 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, I am the Sire de Maurevel." 
 
 " Oho ! " said Coconnas. 
 
 " Now listen to me ! " 
 
 " By Heaven ! I assure you I will listen ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Maurevel, putting his finger on his mouth. 
 
 Coconnas listened. 
 
 At that moment he heard the landlord close the door of a 
 chamber, then the door of a corridor, and bolt it. Then he 
 rushed down the stairs to join the two speakers. 
 
 He offered a chair to Coconnas, a chair to Maurevel, and 
 took one for himself. 
 
 "All is safe now, Monsieur de Maurevel," said he; "you 
 may speak." 
 
 It was striking eleven o'clock at Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois. 
 Maurevel counted each of the hammer-strokes as they sounded 
 clear and melancholy through the night, and when the last 
 echo had died away in space he turned to Coconnas, who was 
 greatly mystified at seeing the precautions taken by the two 
 men. " Sir," he asked, " are you a good Catholic ? " 
 
 " Why, I think I am," replied Coconnas. 
 
 " Sir," continued Maurevel, " are you devoted to the King ? " 
 
 " Heart and soul ! I even feel that you insult me, sir, in 
 asking such a question." 
 
 " We will not quarrel over that ; only you are going to fol- 
 low us." 
 
 Whither ? " 
 
 " That is of little consequence put yourself in our hands ; 
 your fortune, and perhaps your life, is at stake." 
 
 " I tell you, sir, that at midnight I have an appointment at 
 the Louvre." 
 
 " That is where we are going." 
 
 "Monsieur de Guise is expecting me there." 
 
 " And us also." 
 
 " But I have a private pass-word," continued Coconnas, 
 somewhat mortified at sharing with the Sire de Maurevel 
 and Maitre La Huriere the honor of his audience. 
 
 " So have we." 
 
 " But I have a sign of recognition." 
 
 Maurevel smiled.
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 71 
 
 Then he drew from beneath his doublet a handful of crosses 
 in white stuff, gave one to La Huriere, one to Coconnas, and 
 took another for himself. La Huriere fastened his to his 
 helmet. Maurevel attached his to the side of his hat. 
 
 " Ah, " said Coconnas, amazed, " the appointment and the 
 rallying pass-word were for every one ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir, that is to say, for all good Catholics." 
 
 " Then there is a festival at the Louvre some royal ban- 
 quet, is there not ? " said Coconnas ; " and it is desired to 
 exclude those hounds of Huguenots, good, capital, excel- 
 lent! They have been showing off too long." 
 
 " Yes, there is to be a festival at the Louvre a royal 
 banquet ; and the Huguenots are invited ; and moreover, 
 they will be the heroes of the festival, and will pay for the 
 banquet, and if you will be one of us, we will begin by going 
 to invite their principal champion their Gideon, as they 
 call him." 
 
 " The admiral ! " cried Coconnas. 
 
 " Yes, the old Gaspard, whom I missed, like a fool, though 
 I aimed at him with the King's arquebuse." 
 
 " And this, my gentleman, is why I was polishing my sallet, 
 sharpening my sword, and putting an edge on my knives," 
 said La Huriere, in a harsh voice consonant with war. 
 
 At these words Coconnas shuddered and turned very pale, 
 for he began to understand.. 
 
 " What, really," he exclaimed, " this festival this banquet 
 is a you are going " 
 
 " You have been a long time guessing, sir," said Maurevel, 
 " and it is easy to see that you are not so weary of these inso- 
 lent heretics as we are." 
 
 " And you take on yourself," he said, " to go to the admiral's 
 and to" - 
 
 Maurevel smiled, and drawing Coconnas to the window he 
 said: 
 
 " Look there ! do you see, in the small square at the end 
 of the street, behind the church, a troop drawn up noiselessly 
 in the shadow?" 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " The men forming that troop have, like Maitre la Huriere, 
 and myself, and yourself, a cross in their hats." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well, these men are a company of Swiss, from the smaller
 
 72 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 cantons, commanded by Toquenot, you know the men from 
 the smaller cantons are the King's cronies." 
 
 " Oho ! " said Coconnas. 
 
 " Now look at that troop of horse passing along the Quay 
 do you recognize their leader ? " 
 
 " How can I recognize him ? " asked Cocounas, with a shud- 
 der ; " I reached Paris only this evening." 
 
 " Well, then, he is the one with whom you have a rendez- 
 vous at the Louvre at midnight. See, he is going to wait for 
 you ! " 
 
 " The Due de Guise ? " 
 
 " Himself ! His escorts are Marcel, the ex-provost of the 
 tradesmen, and Jean Choron, the present provost. These two 
 are going to summon their companies, and here, down this 
 street comes the captain of the quarter. See what he will 
 do!" 
 
 " He knocks at each door ; but what is there on the doors 
 at which he knocks ? " 
 
 " A white cross, young man, such as that which we have in 
 our hats. In days gone by they let God bear the burden of 
 distinguishing his own ; now we have grown more civilized 
 and we save him the bother." 
 
 " But at each house at which he knocks the door opens and 
 from each house armed citizens come out." 
 
 " He will knock here in turn, and we shall in turn go out." 
 
 " What," said Coconnas, " every one called out to go and 
 kill one old Huguenot ? By Heaven ! it is shameful ! It is 
 an affair of cut-throats, and not of soldiers." 
 
 "Young man," replied Maurevel, "if the old are objection- 
 able to you, you may choose young ones you will find plenty 
 for all tastes. If you despise daggers, use your sword, for the 
 Huguenots are not the men to allow their throats to be cut 
 without defending themselves, and you know that Huguenots, 
 young or old, are tough." 
 
 " But are they all going to be killed, then ? " cried Coconnas. 
 
 All ! " 
 
 " By the King's order ? " 
 
 " By order of the King and Monsieur de Guise." 
 
 "And when?" 
 
 " When you hear the bell of Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois." 
 
 " Oh ! so that was why that amiable German attached to 
 the Due de Guise what is his name ? "
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 73 
 
 " Monsieur de Besme." 
 
 " That is it. That is why Monsieur de Besme told me to 
 hasten at the first sound of the tocsin." 
 
 " So then you have seen Monsieur de Besme ? " 
 
 " I have seen him and spoken to him." 
 
 Where ? " 
 
 " At the Louvre. He admitted me, gave me the pass-word, 
 gave me " 
 
 " Look there ! " 
 
 " By Heaven ! there he is himself." 
 
 " Would you speak with him ? " 
 
 " Why, really, I should not object." 
 
 Maurevel carefully opened the window ; Besme was passing 
 at the moment with twenty soldiers. 
 
 " Guise and Lorraine ! " said Maurevel. 
 
 Besme turned round, and perceiving that he himself was 
 addressed, came under the window. 
 
 " Oh, is it you, Monsir de Maurefel ? " 
 
 " Yes, 't is I ; what are you looking for ? " 
 
 " I am looking for de hostelry of de Belle Etoile, to find a 
 Monsir Gogonnas." 
 
 " Here I am, Monsieur de Besme," said the young man. 
 
 " Goot, goot ; are you ready ? " 
 
 Yes to do what ? " 
 
 " Vatefer Monsieur de Maurefel may dell you, for he is a goot 
 Gatolic." 
 
 " Do you hear ? " inquired Maurevel. 
 
 " Yes," replied Coconnas, " but, Monsieur de Besme, where are 
 you going ? " 
 
 " I ? " asked Monsieur de Besme, with a laugh. 
 
 " Yes, you." 
 
 " I am going to fire off a leedle wort at the admiral." 
 
 " Fire off two, if need be," said Maurevel, " and this time, if 
 he gets up at the first, do not let him get up at the second." 
 
 " Haf no vear, Monsir de Maurefel, haf no vear, und mean- 
 vile get dis yoong mahn on de right drack." 
 
 " Don't worry about me : the Coconnas are regular blood- 
 hounds, and I am a chip of the old block." ' 
 
 " Atieu." 
 
 Go on ! " 
 
 " Unt you ? " 
 
 'Bone cliiens chaseent de race.
 
 74 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Begin the hunt ; we shall be at the death." 
 
 De Besme went on, and Maurevel closed the window. 
 
 " Did you hear, young man ? " said Maurevel ; " if you have 
 any private enemy, even if he is not altogether a Huguenot, 
 you can put him on your list, and he will pass with the 
 others." 
 
 Coconnas, more bewildered than ever with what he saw and 
 heard, looked first at his landlord, who was assuming formid- 
 able attitudes, and then at Maurevel, who quietly drew a paper 
 from his pocket. 
 
 " Here 's my list," said he ; " three hundred. Let each good 
 Catholic do this night one-tenth part of the business I shall 
 do, and to-morrow there will not remain one single heretic in 
 the kingdom." 
 
 " Hush ! " said La Huriere. 
 
 " What is it ? " inquired Coconnas and Maurevel together. 
 
 They heard the first pulsation from the bell in Saint Germain 
 1'Auxerrois. 
 
 " The signal ! " exclaimed Maurevel. " The time is set for- 
 ward ! I was told it was appointed at midnight so much 
 the better. When it concerns the interest of God and the 
 King, it is better for clocks to be fast than slow ! " 
 
 In reality they heard the church bell mournfully tolling. 
 
 Then a shot was fired, and almost instantly the light of 
 several torches blazed up like flashes of lightning in the Rue 
 de 1'Arbre Sec. 
 
 Coconnas passed his hand over his brow, which was damp 
 with perspiration. 
 
 " It has begun ! " cried Maurevel. " Now to work away ! " 
 
 " One moment, one moment ! " said the landlord. " Before 
 we begin, let us protect the camp, as we say in the army. I 
 do not wish to have my wife and children's throats cut while I 
 am out. There is a Huguenot here." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ! " said Coconnas, starting. 
 
 " Yes, the heretic has thrown himself into the wolf's throat." 
 
 " What ! " said Coconnas, " would you attack your guest ? " 
 
 " I gave an extra edge to my rapier for his special benefit." 
 
 " Oho ! " said the Piedmontese, frowning. 
 
 " I never yet killed anything but my rabbits, ducks, and 
 chickens," replied the worthy inn-keeper, " and I do not know 
 very well how to go to work to kill a man ; well, I will practise on 
 him, and if I am clumsy, no one will be there to laugh at me."
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 75 
 
 " By Heaven ! it is hard," said Coconnas. " Monsieur de 
 la Mole is my companion ; Monsieur de la Mole has supped 
 with me ; Monsieur de la Mole has played with me " 
 
 " Yes ; but Monsieur de la Mole is a heretic," said Maurevel. 
 " Monsieur de la Mole is doomed ; and if we do not kill him, 
 others will." 
 
 " Not to say," added the host, " that he has won fifty crowns 
 from you." 
 
 " True," said Coconnas ; " but fairly, I am sure." 
 
 "Fairly or not, you must pay them, while, if I kill him, 
 you are quits." 
 
 " Come, come ! " cried Maurevel ; " make haste, gentlemen, 
 an arquebuse-shot, a rapier-thrust, a blow with a mallet, a 
 stroke with any weapon you please ; but get done with it if you 
 wish to reach the admiral's in time to help Monsieur de Guise 
 as we promised." 
 
 Coconnas sighed. 
 
 "I '11 make haste ! " cried La Huriere, " wait for me." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas, " he will put the poor fellow 
 to great pain, and, perhaps, rob him. I must be present to finish 
 him, if requisite, and to prevent any one from touching his 
 money." 
 
 And impelled by this happy thought, Coconnas followed La 
 Huriere upstairs, and soon overtook him, for according as the 
 landlord went up, doubtless as the effect of reflection, he slack- 
 ened his pace. 
 
 As he reached the door, Coconnas still following, many gun- 
 shots were discharged in the street. Instantly La Mole was 
 heard to leap out of bed and the flooring creaked under his 
 feet. 
 
 " Diable ! " muttered La Huriere, somewhat disconcerted ; 
 " that has awakened him, I think." 
 
 " It looks like it," observed Coconnas. 
 
 " And he will defend himself." 
 
 " He is capable of it. Suppose, now, Maitre la Huriere, he 
 were to kill you ; that would be droll ! " 
 
 " Hum, hum ! " responded the landlord, but knowing himself 
 to be armed with a good arquebuse, he took courage and 
 dashed the door in with a vigorous kick. 
 
 La Mole, without his hat, but dressed, was entrenched behind 
 his bed, his sword between his teeth, and his pistols in his 
 hands.
 
 76 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Oho ! " said Coconnas, his nostrils expanding as if he 
 had been a wild beast smelling blood, " this grows interesting, 
 Maitre la Huriere. Forward ! " 
 
 " Ah, you would assassinate me, it seems ! " cried La Mole, 
 with glaring eyes ; " and it is you, wretch ! " 
 
 Maitre la Huriere's reply to this was to take aim at the 
 young man with his arquebuse ; but La Mole was on his 
 guard, and as he fired, fell on his knees, and the ball flew over 
 his head. 
 
 " Help ! " cried La Mole ; " help, Monsieur de Coconnas ! " 
 
 " Help, Monsieur de Maurevel ! help ! " cried La Huriere. 
 
 "Mafoif Monsieur de la Mole," replied Coconnas, "all I 
 can do in this affair is not to join the attack against you. It 
 seems all the Huguenots are to be put to death to-night, in the 
 King's name. Get out of it as well as you can." 
 
 " Ah, traitors ! assassins ! is it so ? Well, then, take this ! " 
 and La Mole, aiming in his turn, fired one of his pistols. La 
 Huriere, who had kept his eye on him, dodged to one side ; 
 but Coconnas, not anticipating such a reply, stayed where he 
 was, and the bullet grazed his shoulder. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " he exclaimed, grinding his teeth ; " I have 
 it. Well, then, let it be we two, since you will have it so! " 
 
 And drawing his rapier, he rushed on La Mole. 
 
 Had he been alone La Mole would, doubtless, have awaited 
 his attack; but Coconnas had La Huriere to aid him, who 
 was reloading his gun, and Maurevel, who, responding to the 
 innkeeper's invitation, was rushing up-stairs four steps at a 
 time. 
 
 La Mole, therefore, dashed into a small closet, which he 
 bolted inside. 
 
 " Ah, coward ! " cried Coconnas, furious, and striking at the 
 door with the pommel of his sword ; " wait ! wait ! and I 
 will make as many holes in your body as you have gained 
 crowns of me to-night. I came up to prevent you from suffer- 
 ing ! Oh, I came up to prevent you from being robbed and you 
 pay me back by putting a bullet into my shoulder! Wait for 
 me, coward, wait ! " 
 
 While this was going on, Maitre la Huriere came up and 
 with one blow with the butt-end of his arquebuse smashed in 
 the door. 
 
 Coconnas darted into the closet, but only bare walls met him. 
 The closet was empty and the window was open.
 
 THE NIGHT OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572. 77 
 
 " He must have jumped out," said the landlord, " and as we 
 are on the fourth story, he is surely dead." 
 
 " Or he has escaped by the roof of the next house," said 
 Coconnas, putting his leg on the window-sill and preparing to 
 follow him over this narrow and slippery route ; but Maurevel 
 and La Huriere seized him and drew him back into the 
 room. 
 
 " Are you mad ? " they both exclaimed at once ; " you will 
 kill yourself ! " 
 
 " Bah ! " said Goconnas, " I am a mountaineer, and used to 
 climbing glaciers ; besides, when a man has once offended 
 me, I would go up to heaven or descend to hell with him, by 
 whatever route he pleases. Let me do as I wish." 
 
 " Well," said Maurevel, " he is either dead or a long way off 
 by this time. Come with us ; and if he escape you, you will 
 find a thousand others to take his place." 
 
 " You are right," cried Coconnas. " Death to the Hugue- 
 nots ! I want revenge, and the sooner the better." 
 
 And the three rushed down the staircase, like an avalanche. 
 
 " To the admiral's ! " shouted Maurevel. 
 
 " To the admiral's ! " echoed La Huriere. 
 
 " To the admiral's, then, if it must be so ! " cried Coconnas 
 in his turn. 
 
 And all three, leaving the Belle Etoile in charge of Gregoire 
 and the other waiters, hastened toward the admiral's hotel in 
 the Hue de Bethizy ; a bright light and the report of fire- 
 arms guided them in that direction. 
 
 " Ah, who comes here ? " cried Coconnas. " A man without 
 his doublet or scarf ! " 
 
 " It is some one escaping," said Maurevel. 
 
 " Fire ! fire ! " said Coconnas ; " you who have arquebuses." 
 
 " Faith, not I," replied Maurevel. " I keep my powder 
 for better game." 
 
 " You, then, La Huriere ! " 
 
 " Wait, wait ! " said the innkeeper, taking aim. 
 
 " Oh, yes, wait," cried Coconnas, " and meantime he will 
 escape." 
 
 And he rushed after the unhappy wretch, whom he soon 
 overtook, as he was wounded ; but at the moment when, in 
 order that he might not strike him behind, he exclaimed, 
 " Turn, will you ! turn ! " the report of an arquebuse was heard, 
 a bullet whistled by Coconnas's ears, and the fugitive rolled
 
 78 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 over, like a hare in its swiftest flight struck by the shot of the 
 sportsman. 
 
 A cry of triumph was heard behind Coconnas. The Pied- 
 montese turned round and saw La Huriere brandishing his 
 weapon. 
 
 "Ah," he exclaimed, "I have handselled this time at any 
 rate." 
 
 " And only just missed making a hole quite through me." 
 
 " Be on your guard ! be on your guard ! " cried La 
 Huriere. 
 
 Coconnas sprung back. The wounded man had risen on his 
 knee, and, eager for revenge, was just on the point of stabbing 
 him. with his poniard, when the landlord's warning put the 
 Piedmontese on his guard. 
 
 " Ah, viper ! " shouted Coconnas ; and rushing at the 
 wounded man, he thrust his sword through him three times 
 up to the hilt. 
 
 " And now," cried he, leaving the Huguenot in the agonies 
 of death, " to the admiral's ! to the admiral's ! " 
 
 " Aha ! my gentlemen," said Maurevel, " it seems to work." 
 
 " Faith ! yes," replied Coconnas. " I do not know if it is 
 the smell of gunpowder makes me drunk, or the sight of blood 
 excites me, but by Heaven ! I am thirsty for slaughter. It is 
 like a battue of men. I have as yet only had battues of 
 bears and wolves, and on my honor, a battue of men seems 
 more amusing." 
 
 And the three went on their way. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MASSACRE. 
 
 THE hotel occupied by the admiral, as we have said, was 
 situated in the Rue de Bethizy. It was a great mansion at 
 the rear of a court and had two wings giving on the street. 
 A wall furnished Avith a large gate and two small grilled doors 
 stretched from wing to wing. 
 
 When our three Gruisards reached the end of the Rue de 
 Bethizy, which is a continuation of the Rue des Fosse's Saint 
 Germain 1'Auxerrois, they saw the hotel surrounded by Swiss,
 
 THE MASSACRE. 79 
 
 by soldiers, and by armed citizens ; every one had in his right 
 hand either a sword or a pike or an arquebuse, and some held 
 in their left hands torches, shedding over the scene a fitful and 
 melancholy glare which, according as the throng moved, shifted 
 along the street, climbed the walls, or spread over that living 
 sea where every weapon cast its answering flash. 
 
 All around the hotel and in the Rues Tirechappe, Etienne, 
 and Bertin Poiree the terrible work was proceeding. Long 
 shouts were heard, there was an incessant rattle of musketry, 
 and from time to time some wretch, half naked, pale, and 
 drenched in blood, leaped like a hunted stag into the circle of 
 lugubrious light where a host of fiends seemed to be at work. 
 
 In an instant Coconnas, Maurevel, and La Huriere, accredited 
 by their white crosses, and received with cries of welcome, 
 were in the thickest of this struggling, panting mob. Doubt- 
 less they would not have been able to advance had not some 
 of the throng recognized Maurevel and made way for him. 
 Coconnas and La Huriere followed him closely and the three 
 therefore contrived to get into the court-yard. 
 
 In the centre of this court-yard, the three doors of which 
 had been burst open, a man, around whom the assassins formed 
 a respectful circle, stood leaning on his drawn rapier, and 
 eagerly looking up at a balcony about fifteen feet above him, 
 and extending in front of the principal window of the hotel. 
 
 This man stamped impatiently on the ground, and from 
 time to time questioned those that were nearest to him. 
 
 " Nothing yet ! " murmured he. " No one ! he must have 
 been warned and has escaped. What do you think, Du 
 Gast ? " 
 
 " Impossible, monseigueur." 
 
 " Why ? Did you not tell me that just before we arrived 
 a man, bare-headed, a drawn sword in his hand, came running, 
 as if pursued, knocked at the door, and was admitted ? " 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur ; but M. de Besme came up immediately, 
 the gates were shattered, and the hotel was surrounded." 
 
 " The man went in sure enough, but he has not gone out." 
 
 " Why," said Coconnas to La Huriere, " if my eyes do not 
 deceive me, I see Monsieur de Guise." 
 
 " You do see him, sir. Yes ; the great Henry de Guise is 
 come in person to watch for the admiral and serve him as he 
 served the duke's father. Every one has his day, and it is our 
 turn now."
 
 80 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Hola, Besme, hola ! " cried the duke, in his powerful voice, 
 " have you not finished yet ? " 
 
 And he struck his sword so forcibly against the stones that 
 sparks flew out. 
 
 At this instant shouts were heard in the hotel then 
 several shots then a great shuffling of feet and a clashing 
 of swords, and then all was again silent. 
 
 The duke was about to rush into the house. 
 
 " Monseigneur, monseigneur ! " said Du Gast, detaining him, 
 " your dignity commands you to wait here." 
 
 " You are right, Du Gast. I must stay here ; but I am 
 dying with impatience and anxiety. If he were to escape me ! " 
 
 Suddenly the noise of feet came nearer the windows of 
 the first floor were lighted up with what seemed the reflection 
 of a conflagration. 
 
 The window, to which the duke's eyes had been so many 
 times lifted, opened, or, rather, was shattered to pieces, and a 
 man, his pale face and white neck stained with blood, appeared 
 on the balcony. 
 
 " Ah ! at last, Besme ! " cried the duke ; " speak ! speak ! " 
 
 " Louk ! louk ! " replied the German coldly, and stooping 
 down he lifted up something which seemed like a heavy body. 
 
 " But where are the others ? " asked the duke, impatiently, 
 " where are the others ? " 
 
 " De udders are vinishing de udders ! " 
 
 " And what have you done ? " 
 
 " Vait ! You shall peholt ! Shtant pack a liddle." 
 
 The duke fell back a step. 
 
 At that instant the object Besme was dragging toward him 
 with such effort became visible. 
 
 It was the body of an old man. 
 
 He lifted it above the balcony, held it suspended an instant, 
 and then flung it down at his master's feet. 
 
 The heavy thud, the billows of blood spurting from the body 
 and spattering the pavement all around, filled even the duke 
 himself with horror ; but this feeling lasted only an instant, 
 and curiosity caused every one to crowd forward, so that the 
 glare of the torches flickered on the victim's body. 
 
 They could see a white beard, a venerable face, and limbs 
 contracted by death. 
 
 " The admiral ! " cried twenty voices, as instantaneously 
 hushed.
 
 THE MASSACRE. 81 
 
 " Yes, the admiral, here he is ! " said the duke, approaching 
 the corpse, and contemplating it with silent ecstasy. 
 
 " The admiral ! the admiral ! " repeated the witnesses of 
 this terrible scene, crowding together and timidly approaching 
 the old man, majestic even in death. 
 
 " Ah, at last, Gaspard ! " said the Duke de Guise, trium- 
 phantly. " Murderer of my father ! thus do I avenge him ! " 
 
 And the duke dared to plant his foot on the breast of the 
 Protestant hero. 
 
 But instantly the dying warrior opened his eyes, his bleed- 
 ing and mutilated hand was clinched for the last time, and the 
 admiral, though without stirring, said to the duke in a sepul- 
 chral voice : 
 
 " Henry de Guise, some day the assassin's foot shall be felt 
 on your breast. I did not kill your father. A curse upon 
 you." 
 
 The duke, pale, and trembling in spite of himself, felt a cold 
 shudder come over him. He passed his hand across his brow, 
 as if to dispel the fearful vision ; when he dared again to 
 glance at the admiral his eyes were closed, his hand unclinched, 
 and a stream of black blood was flowing from the mouth which 
 had just pronounced such terrible words. 
 
 The duke raised his sword with a gesture of desperate reso- 
 lution. 
 
 " Veil, monsir, are you gondent ? " 
 
 " Yes, my worthy friend, yes, for you have revenged " 
 
 The Dugue Franqois, haf I not ? " 
 
 " Our religion," replied Henry, in a solemn voice. " And 
 now," he went on, addressing the Swiss, the soldiers, and citi- 
 zens who filled the court and street, " to work, my friends, 
 to work ! " 
 
 " Good evening, M. de Besme," said Coconnas with a sort of 
 admiration, approaching the German, who still stood on the 
 balcony, calmly wiping his sword. 
 
 " So you settled him, did you ? " cried La Huriere ; " how 
 did you manage it ? " 
 
 " Oh, ziinbly, zimbly ; he haf heerd de gommotion, he haf 
 oben de door unt I joost brick my rabier troo his potty. But 
 I tiuk dey am gilling Teligny now. I hear his gries ! " 
 
 At that instant, in fact, several shrieks, apparently uttered 
 by a woman in distress, were heard ; the windows of the long 
 gallery which formed a wing of the hotel were lighted up with
 
 82 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 a red glare ; two men were seen fleeing, pursued by a long line 
 of assassins. An arquebuse-shot killed one ; the other, finding 
 an open window directly in his way, without stopping to look 
 at the distance from the ground, sprang boldly into the court- 
 yard below, heeding not the enemies who awaited him there. 
 
 " Kill ! kill ! " cried the assassins, seeing their prey about to 
 escape them. 
 
 The fugitive picked up his sword, which as he stumbled had 
 fallen from his hand, dashed headlong through the soldiers, 
 upset three or four, ran one through the body, and amid the 
 pistol-shots and curses of the soldiers, rendered furious because 
 they had missed him, darted like lightning in front of Cocon- 
 nas, who was waiting for him at the gate with his poniard in 
 his hand. 
 
 " Touched ! " cried the Piedmontese, piercing his arm with 
 his keen, delicate blade. 
 
 " Coward ! " replied the fugitive, striking his enemy in the 
 face with the flat of his weapon, for want of room to thrust at 
 him with its point. 
 
 " A thousand devils ! " cried Coconnas ; " it 's Monsieur de 
 la Mole ! " 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ! " reechoed La Huriere and Maurevel. 
 
 " He is the one who warned the admiral ! " cried several 
 soldiers. 
 
 " Kill him kill him ! " was shouted on all sides. 
 
 Coconnas, La Huriere, and a dozen soldiers rushed in pur- 
 suit of La Mole, who, covered Avith blood, and having attained 
 that state of exaltation which is the last resource of human 
 strength, dashed through the streets, with no other guide than 
 instinct. Behind him, the footsteps and shouts of his enemies 
 spurred him on and seemed to give him wings. Occasionally 
 a bullet would whistle by his ears and suddenly add new 
 swiftness to his flight just as it was beginning to slacken. 
 He no longer breathed ; it was not breath, but a dull rattle, a 
 hoarse panting, that came from his chest. Perspiration and 
 blood wet his locks and ran together down his face. 
 
 His doublet soon became too oppressive for the beating of 
 his heart and he tore it off. Soon his sword became too heavy 
 for his hand and he flung it far away. Sometimes it seemed 
 to him that the footsteps of his pursuers were farther off and 
 that he was about to escape them ; but in response to their 
 shouts, other murderers who were along his path and nearer to
 
 DID NOT KILL YOUR FATHER. A CURSE UPON YOU.' 1
 
 THE MASSACRE, 83 
 
 him left off their bloody occupations and started in pursuit of 
 him. 
 
 Suddenly he caught sight of the river flowing silently at his 
 left ; it seemed to him that he should feel, like a stag at bay, 
 an ineffable pleasure in plunging into it, and only the supreme 
 power of reason could restrain him. 
 
 On his right was the Louvre, dark and motionless, but full 
 of strange and ominous sounds ; soldiers on the drawbridge 
 came and went, and helmets and cuirasses glittered in the 
 moonlight. La Mole thought of the King of Navarre, as he 
 had before thought of Coligny ; they were his only protectors. 
 He collected all his strength, and inwardly vowing to abjure 
 his faith should he escape the massacre, by making a detour of 
 a score or two of yards he misled the mob pursuing him, 
 darted straight for the Louvre, leaped upon the drawbridge 
 among the soldiers, received another poniard stab which 
 grazed his side, and despite the cries of " Kill kill ! " which 
 resounded on all sides, and the opposing weapons of the 
 sentinels, darted like an arrow through the court, into the 
 vestibule, mounted the staircase, then up two stories higher, 
 recognized a door, and leaning against it, struck it violently 
 with his hands and feet. 
 
 " Who is there ? " asked a woman's voice. 
 
 " Oh, my God ! " murmured La Mole ; " they are coming, 
 I hear them ; 't is I 't is I ! " 
 
 " Who are you ? " said the voice. 
 
 La Mole recollected the pass-word. 
 
 " Navarre Navarre ! " cried he. 
 
 The door instantly opened. La Mole, without thanking, 
 without even seeing Gillonne, dashed into the vestibule, then 
 along a corridor, through two or three chambers, until at last 
 he entered a room lighted by a lamp suspended from the ceil- 
 ing. 
 
 Behind curtains of velvet with gold fleurs-de-lis, in a bed of 
 carved oak, a lady, half naked, leaning on her arm, stared at 
 him with eyes wide open with terror. 
 
 La Mole sprang toward her. 
 
 " Madame," cried he, " they are killing, they are butchering 
 my brothers they seek to kill me, to butcher me also ! Ah ! 
 you are the queen save me ! " 
 
 And he threw himself at her feet, leaving on the carpet a 
 large track of blood.
 
 84 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 At the sight of a man pale, exhausted, and bleeding at her 
 feet, the Queen of Navarre started up in terror, hid her face 
 in her hands, and called for help. 
 
 " Madame," cried La Mole, endeavoring to rise, " in the name 
 of Heaven do not call, for if you are heard I am lost ! Assas- 
 sins are in my track they are rushing up the stairs behind 
 me. I hear them there they are ! there they are ! " 
 
 " Help ! " cried the queen, beside herself, " help ! " 
 
 "Ah!" said La Mole, despairingly, "you have killed me. 
 To die by so sweet a voice, so fair a hand ! I did not think it 
 possible." 
 
 At the same time the door flew open, and a troop of men, 
 their faces covered with blood and blackened with powder, 
 their swords drawn, and their pikes and arquebuses levelled, 
 rushed into the apartment. 
 
 Coconnas was at their head his red hair bristling, his 
 pale blue eyes extraordinarily dilated, his cheek cut open by 
 La Mole's sword, which had ploughed its bloody furrow there. 
 Thus disfigured, the Piedmontese was terrible to behold. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " he cried, " there he is ! there he is ! Ah ! 
 this time we have him at last ! " 
 
 La Mole looked round him for a weapon, but in vain ; he 
 glanced at the queen, and saw the deepest pity depicted in 
 her face ; then he felt that she alone could save him ; he threw 
 his arms round her. 
 
 Coconnas advanced, and with the point of his long rapier 
 again wounded his enemy's shoulder, and the crimson drops of 
 warm blood stained the white and perfumed sheets of Mar- 
 guerite's couch. 
 
 Marguerite saw the blood flow ; she felt the shudder that 
 ran through La Mole's frame ; she threw herself with him 
 into the recess between the bed and the wall. It was time, 
 for La Mole, whose strength was exhausted, was incapable of 
 flight or resistance ; he leaned his pallid head on Marguerite's 
 shoulder, and his hand convulsively seized and tore the thin 
 embroidered cambric which enveloped Marguerite's body in a 
 billow of gauze. 
 
 " Oh, madame," murmured he, in a dying voice, " save me." 
 
 He could say no more. A mist like the darkness of death 
 came over his eyes, his head sunk back, his arms fell at his 
 side, his legs gave way, and he sank on the floor, bathed in his 
 blood, and dragging the queen with him.
 
 THE MASSACRE. 85 
 
 At this moment Coconnas, excited by the shouts, intoxicated 
 by the sight of blood, and exasperated by the long chase, ad- 
 vanced toward the recess ; in another instant his sword would 
 have pierced La Mole's heart, and perhaps Marguerite's also. 
 
 At the sight of the bare steel, and even more moved at 
 such brutal insolence, the daughter of kings drew herself up to 
 her full stature and uttered such a shriek of terror, indigna- 
 tion, and rage that the Piedmontese stood petrified by an un- 
 known feeling ; and yet undoubtedly had this scene been pro- 
 longed and no other actor taken part in it, his feeling would 
 have vanished like a morning snow under an April sun. But 
 suddenly a secret door in the wall opened, and a pale young 
 man of sixteen or seventeen, dressed in black and with his 
 hair in disorder, rushed in. 
 
 " Wait, sister ! " he cried ; " here I am, here I am ! " 
 
 " Francois ! Francois ! " cried Marguerite ; " help ! help ! " 
 
 " The Due d'AlenQon ! " murmured La Huriere, grounding 
 his arquebuse. 
 
 " By Heaven ! a son of France ! " growled Coconnas, drawing 
 back. 
 
 The duke glanced round him. He saw Marguerite, dishev- 
 elled, more lovely than ever, leaning against the wall, sur- 
 rounded by men, fury in their eyes, sweat on their foreheads, 
 and foam in their mouths. 
 
 " Wretches ! " cried he. 
 
 " Save me, brother ! " shrieked Marguerite. " They are 
 going to kill me ! " 
 
 A flame flashed across the duke's pallid face. 
 
 He was unarmed, but sustained, no doubt, by the conscious- 
 ness of his rank, he advanced with clinched fists toward 
 Coconnas and his companions, who retreated, terrified at the 
 lightning darting from his eyes. 
 
 " Ha ! and will you murder a son of France, too ? " cried 
 the duke. Then, as they recoiled, " Ho, there ! captain of 
 the guard ! Hang every one of these ruffians ! " 
 
 More alarmed at the sight of this weaponless young man 
 than he would have been at the aspect of a regiment of reiters 
 or lansquenets, Coconnas had already reached the door. La 
 Huriere was leaping downstairs like a deer, and the soldiers 
 were jostling and pushing one another in the vestibule in 
 their endeavors to escape, finding the door far too small 
 for their great desire to be outside it. Meantime Marguerite
 
 86 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 had instinctively thrown the damask coverlid of her bed over 
 La Mole, and withdrawn from him. 
 
 When the last murderer had departed the Due d'Alenqon 
 came back : 
 
 " Sister," he cried, seeing Marguerite all dabbled with blood, 
 " are you wounded ? " And he sprang toward his sister with 
 a solicitude which would have done credit to his affection if 
 he had not been charged with harboring too deep an affection 
 for a brother to entertain for a sister. 
 
 " No," said she ; " I think not, or, if so, very slightly." 
 
 " But this blood," said the duke, running his trembling hands 
 all over Marguerite's body. " Where does it come from ? " 
 
 " I know not," replied she ; " one of those wretches laid his 
 hand on me, and perhaps he was wounded." 
 
 " What ! " cried the duke, " he dared to touch my sister ? 
 Oh, if you had only pointed him out to me, if you had told 
 me which one it was, if I knew where to find him " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Marguerite. 
 
 " And why ? " asked Franqois. 
 
 "Because if you were seen at this time of night in my 
 room " 
 
 " Can't a brother visit his sister, Marguerite ? " 
 
 The queen gave the duke a look so keen and yet so threaten- 
 ing that the young man drew back. 
 
 " Yes, yes, Marguerite," said he, " you are right, I will go 
 to my room ; but you cannot remain alone this dreadful night. 
 Shall I call Gillonne ? " 
 
 " No, no ! leave me, Francois leave me. Go by the way 
 you came ! " 
 
 The young prince obeyed ; and hardly had he disappeared 
 when Marguerite, hearing a sigh from behind her bed, hur- 
 riedly bolted the door of the secret passage, and then hastening 
 to the other entrance closed it in the same way, just as a troop 
 of archers and soldiers like a hurricane dashed by in hot chase 
 of some other Huguenot residents in the Louvre. 
 
 After glancing round to assure herself that she was really 
 alone, she again went to the " ruelle " of her bed, lifted the 
 damask covering which had concealed La Mole from the Due 
 d'Alengon, and drawing the apparently lifeless body, by great 
 exertion, into the middle of the room, and finding that the 
 victim still breathed, sat down, placed his head on her knees, 
 and sprinkled his face with water.
 
 THE MASSACRE. 87 
 
 Then as the water cleared away the mask of blood, dust, and 
 gunpowder which had covered his face, Marguerite recognized 
 the handsome cavalier who, full of life and hope, had three or 
 four hours before come to ask her to look out for his interests 
 with her protection and that of the King of Navarre ; and had 
 gone away, dazzled by her beauty, leaving her also impressed 
 by his. 
 
 Marguerite uttered a cry of terror, for now what she felt for 
 the wounded man was more than mere pity it was interest. 
 He was no longer a mere stranger : he was almost an acquaint- 
 ance. By her care La Mole's fine features soon reappeared, 
 free from stain, but pale and distorted by pain. A shudder 
 ran through her whole frame as she tremblingly placed her 
 hand on his heart. It was still beating. Then she took a 
 smelling-bottle from the table, and applied it to his nostrils. 
 
 La Mole opened his eyes. 
 
 " Oh ! man Dieu f " murmured he ; " where am I ? " 
 
 " Saved ! " said Marguerite. " Reassure yourself you are 
 saved." 
 
 La Mole turned his eyes on the queen, gazed earnestly for a 
 moment, and murmured, 
 
 " Oh, how beautiful you are ! " 
 
 Then as if the vision were too much for him, he closed his 
 lids and drew a sigh. 
 
 Marguerite started. He had become still paler than before, 
 if that were possible, and for an instant that sigh was his last. 
 
 " Oh, my God ! my God!" she ejaculated, "have pity on 
 him ! " 
 
 At this moment a violent knocking was heard at the door. 
 Marguerite half raised herself, still supporting La Mole. 
 
 " Who is there ? " she cried. 
 
 " Madame, it is I it is I," replied a woman's voice, " the 
 Duchesse de Nevers." 
 
 " Henriette ! " cried Marguerite. " There is no danger ; it 
 is a friend of mine ! Do you hear, sir ? " 
 
 La Mole with some effort got up on one knee. 
 
 " Try to support yourself while I go and open the door," 
 said the queen. 
 
 La Mole rested his hand on the floor and succeeded in hold- 
 ing himself upright. 
 
 Marguerite took one step toward the door, but suddenly 
 stopped, shivering with terror.
 
 88 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Ah, you are not alone ! " she said, hearing the clash of 
 arms outside. 
 
 " No, I have twelve guards which my brother-in-law, Mon- 
 sieur de Guise, assigned me." 
 
 " Monsieur de Guise ! " murmured La Mole. " The assassin 
 the assassin ! " 
 
 " Silence ! " said Marguerite. " Not a word ! " 
 
 And she looked round to see where she could conceal the 
 wounded man. 
 
 " A sword ! a dagger ! " muttered La Mole. 
 
 " To defend yourself useless ! Did you not hear ? There 
 are twelve of them, and you are alone." 
 
 " Not to defend myself, but that I may not fall alive into 
 their hands." 
 
 " No, no ! " said Marguerite. " No, I will save you. Ah ! 
 this cabinet ! Come ! come. " 
 
 La Mole made an effort, and, supported by Marguerite, 
 dragged himself to the cabinet. Marguerite locked the door 
 upon him, and hid the key in her alms-purse. 
 
 " Not a cry, not a groan, not a sigh," whispered she, through 
 the panelling, " and you are saved." 
 
 Then hastily throwing a night-robe over her shoulders, 
 she opened the door for her friend, who tenderly embraced 
 her. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried Madame Nevers, " then nothing has happened 
 to you, madame ! " 
 
 "No, nothing at all," replied Marguerite, wrapping the 
 mantle still more closely round her to conceal the spots of 
 blood on her peignoir. 
 
 " 'T is well. However, as Monsieur de Guise has given me 
 twelve of his guards to escort me to his hotel, and as I do not 
 need such a large company, I am going to leave six with your 
 majesty. Six of the duke's guards are worth a regiment of 
 the King's to-night." 
 
 Marguerite dared not refuse ; she placed the soldiers in the 
 corridor, and embraced the duchess, who then returned to the 
 Hotel de Guise, where she resided in her husband's absence.
 
 THE MURDERERS. 89 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE MURDERERS. 
 
 COCONNAS had not fled, he had retreated ; La Huriere had 
 not fled, he had flown. The one had disappeared like a tiger, 
 the other like a wolf. 
 
 The consequence was that La Huriere had already reached 
 the Place Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois when Cocounas was only 
 just leaving the Louvre. 
 
 La Huriere, finding himself alone with his arquebuse, while 
 around him men were running, bullets were whistling, and 
 bodies were falling from windows, some whole, others dis- 
 membered, began to be afraid and was prudently thinking of 
 returning to his tavern, but as he turned into the Rue de 
 1'Arbre Sec from the Rue d'Averon he fell in with a troop of 
 Swiss and light cavalry : it was the one commanded by 
 Maurevel. 
 
 " Well," cried Maurevel, who had christened himself with 
 the nickname of King's Killer, " have you finished so soon ? 
 Are you going back to your tavern, worthy landlord ? And 
 what the devil have you done with our Piedmontese gentle- 
 man ? No misfortune has happened to him ? That would be a 
 shame, for he started out well." 
 
 " No, I think not," replied La Huriere ; " I hope he will 
 rejoin us ! " 
 
 " Where have you been ? " 
 
 " At the Louvre, and I must say we were very rudely treated 
 there." 
 
 " By whom ? " 
 
 "Monsieur le Due d'Alenqon. Isn't he interested in this 
 affair ? " 
 
 " Monseigneur le Due d' Alenc.cn is not interested in anything 
 which does not concern himself personally. Propose to treat 
 his two older brothers as Huguenots and he would be in it 
 provided only that the work should be done without compromis- 
 ing him. But won't you go with these worthy fellows, Maitre 
 La Huriere?" 
 
 " And where are they going ? " 
 
 " Oh, mon Dieu ! Rue Montorguen ; there is a Huguenot
 
 90 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 minister there whom I know ; he has a wife and six children. 
 These heretics are enormous breeders ; it will be interesting." 
 
 " And where are you going ? " 
 
 " Oh, I have a little private business." 
 
 " Say, there ! don't go off without me," said a voice which 
 made Maurevel start, "you know all the good places and I 
 want to have my share." 
 
 " Ah ! it is our Piedmontese," said Maurevel. 
 
 " Yes, it is Monsieur de Coconnas," said La Huriere ; " I 
 thought you were following me." 
 
 " Hang it ! you made off too swiftly for that ; and besides 
 I turned a little to one side so as to fling into the river a fright- 
 ful child who was screaming, ' Down with the Papists ! Long 
 live the admiral ! ' Unfortunately, I believe the little rascal 
 knew how to swim. These miserable heretics must be flung 
 into the water like cats before their eyes are opened if they 
 are to be drowned at all." 
 
 "Ah! you say you are just from the Louvre; so your 
 Huguenot took refuge there, did he ? " asked Maurevel. 
 
 " Man Dieu ! yes." 
 
 " I gave him a pistol-shot at the moment when he was pick- 
 ing up his sword in the admiral's court-yard, but I somehow 
 or other missed him." 
 
 " Well, I did not miss him," added Coconnas ; " I gave him 
 such a thrust in the back that my sword was wet five inches 
 up the blade. Besides, I saw him fall into the arms of 
 Madame Marguerite, a pretty woman, by Heaven ! yet I confess 
 I should not be sorry to hear he was really dead ; the vagabond 
 is infernally spiteful, and capable of bearing me a grudge all 
 his life. But did n't you say you were bound somewhere ? " 
 
 " Why, do you mean to go with me ? " 
 
 " I do not like standing still, by Heaven ! I have killed 
 only three or four as yet, and when I get cold my shoulder 
 pains me. Forward ! forward ! " 
 
 " Captain," said Maurevel to the commander of the troop, 
 " give me three men, and go and despatch your parson with 
 the rest." 
 
 Three Swiss stepped forward and joined Maurevel. Never- 
 theless, the two companies proceeded side by side till they 
 reached the top of the Rue Tirechappe ; there the light horse 
 and the Swiss took the Rue de la Tonnellerie, while Maurevel, 
 Coconnas, La Huriere, and his three men were proceeding down
 
 THE MURDERERS. 91 
 
 the Rue Trousse Vache and entering the Rue Sainte Avoye. 
 " Where the devil are you taking us ? " asked Coconnas, who 
 was beginning to be bored by this long march from which he 
 could see no results. 
 
 " I am taking you on an expedition at once brilliant and use- 
 ful. Next to the admiral, next to Teligny, next to the Hugue- 
 not princes, I could offer you nothing better. So have pa- 
 tience, our business calls us to the Rue du Ghaume, and we 
 shall be there in a second." 
 
 " Tell me," said Coconnas, " is not the Rue du Chaume near 
 the Temple ? " 
 
 " Yes, why ? " 
 
 " Because an old creditor of our family lives there, one 
 Lambert Mercandon, to whom my father wished me to hand 
 over a hundred rose nobles I have in my pocket for that pur- 
 pose." 
 
 " Well," replied Maurevel, " this is a good opportunity for 
 paying it. This is the day for settling old accounts. Is your 
 Mercandon a Huguenot ? " 
 
 " Oho, I understand ! " said Coconnas ; " he must be "- 
 
 " Hush ! here we are." 
 
 " What is that large hotel, with its entrance in the street ? " 
 
 The Hotel de Guise." 
 
 " Truly," returned Coconnas, " I should not have failed to 
 come here, as I am under the patronage of the great Henry. 
 But, by Heaven ! all is so very quiet in this quarter, we 
 scarcely hear any firing, and we might fancy ourselves in the 
 country. The devil fetch me but every one is asleep ! " 
 
 And indeed the Hotel de Guise seemed as quiet as in ordi- 
 nary times. All the windows were closed, and a solitary light 
 was burning behind the blind of the principal window over 
 the entrance which had attracted Coconnas's attention as soon 
 as they entered the street. 
 
 Just beyond the Hotel de Guise, in other words, at the corner 
 of the Rue du Petit Chantier and the Rue des Quatre Fils, 
 Maurevel halted. 
 
 " Here is the house of the man we want," said he. 
 
 " Of the man you want that is to say " observed La 
 Huriere. 
 
 " Since you are with me we want him." 
 
 " What ! that house which seems so sound asleep " 
 
 " Exactly ! La Huriere, now go and make practical use of
 
 92 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 the plausible face which heaven, by some blunder, gave you, 
 and knock at that house. Hand your arquebuse to M. de 
 Coconnas, who has been ogling it this last half hour. If you 
 are admitted, you must ask to speak to Seigneur de Mouy." 
 
 "Aha!" exclaimed Coconnas, "now I understand you 
 also have a creditor in the quarter of the Temple, it would 
 seem." 
 
 " Exactly so ! " responded Maurevel. " You will go up to 
 him pretending to be a Huguenot, and inform De Mouy of all 
 that has taken place; he is brave, and will come down." 
 
 " And once down ? " asked La Huriere. 
 
 " Once down, I will beg of him to cross swords with me." 
 
 " On my soul, 't is a fine gentleman's," said Coconnas, " and 
 1 propose to do exactly the same thing with Lambert Mercan- 
 donj'aud if he is too old to respond, I will try it with one of 
 his sons or nephews." 
 
 La Huriere, without making any reply, went and knocked 
 at the door, and the sounds echoing in the silence of the night 
 caused the doors of the Hotel de Guise to open, and several 
 heads to make their appearance from out them ; it was evi- 
 dent that the hotel was quiet after the manner of citadels, 
 that is to say, because it was filled with soldiers. 
 
 The heads were almost instantly withdrawn, as doubtless an 
 inkling of the matter in hand was divined. 
 
 " Does your Monsieur de Mouy live here ? " inquired Co- 
 connas, pointing to the house at which La Huriere was still 
 knocking, 
 
 " No, but his mistress does." 
 
 " By Heaven ! how gallant you are, to give him an occa- 
 sion to draw sword in the presence of his lady-love ! We shall 
 be the judges of the field. However, I should like very well 
 to fight myself my shoulder burns." 
 
 " And your face," added Maurevel, " is considerably 
 damaged." 
 
 Coconnas uttered a kind of growl. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " he said, " I hope he is dead ; if I thought 
 not, I would return to the Louvre and finish him." 
 
 La Huriere still kept knocking. 
 
 Soon the window on the first floor opened, and a man 
 appeared in the balcony, in a nightcap and drawers, and 
 unarmed. 
 
 " Who 's there ? " cried he.
 
 THE MURDERERS. 93 
 
 Maurevel made a sign to the Swiss, who retreated into a 
 corner, whilst Cocounas stood close against the wall. 
 
 " Ah ! Monsieur de Mouy ! " said the innkeeper, in his 
 blandest tones, "is that you?" 
 
 " Yes ; what then ? " 
 
 " It is he ! " said Maurevel, with a thrill of joy. 
 
 " Why, sir," continued La Huriere, " do you not know what 
 is going on ? They are murdering the admiral, and massa- 
 cring all of our religion. Hasten to their assistance ; come ! " 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed De Mouy, "I feared something was 
 plotted for this night. I ought not to have deserted my 
 worthy comrades. I will come, my friend, wait for me." 
 
 And without closing the window, through which a frightened 
 woman could be heard uttering lamentations and tender en- 
 treaties, Monsieur de Mouy got his doublet, his mantle, and his 
 weapons. 
 
 " He is coming down ! He is coming down ! " muttered 
 Maurevel, pale with joy. " Attention, the rest of you ! " he 
 whispered to the Swiss. 
 
 Then taking the arquebuse from Coconnas he blew on the 
 tinder to make sure that it was still alight. 
 
 "Here, La Huriere," he added, addressing the innkeeper, 
 who had rejoined the main body of the company, " here, take 
 your arquebuse ! " 
 
 " By Heaven ! " exclaimed Coconnas, " the moon is coming 
 out of the clouds to witness this beautiful fight. I would 
 give a great deal if Lambert Mercandon were here, to serve as 
 Monsieur de Mouy's second." 
 
 " Wait, wait ! " said Maurevel ; " Monsieur de Mouy alone 
 is equal to a dozen men, and it is likely that we six shall have 
 enough to do to despatch him. Forward, my men ! " con- 
 tinued Maurevel, making a sign to the Swiss to stand by the 
 door, in order to strike De Mouy as he came forth. 
 
 "Oho!" said Coconnas, as he watched these arrangements; 
 " it appears that this will not corne off quite as I expected." 
 
 Already the noise made by De Mouy in withdrawing the 
 bar was heard. The Swiss had left their hiding-place to 
 arrange themselves near the door, Maurevel and La Huriere 
 were going forward on tip-toe, and Coconnas with a dying 
 gleam of gentlemanly feeling was standing where he was, 
 when the young woman who had been for the moment utterly 
 forgotten suddenly appeared on the balcony and uttered a
 
 94 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 terrible shriek at the sight of the Swiss, Maurevel, and La 
 Huriere. 
 
 De Mouy, who had already half opened the door, paused. 
 
 " Couie back ! come back ! " cried the young woman. " I 
 see swords glitter, and the match of an arquebuse there is 
 treachery ! " 
 
 " Oho ! " said the young man ; " let us see, then, what all this 
 means." 
 
 And he closed the door, replaced the bar, and went upstairs 
 again. 
 
 Maurevel's order of battle was changed as soon as he saw 
 that De Mouy was not going to come out. The Swiss went 
 and posted themselves at the other corner of the street, and La 
 Huriere, with his arquebuse in his hand, waited till the enemy 
 reappeared at the window. 
 
 He did not wait long. De Mouy came forward holding be- 
 fore him two pistols of such respectable length that La 
 Huriere, who was already aiming, suddenly reflected that the 
 Huguenot's bullets had no farther to fly in reaching the street 
 from the balcony than his had in reaching the balcony. 
 
 " Assuredly," said he to himself, " I may kill this gentleman, 
 but likewise this gentleman may kill me in the same way." 
 
 Now as Maitre La Huriere, an innkeeper by profession, 
 was only accidentally a soldier, this reflection determined 
 him to retreat and seek shelter in the corner of the Rue 
 de Braque, far enough away to cause him some difficulty in 
 finding with a certain certainty, especially at night, the line 
 which a bullet from his arquebuse would take in reaching De 
 Mouy. 
 
 De Mouy cast a glance around him, and advanced cautiously 
 like a man preparing to fight a duel ; but seeing nothing, he 
 exclaimed : 
 
 " Why, it appears, my worthy informant, that you have 
 forgotten your arquebuse at my door ! Here I am. What do 
 you want with me ? " 
 
 " Aha ! " said Goconnas to himself ; " he is certainly a brave 
 fellow ! " 
 
 " Well," continued De Mouy, " friends or enemies, whichever 
 you are, do you not see I arn waiting ? " 
 
 La Huriere kept silence, Maurevel made no reply, and the 
 three Swiss remained in covert. 
 
 Coconnas waited an instant ; then, seeing that no one took
 
 THE MURDERERS. 95 
 
 part in the conversation begun by La Huriere and continued 
 by De Mouy, he left his station, and advancing into the middle 
 of the street, took off his hat and said : 
 
 " Sir, we are not here for an assassination, as you seem to 
 suppose, but for a duel. I am here with one of your enemies, 
 who was desirous of meeting you to end gallantly an old con- 
 troversy. Eh, by Heaven ! come forward, Monsieur de Maure- 
 vel, instead of turning your back. The gentleman accepts." 
 
 " Maurevel ! " cried De Mouy ; " Maurevel, the assassin of 
 my father ! Maurevel, the king's assassin ! Ah, by Heaven ! 
 Yes, I accept." 
 
 And taking aim at Maurevel, who was about to knock at the 
 Hotel de Guise to request a reinforcement, he sent a bullet 
 through his hat. 
 
 At the noise of the report and Maurevel's shouts, the guard 
 which had escorted the Duchesse de Nevers came o\\t, accom- 
 panied by three or four gentlemen, followed by their pages, 
 and approached the house of young De Mouy's mistress. 
 
 A second pistol-shot, fired into the midst of the troop, killed 
 the soldier next to Maurevel ; after which De Mouy, finding 
 himself weaponless, or at least with useless weapons, for his 
 pistols had been fired and his adversaries were beyond the 
 reach of his sword, took shelter behind the balcony gallery. 
 
 Meantime here and there windows began to be thrown open 
 in the neighborhood, and according to the pacific or bellicose 
 dispositions of their inhabitants, were barricaded or bristled 
 with muskets and arquebuses. 
 
 " Help ! my worthy Mercandon," shouted De Mouy, beckon- 
 ing to an elderly man who, from a window which had just 
 been thrown open in front of the Hotel de Guise, was trying 
 to make out the cause of the confusion. 
 
 " Is it you who call, Sire de Mouy ? " cried the old man : 
 " are they attacking you ? " 
 
 " Me you all the Protestants ; and wait there is the 
 proof ! " 
 
 That moment De Mouy had seen La Huriere aim his arque- 
 buse at him ; it was fired ; but the young man had time to 
 stoop, and the ball broke a window above his head. 
 
 " Mercandon ! " exclaimed Coconnas, who, in his delight at 
 sight of this fray, had forgotten his creditor, but was reminded 
 of him by De Mouy's apostrophe ; " Mercandon, Rue du
 
 96 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Chaume that is it ! Ah, he lives there ! Good ! Each of 
 us will settle accounts with our man." 
 
 And, while the people from the Hotel de Guise were break- 
 ing in the doors of De Mouy's house, and Maurevel, with a 
 torch in his hand, was trying to set it on fire while now 
 that the doors were once broken, there was a fearful struggle 
 with a single antagonist who at each rapier-thrust brought 
 down his foe Coconnas tried, by the help of a paving-stone, 
 to break in Mercandon's door, and the latter, unmoved by this 
 solitary effort, was doing his best with his arquebuse out of 
 his window. 
 
 And now all this dark and deserted quarter was lighted up, 
 as if by open day, peopled like the interior of an ant-hive ; 
 for from the Hotel de Montmorency six or eight Huguenot 
 gentlemen, with their servants and friends, had just made a 
 furious charge, and, supported by the firing from the windows, 
 were beginning to repulse Maurevel's and the De Guises' force, 
 who at length were driven back to the place whence they had 
 come. 
 
 Coconnas, who had not yet succeeded in smashing Mercan- 
 don's door, though he was working at it with all his might, was 
 caught in this sudden retreat. Placing his back to the wall, 
 and grasping his sword firmly, he began not only to defend 
 himself, but to attack his assailants, with cries so terrible that 
 they were heard above all the uproar. He struck right and 
 left, hitting friends and enemies, until a wide space was 
 cleared around him. As his rapier made a hole in some 
 breast, and the warm blood spurted over his hands and face, 
 he, with dilated eye, expanded nostrils, and clinched teeth, re- 
 gained the ground lost, and again approached the beleaguered 
 house. 
 
 De Mouy, after a terrible combat in the staircase and hall, 
 had finally come out of the burning house like a true hero. In 
 the midst of all the struggle he had not ceased to cry, " Here, 
 Maurevel ! Maurevel, where are you ? " insulting him by the 
 most opprobrious epithets. 
 
 He at length appeared in the street, supporting on one arm 
 his mistress, half naked and nearly fainting, and holding a 
 poniard between his teeth. His sword, flaming by the sweep- 
 ing action he gave it, traced circles of white or red, according 
 as the moon glittered on the blade or a flambeau glared on its 
 blood-stained brightness.
 
 THE MURDERERS. 97 
 
 Maurevel had fled. La Huriere, driven back by De Mouy 
 as far as Coconnas, who did not recognize him, and received 
 him at sword's point, was begging for mercy on both sides. 
 At this moment Mercandon perceived him, and knew him, by 
 his white scarf, to be one of the murderers. He fired. La 
 Huriere shrieked, threw up his arms, dropped his arquebuse, 
 and, after having vainly attempted to reach the wall, in order 
 to support himself, fell with his face flat on the earth. 
 
 De Mouy took advantage of this circumstance, turned down 
 the Rue de Paradis, and disappeared. 
 
 Such had been the resistance of the Huguenots that the De 
 Guise party, quite repulsed, had retired into their hotel, fear- 
 ing to be besieged and taken in their own habitation. 
 
 Coconnas who, intoxicated with blood and tumult, had 
 reached that degree of excitement when, with the men of the 
 south more especially, courage changes into madness, had not 
 seen or heard anything, and noticed only that there was not 
 such a roar in his ears, and that his hands and face were a 
 little dryer than they had been. Dropping the point of his 
 sword, he saw near him a man lying face downward in a red 
 stream, and around him burning houses. 
 
 It was a very short truce, for just as he was approaching 
 this man, whom he recognized as La Huriere, the door of the 
 house he had in vain tried to burst in, opened, and old Mercan- 
 don, followed by his son and two nephews, rushed upon him. 
 
 " Here he is ! here he is ! " cried they all, with one voice. 
 
 Coconnas was in the middle of the street, and fearing to be 
 surrounded by these four men who assailed him at once, 
 sprang backward with the agility of one of the chamois which 
 he had so often hunted in his native mountains, and in an 
 instant found himself with his back against the wall of the 
 Hotel de Guise. Once at ease as to not being surprised from 
 behind he put himself in a posture of defence, and said, jest- 
 ingly. 
 
 " Aha, father Mercandon, don't you know rne ? " 
 
 " Wretch ! " cried the old Huguenot, " I know you well ; 
 you are engaged against me me, your father's friend and 
 companion." 
 
 " And his creditor, are you not ? " 
 
 " Yes ; his creditor, as you say." 
 
 " Well, then," said Coconnas, " I have come to settle our 
 accounts."
 
 98 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Seize him, bind him ! " said Mercandon to the young men 
 who accompanied him, and who at his bidding rushed toward 
 the Piedmontese. 
 
 " One moment ! one moment ! " said Coconnas, laughing, 
 " to seize a man you must have a writ, and you have forgotten 
 to secure one from the provost." 
 
 And with these words he crossed his sword with the young 
 man nearest to him and at the first blow cut his wrist. 
 
 The wounded man retreated with a howl. 
 
 " That will do for one ! " said Coconnas. 
 
 At the same moment the window under which Coconnas 
 had sought shelter opened noisily. He sprang to one side, 
 fearing an attack from behind ; but instead of an enemy he 
 saw a woman ; instead of the enemy's weapon he was pre- 
 pared to encounter, a nosegay fell at his feet. 
 
 " Ah ! " he said, " a woman ! " 
 
 He saluted the lady with his sword, and stooped to pick up 
 the bouquet. 
 
 " Be on your guard, brave Catholic ! be on your guard ! " 
 cried the lady. 
 
 Coconnas rose, but not before the second nephew's dagger 
 had pierced his cloak, and wounded his other shoulder. 
 
 The lady uttered a piercing shriek. 
 
 Coconnas thanked her, assured her by a gesture, and then 
 made a pass, which the nephew parried ; but at the second 
 thrust, his foot slipped in the blood, and Coconnas, springing 
 at him like a tiger-cat, drove his sword through his breast. 
 
 " Good ! good ! brave cavalier ! " exclaimed the lady of the 
 Hotel de Guise, " good ! I will send you succor." 
 
 " Do not give yourself any trouble about that, madame," 
 was Coconnas's reply ; " rather look on to the end, if it inter- 
 ests you, and see how the Comte Annibal de Coconnas settles 
 the Huguenots." 
 
 At this moment old Mercandon's son aimed a pistol at close 
 range to Coconnas, and fired. The count fell on his knee. 
 The lady at the window shrieked again ; but Coconnas rose 
 instantly ; he had knelt only to avoid the bullet, which struck 
 the wall about two feet beneath where the lady was standing. 
 
 Almost at the same moment a cry of rage issued, from the 
 window of Mercandon's house, and an old woman, who recog- 
 nized Coconnas as a Catholic, from his white scarf and cross, 
 hurled a flower-pot at him, which struck him above the knee.
 
 THE MURDERERS. 99 
 
 " Capital ! " said Coconnas ; " one throws flowers at me and 
 at the other, flower-pots ; if this goes on, they '11 be tearing 
 houses down ! " 
 
 " Thanks, mother, thanks ! " said the young man. 
 
 " Go on, wife, go on," said old Mercandon ; " but take care 
 of yourself." 
 
 " Wait, Monsieur de Coconnas, wait ! " said the young 
 woman of the Hotel de Guise, " I will have them shoot at the 
 windows ! " 
 
 " Ah ! So it is a hell of women, is it ? " said Coconnas. 
 " Some of them for me and the others against me ! By 
 Heaven ! let us put an end to .this ! " 
 
 The scene in fact was much changed and was evidently 
 approaching its climax. Coconnas, who was wounded to be 
 sure, but who had all the vigor of his four and twenty years, was 
 used to arms, and angered rather than weakened by the three 
 or four scratches he had received, now faced only Mercandon 
 and his son : Mercandon, an aged man between sixty and 
 seventy ; his son, a youth of sixteen or eighteen, pale, fair- 
 haired and slender, had flung down his pistol which had been 
 discharged and was therefore useless, and was feebly brandish- 
 ing a sword half as long as the Piedinontese's. The father, 
 armed only with an unloaded arquebuse and a poniard, was 
 calling for assistance. An old woman the young man's 
 mother in the opposite window held in her hand a piece of 
 marble which she was preparing to hurl. 
 
 Coconnas, excited on the one hand by threats, and on the 
 other by encouragements, proud of his twofold victory, intoxi- 
 cated with powder and blood, lighted by the reflection of a 
 burning house, elated by the idea that he was righting under 
 the eyes of a woman whose beauty was as superior as he was 
 sure her rank was high, Coconnas, like the last of the 
 Horatii, felt his strength redouble, and seeing the young man 
 falter, rushed on him and crossed his small weapon with his 
 terrible and bloody rapier. Two strokes sufficed to drive it out 
 of its owner's hands. Then Mercandon tried to drive Coconnas 
 back, so that the projectiles thrown from the window might 
 be s\ire to strike him, but Coconnas, to paralyze the double 
 attack of the old man, who tried to stab him with his dagger, 
 and the mother of the young man, who was endeavoring to 
 break his skull with a stone she was ready to throw, seized 
 his adversary by the body, presenting him to all the blows,
 
 100 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 like a shield, and well-nigh strangling him in his Herculean 
 grasp. 
 
 " Help ! help ! " cried the ycrung man ; " he is crushing my 
 chest help ! help ! " 
 
 And his voice grew faint in a low and choking groan. 
 
 Then Mercandou ceased to attack, and began to entreat. 
 
 " Mercy, mercy ! Monsieur de Coconnas, have mercy ! he 
 is my only child ! " 
 
 " He is my son, my son ! " cried the mother ; " the hope of 
 our old age ! Do not kill him, sir, do not kill him ! " 
 
 " Really," cried Coconnas, bursting into laughter, " not kill 
 him ! What, pray, did he mean to do to me, with his sword 
 and pistol ? " 
 
 " Sir," said Mercandon, clasping his hands, " I have at home 
 your father's note of hand, I will give it back to you I have 
 ten thousand crowns of gold, I will give them to you I have 
 our family jewels, they shall be yours ; but do not kill him 
 do not kill him ! " 
 
 " And I have my love," said the lady in the Hotel de Guise, 
 in a low tone, " and I promise it you." 
 
 Coconnas reflected a moment, and said suddenly : 
 
 " Are you a Huguenot ? " 
 
 " Yes, I am," murmured the youth. 
 
 " Then you must die ! " replied Coconnas, frowning and put- 
 ting to his adversary's breast his keen and glittering dagger. 
 
 " Die ! " cried the old man ; " my poor child die ! " 
 
 And the mother's shriek resounded so pitifully and loud 
 that for a moment it shook the Piedmontese's firm resolution. 
 
 " Oh, Madame la Duchesse ! " cried the father, turning tow- 
 ard the lady at the Hotel de Guise, " intercede for us, and 
 every morning and evening you shall be remembered in our 
 prayers." 
 
 "Then let him be a convert," said the lady. 
 
 " I am a Protestant," said the boy. 
 
 " Then die ! " exclaimed Coconnas, lifting his dagger ; " die ! 
 since you will not accept the life which those lovely lips offer 
 to you." 
 
 Mercandon and his wife saw the blade of that deadly weapon 
 gleam like lightning above the head of their son. 
 
 " My son Olivier," shrieked his mother, "abjure, abjure! " 
 
 " Abjure, my dear boy ! " cried Mercandon, going on his 
 knees to Coconnas j " do not leave us alone on the earth ! "
 
 THE MURDERERS, 101 
 
 "Abjure all together," said Cocoiinas ; " for one Credo, three 
 souls and one life." 
 
 "I am willing," said the youth. 
 
 " We are willing ! " cried Mercandon and his wife. 
 
 " On your knees, then," said Coconnas, " and let your son 
 repeat after me, word for word, the prayer I shall say." 
 
 The father obeyed first. 
 
 " I am ready," said the son, also kneeling. 
 
 Coconnas then began to repeat in Latin the words of the 
 Credo. But whether from chance or calculation, young Olivier 
 knelt close to where his sword had fallen. Scarcely did he see 
 this weapon within his reach than, not ceasing to repeat the 
 words which Coconnas dictated, he stretched out his hand to 
 take it up. Coconnas watched the movement, although he 
 pretended not to see it ; but at the moment when the young 
 man touched the handle of the sword with his fingers he rushed 
 on him, knocked him over, exclaiming, " Ah, traitor ! " and 
 plunged his dagger into his throat. 
 
 The youth uttered one cry, raised himself convulsively on 
 his knee, and fell dead. 
 
 " Ah, ruffian ! " shrieked Mercandon, " you slay us to rob us 
 of the hundred rose nobles you owe us." 
 
 " Faith ! no," said Coconnas, " and the proof," and as he 
 said these words he flung at the old man's feet the purse which 
 his father had given him before his departure to pay his cred- 
 itor, " and the proof," he went on to say, " is this money 
 which I give you ! " 
 
 " And here 's your death ! " cried the old woman from the 
 window. 
 
 " Take care, M. de Coconnas, take care ! " called out the 
 lady at the Hotel de Guise. 
 
 But before Coconnas could turn his head to comply with 
 this advice, or get out of the way of the threat, a heavy mass 
 came hissing through the air, fell on the Piedmontese's hat, 
 broke his sword, and prostrated him on the pavement; he was 
 overcome, crushed, so that he did not hear the double cry of 
 joy and distress which came from the right and left. 
 
 Mercandon instantly rushed, dagger in hand, on Coconnas, 
 now bereft of his senses ; but at this moment the door of the 
 Hotel de Guise opened, and the old man, seeing swords and 
 partisans gleaming, fled, while the lady he had called " Madame 
 la Duchesse," her beauty terrible in the light of the flames,
 
 102 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 dazzling with diamonds and other gems, leaned half out of the 
 window, in order to direct the newcomers, pointing her arm 
 toward Coconnas. 
 
 " There ! there ! in front of me a gentleman in a red 
 doublet. There ! that is he yes, that is he." 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DEATH, MASS, OK THE BASTILLE. 
 
 MARGUERITE, as we have said, had shut the door and re- 
 turned to her chamber. But as she entered, panting, she saw 
 Gillonne, who, terror-struck, was leaning against the door of 
 the closet, staring at the traces of blood on the bed, the furni- 
 ture, and the carpet. 
 
 " Ah ! madame ! " she cried when she saw the queen. " Oh ! 
 madame ! tell me, is he dead ? " 
 
 " Silence ! " said Marguerite in that tone of voice which 
 gives some indication of the importance of the command. 
 
 Gillonne was silent. 
 
 Marguerite then took from her purse a tiny gilded key, 
 opened the closet door, and showed the young man to the ser- 
 vant. La Mole had succeeded in getting to his feet and making 
 his way to the window. A small poniard, such as women at that 
 time were in the habit of carrying, was at hand, and when he 
 heard the door opening he had seized it. 
 
 " Fear nothing, sir," said Marguerite ; " for, on my soul, you 
 are in safety ! " 
 
 La Mole sank on his knees. 
 
 " Oh, madame," he cried, " you are more than a queen you 
 are a goddess ! " 
 
 " Do not agitate yourself, sir," said Marguerite, " your blood 
 is still flowing. Oh, look, Gillonne, how pale he is let us 
 see where you are wounded." 
 
 " Madame," said La Mole, trying to fix on certain parts of 
 his body the pain which pervaded his whole frame, " I think I 
 have a dagger-thrust in my shoulder, another in my chest, 
 the other wounds are not worth bothering about." 
 
 " We will see," said Marguerite. " Gillonne, bring me my 
 balsam casket."
 
 DEATH, MASS, OK THE BASTILLE. 103 
 
 Gillonne obeyed, and returned holding in one hand a casket, 
 and in the other a silver-gilt ewer and some fine Holland linen. 
 
 " Help me to lift him, Gillonne," said Queen Marguerite ; 
 " for in attempting to get up the poor gentleman has lost all 
 his strength." 
 
 " But, madame," said La Mole, " I am wholly confused. 
 Indeed, I cannot allow " 
 
 '' But, sir, you will let us do for you, I think," said 
 Marguerite. " When we may save you, it would be a crime to 
 let you die." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried La Mole, " I would rather die than see you, 
 the queen, stain your hands with blood as unworthy as mine. 
 Oh, never, never ! " 
 
 And he drew back respectfully. 
 
 " Your blood, sir," replied Gillonne, with a smile, " has 
 already stained her majesty's bed and chamber." 
 
 Marguerite folded her mantle over her cambric peignoir, all 
 bespattered with small red spots. This movement, so expres- 
 sive of feminine modesty, caused La Mole to remember that he 
 had held in his arms and pressed to his heart this beautiful, 
 beloved queen, and at the recollection a fugitive glow of color 
 came into his pallid cheeks. 
 
 " Madame," stammered La Mole, " can you not leave me to 
 the care of the surgeon ? " 
 
 " Of a Catholic surgeon, perhaps," said the queen, with an 
 expression which La Mole understood and which made him 
 shudder. " Do you not know," continued the queen in a voice 
 and with a smile of incomparable sweetness, " that we daugh- 
 ters of France are trained to know the qualities of herbs and 
 to make balsams ? for our duty as women and as queens has 
 always been to soften pain. Therefore we are equal to the 
 best surgeons in the world ; so our flatterers say ! Has not 
 my reputation in this regard come to your ears ? Come, 
 Gillonne, let us to work ! " 
 
 La Mole again endeavored to resist ; he repeated that he 
 would rather die than occasion the queen labor which, though 
 begun in pity, might end in disgust ; but this exertion com- 
 pletely exhausted his strength, and falling back, he fainted a 
 second time. 
 
 Marguerite, then seizing the poniard which he had dropped, 
 quickly cut the lace of his doublet ; while Gillonne, with 
 another blade, ripped open the sleeves.
 
 104 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Next Gillonne, with a cloth dipped in fresh water, stanched 
 the blood which escaped from his shoulder and breast, and 
 Marguerite, with a silver needle with a round point, probed 
 the wounds with all the delicacy and skill that Maitre 
 Ambroise Pare could have displayed in such a case. 
 
 " A dangerous but not mortal wound, acerrimurn humeri 
 vulnus, non autem lethale," murmured the lovely and learned 
 lady-surgeon ; " hand me the salve, Gillonne, and get the lint 
 ready." 
 
 Meantime Gillonne, to whom the queen had just given this 
 new order, had already dried and perfumed the young man's 
 chest and arms, which were like an antique model, as well as 
 his shoulders, which fell gracefully back ; his neck shaded by 
 thick, curling locks, and which seemed rather to belong to a 
 statue of Parian marble than the mangled frame of a dying 
 man. 
 
 " Poor young man ! " whispered Gillonne, looking not so much 
 at her work as at the object of it. 
 
 " Is he not handsome ? " said Marguerite, with royal frank- 
 ness. 
 
 " Yes, madame ; but it seems to me that instead of leaving 
 him lying there on the floor, we should lift him on this couch 
 against which he is leaning." 
 
 " Yes," said Marguerite, " you are right." 
 
 And the two women, bending over, uniting their strength, 
 raised La Mole, and laid him on a kind of great sofa in front 
 of the window, which they opened in order to give them fresh 
 air. 
 
 This movement aroused La Mole, who drew a long sigh, and 
 opening his eyes, began to experience that indescribable sensa- 
 tion of well-being which comes to a wounded man when on 
 his return to consciousness he finds coolness instead of burn- 
 ing heat, and the perfumes of balsams instead of the nauseat- 
 ing odor of blood. 
 
 He muttered some disconnected words, to which Marguerite 
 replied with a smile, placing her finger on her lips. 
 
 At this moment several raps on the door were heard. 
 
 " Some one knocks at the secret passage," said Marguerite. 
 
 " Who can be coming, madame ? " asked Gillonne, in a panic. 
 
 "I will go and see who it is," said Marguerite; "remain 
 here, and do not leave him for a single instant." 
 
 Marguerite went into the chamber, and closing the closet
 
 DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE. 105 
 
 door, opened that of the passage which led to the King's and 
 queen mother's apartments. 
 
 " Madame de Sauve ! " she exclaimed, suddenly drawing 
 back with an expression which resembled hatred, if not terror, 
 so true it is that a woman never forgives another for taking 
 from her even a man whom she does not love, " Madame de 
 Sauve ! " 
 
 " Yes, your majesty ! " she replied, clasping her hands. 
 
 " You here, madame ? " exclaimed Marguerite, more and 
 more surprised, while at the same time her voice grew more 
 and more imperative. 
 
 Charlotte fell on her knees. 
 
 " Madame," she said, " pardon me ! I know how guilty I am 
 toward you ; but if you knew the fault is not wholly mine ; 
 an express command of the queen mother " 
 
 " Rise ! " said Marguerite, " and as I do not suppose you 
 have come with the intention of justifying yourself to me, tell 
 me why you have come at all." 
 
 " I have come, madame," said Charlotte, still on her knees, 
 and with a look of wild alarm, " I came to ask you if he were 
 not here ? " 
 
 " Here ! who ? of whom are you speaking, madame ? for I 
 really do not understand." 
 
 Of the king ! " 
 
 " Of the king ? What, do you follow him to my apartments ? 
 You know very well that he never comes here." 
 
 " Ah, madame ! " continued the Baronne de Sauve, without 
 replying to these attacks, or even seeming to comprehend them, 
 " ah, would to Heaven he were here ! " 
 
 " And why so ? " 
 
 " Eh, mon Dieu ! madame, because they are murdering 
 the Huguenots, and the King of Navarre is the chief of the 
 Huguenots." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Marguerite, seizing Madame de Sauve by the 
 hand, and compelling her to rise ; " ah ! I had forgotten ; be- 
 sides, I did not think a king could run the same dangers as 
 other men." 
 
 "More, madame, a thousand times more ! " cried Charlotte. 
 
 " In fact, Madame de Lorraine had warned me ; I had begged 
 him not to leave the Louvre. Has he done so ? " 
 
 " No, no, madame, he is in the Louvre ; but if he is not 
 here "
 
 106 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " He is not here ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Madame de Sauve, with an outburst of agony, 
 " then he is a dead man, for the queen mother has sworn his 
 destruction ! " 
 
 " His destruction ! ah," said Marguerite, " you terrify me 
 impossible ! " 
 
 " Madame," replied Madame de Sauve, with that energy 
 which passion alone can give, " I tell you that no one knows 
 where the King of Navarre is." 
 
 " And where is the queen mother ? " 
 
 " The queen mother sent me to find Monsieur de Guise and 
 Monsieur de Tavannes, who were in her oratory, and then 
 dismissed me. Then pardon me, madame I went to my 
 room and waited as usual." 
 
 " For my husband, I suppose." 
 
 " He did not come, madame. Then I sought for him every- 
 where and asked every one for him. One soldier told me he 
 thought he had seen him in the midst of the guards who ac- 
 companied him, with his sword drawn in his hand, some time 
 before the massacre began, and the massacre has begun an 
 hour ago.'' 
 
 " Thanks, madame," said Marguerite ; " and although per- 
 haps the sentiment which impels you is an additional offence 
 toward me, yet, again, I thank you ! " 
 
 " Oh, forgive me, madame ! " she said, " and I will return to 
 my apartments stronger for your pardon, for I dare not follow 
 you, even at a distance." 
 
 Marguerite extended her hand to her. 
 
 " I will go to Queen Catharine," she said. " Return to your 
 room. The King of Navarre is under my protection ; I have 
 promised him my alliance and I will be faithful to my 
 promise." 
 
 " But suppose you cannot obtain access to the queen mother, 
 madame ? " 
 
 " Then I will go to my brother Charles, and I will speak to 
 him." 
 
 " Go, madame, go," said Charlotte, leaving Marguerite room 
 to pass, " and may God guide your majesty ! " 
 
 Marguerite darted down the corridor, but when she reached 
 the end of it she turned to make sure that Madame de Sauve 
 was not lingering behind. Madame de Sauve was following 
 her.
 
 DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE. 107 
 
 The Queen of Navarre saw her go upstairs to her own apart- 
 ment, and then she herself went toward the queen's chamber. 
 
 All was changed here. Instead of the crowd of eager cour- 
 tiers, who usually opened their ranks before the queen and 
 respectfully saluted her, Marguerite met only guards with red 
 partisans and garments stained with blood, or gentlemen in 
 torn cloaks, their faces blackened with powder, bearing 
 orders and despatches, some going in, others going out, and 
 all this movement back and forth made a great and terrible 
 confusion in the galleries. 
 
 Marguerite, however, went boldly on until she reached the 
 queen mother's antechamber. But this room was guarded by 
 a double file of soldiers, who allowed only those who had a 
 certain countersign to enter. Marguerite in vain tried to pass 
 this living barrier ; several times she saw the door open and 
 shut, and each time she saw Catharine, her youth restored by 
 action, as alert as if she were only twenty years of age, writ- 
 ing, receiving letters, opening them, addressing a word to one, 
 a smile to another ; and those on whom she smiled most gra- 
 ciously were those who were the most covered with dust and 
 blood. 
 
 Amid this vast tumult which reigned in the Louvre and 
 filled it with frightful clamors, could be heard the rattling of 
 musketry more and more insistently repeated. 
 
 " I shall never get to her," said Marguerite to herself after 
 she had made three ineffectual attempts to pass the halberdiers. 
 " Rather than waste my time here, I must go and find my 
 brother." 
 
 At this moment M. de Guise passed ; he had just informed 
 the queen of the murder of the admiral, and was returning 
 to the butchery. 
 
 " Oh, Henry ! " cried Marguerite, " where is the King of 
 Navarre ? " 
 
 The duke looked at her with a smile of astonishment, bowed, 
 and without any reply passed out with his guards. 
 
 Marguerite ran to a captain who was on the point of leaving 
 the Louvre and was engaged in having his men's arquebuses 
 loaded. 
 
 " The King of Navarre ! " she exclaimed ; " sir, where is 
 the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " I do not know, madame," replied the captain, " I do not 
 belong to his majesty's guards."
 
 108 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Ah, my dear Rene," said the queen, recognizing Catharine's 
 perfumer, " is that you ? you have just left my mother. Do 
 you know what has become of my husband ? " 
 
 " His majesty the King of Navarre is no friend of mine, 
 madame, you ought to remember that. It is even said," he 
 added, with a contraction of his features more like a grimace 
 than a smile, "it is even said that he ventures to accuse me 
 of having been the accomplice, with Madame Catharine, in 
 poisoning his mother." 
 
 " No, no ! " cried Marguerite, " my good Rene, do not be--: 
 lieve that ! " 
 
 " Oh, it is of little consequence, madame ! " said the per- 
 fumer ; " neither the King of Navarre nor his party is any 
 longer to be feared!" 
 
 And he turned his back on Marguerite. 
 
 " Ah, Monsieur de Tavannes ! " cried Marguerite, " one 
 word, I beseech you ! " 
 
 Tavannes, who was going by, stopped. 
 
 " Where is Henry of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Faith," he replied, in a loud voice, " I believe he is some- 
 where in the city with the Messieurs d'Alenqon and de Conde." 
 
 And then he added, in a tone so low that the queen alone 
 could hear : 
 
 "Your majesty, if you would see him, to be in whose 
 place I would give my life, go to the king's armory." 
 
 " Thanks, Tavannes, thanks ! " said Marguerite, who, of 
 all that Tavannes had said, had heard only the chief direction ; 
 " thank you, I will go there." 
 
 And she went on her way, murmuring : 
 
 " Oh, after all I promised him after the way in which he 
 behaved to me when that ingrate, Henry de Guise, was con- 
 cealed in the closet I cannot let him perish ! " 
 
 And she knocked at the door of the King's apartments ; but 
 they were encompassed within by two companies of guards. 
 
 " No one is admitted to the King," said the officer, coining 
 forward. 
 
 " But I " said Marguerite. 
 
 " The order is general." 
 
 " I, the Queen of Navarre ! I, his sister ! " 
 
 " My orders admit of no exception, madame ; I pray you to 
 pardon me." 
 
 And the officer closed the door.
 
 DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE. 109 
 
 " Oh, he is lost ! " exclaimed Marguerite, alarmed at the 
 sight of all those sinister faces, which even if they did not 
 breathe vengeance, expressed sternness of purpose. " Yes, 
 yes ! 1 comprehend all. I have been used as a bait. I am the 
 snare which has entrapped the Huguenots ; but I will enter, if 
 I am killed in the attempt ! " 
 
 And Marguerite ran like a mad creature through the 
 corridors and galleries, when suddenly, as she passed by a 
 small door, she heard a sweet song, almost melancholy, so 
 monotonous it was. It was a Calvinistic psalm, sung by a 
 trembling voice in the next room. 
 
 " My brother the king's nurse the good Madelon she is 
 there ! " exclaimed Marguerite. " God of the Christians, aid 
 me now ! " 
 
 And, full of hope, Marguerite knocked at the little door. 
 
 Soon after the counsel which Marguerite had conveyed to 
 him, after his conversation with Rene, and after leaving the 
 queen mother's chamber, in spite of the efforts of the poor 
 little Phoebe, who like a good genius tried to detain him, 
 Henry of Navarre had met several Catholic gentlemen, who, 
 under a pretext of doing him honor, had escorted him to his 
 apartments, where a score of Huguenots awaited him, who had 
 rallied round the young prince, and, having once rallied, would 
 not leave him so strongly, for some hours, had the presenti- 
 ment of that fatal night weighed on the Louvre. They had 
 remained there, without any one attempting to disturb them. 
 At last, at the first stroke of the bell of Saint-Germain 1'Auxer- 
 rois, which resounded through all hearts like a funeral knell, 
 Tavannes entered, and, in the midst of a death-like silence, 
 announced that King Charles IX. desired to speak to Henry. 
 
 It was useless to attempt resistance, and no one thought of 
 it. They heard the ceilings, galleries, and corridors creaking 
 beneath the feet of the assembled soldiers, who were in the 
 court-yards, as well as in the apartments, to the number of two 
 thousand. Henry, after having taken leave of his friends, 
 whom he was never again to see, followed Tavannes, who led 
 him to a small gallery next the King's apartments, where he 
 left him alone, unarmed, and a prey to mistrust. 
 
 The King of Navarre counted here alone, minute by minute, 
 two mortal hours ; listening, with increasing alarm, to the 
 sound of the tocsin and the discharge of fire-arms ; seeing
 
 110 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 through a small window, by the light of the flames and flam- 
 beaux, the refugees and their assassins pass ; understanding 
 nothing of these shrieks of murder, these cries of distress, 
 not even suspecting, in spite of his knowledge of Charles IX., 
 the queen mother, and the Due de Guise, the horrible drama 
 at this moment enacting. 
 
 Henry had not physical courage, but he had better than that 
 he had moral fortitude. Though he feared danger, yet he 
 smiled at it and faced it ; but it was danger in the field of 
 battle danger in the open air danger in the eyes of all, 
 and attended by the noisy harmony of trumpets and the loud 
 and vibrating beat of drums ; but now he was weaponless, 
 alone, locked in, shut up in a semi-darkness where he could 
 scarcely see the enemy that might glide toward him, and the 
 weapon that might be raised to strike him. 
 
 These two hours were, perhaps, the most agonizing of his 
 life. 
 
 In the hottest of the tumult, and as Henry was beginning to 
 understand that, in all probability, this was some organized 
 massacre, a captain came to him, and conducted the prince 
 along a corridor to the King's rooms. As they approached, the 
 door opened and closed behind them as if by magic. The 
 captain then led Henry to the King, who was in his armory. 
 
 When they entered, the King was seated in a great arm- 
 chair, his two hands placed on the two arms of the seat, and 
 his head falling on his chest. At the noise made by their 
 entrance Charles looked up, and Henry observed the perspi- 
 ration dropping from his brow like large beads. 
 
 " Good evening, Harry," said the young King, roughly. " La 
 Chastre, leave us." 
 
 The captain obeyed. 
 
 A gloomy silence ensued. Henry looked around him with 
 uneasiness, and saw that he was alone with the King. 
 
 Charles IX. suddenly arose. 
 
 " Par la mordieu ! " said he, passing his hands through his 
 light brown hair, and wiping his brow at the same time, "you 
 are glad to be with me, are you not, Harry ? " 
 
 " Certainly, sire," replied the King of Navarre, " I am 
 always happy to be with your Majesty." 
 
 " Happier than if you were down there, eh ? " continued 
 Charles, following his own thoughts rather than replying to 
 Henry's compliment.
 
 DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE. Ill 
 
 " I do not understand, sire," replied Henry. 
 
 " Look out, then, and you will soon understand." 
 
 And with a quick movement Charles stepped or rather 
 sprang to the window, and drawing with him his brother-in- 
 law, who became more and more terror-stricken, he pointed 
 to him the horrible outlines of the assassins, who, on the deck 
 of a boat, were cutting the throats or drowning the victims 
 brought them at every moment. 
 
 " In the name of Heaven," cried Henry, " what is going on 
 to-night ? " 
 
 " To-night, sir," replied Charles IX., " they are ridding me 
 of all the Huguenots. Look yonder, over the Hotel de Bour- 
 bon, at the smoke and flames : they are the smoke and flames 
 of the admiral's house, which is on fire. Do you see that 
 body, which these good Catholics are drawing on a torn 
 mattress ? It is the corpse of the admiral's son-in-law the 
 carcass of your friend, Teligny." 
 
 " What means this ? " cried the King of Navarre, seeking 
 vainly by his side for the hilt of his dagger, and trembling 
 equally with shame and anger ; for he felt that he was at the 
 same time laughed at and threatened. 
 
 " It means," cried Charles IX., becoming suddenly furious, 
 and turning frightfully pale, " it means that I will no longer 
 have any Huguenots about me. Do you hear me, Henry ? 
 Am I King ? Am I master ? " 
 
 " But, your Majesty " 
 
 " My Majesty kills and massacres at this moment all that 
 is not Catholic ; it is my pleasure. Are you a Catholic ? " 
 exclaimed Charles, whose anger was rising higher and higher, 
 like an awful tide. 
 
 " Sire," replied Henry, " do you remember your own words, 
 ' What matters the religion of those who serve me well ' ? " 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha ! " cried Charles, bursting into a ferocious 
 laugh ; " you ask me if I remember my words, Henry ! 'Verba 
 volant,' as my sister Margot says ; and had not all those " 
 and he pointed to the city with his finger " served me well, 
 also ? Were they not brave in battle, wise in council, deeply 
 devoted ? They were all useful subjects but they were 
 Huguenots, and I want none but Catholics." 
 
 Henry remained silent. 
 
 " Do you understand me now, Harry ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " I understand, sire."
 
 112 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Well, sire, I do not see why the King of Navarre should 
 not do what so many gentlemen and poor folk have done. For 
 if they all die, poor unfortunates, it is because the same terms 
 have been proposed to them which your Majesty proposes to 
 me, and they have refused, as I refuse." 
 
 Charles seized the young prince's arm, and fixed 011 him a 
 look the vacancy of which suddenly changed into a fierce and 
 savage scowl. 
 
 " What ! " he said, " do you believe that I have taken the 
 trouble to offer the mass to those whose throats we are cutting 
 yonder ? " 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, disengaging his arm, " will you not die 
 in the religion of your fathers ? " 
 
 " Yes, par la mordieu ! and you ? " 
 
 " Well, sire, I will do the same ! " replied Henry. 
 
 Charles uttered a roar of rage and, with trembling hand, 
 seized his arquebuse, which lay on the table. 
 
 Henry, who stood leaning against the tapestry, with the 
 perspiration on his brow, and nevertheless, owing to his 
 presence of mind, calm to all appearance, followed every move- 
 ment of the terrible king with the greedy stupefaction of a 
 bird fascinated by a serpent. 
 
 Charles cocked his arquebuse, and stamping with blind rage 
 cried, as he dazzled Henry's eyes with the polished barrel of 
 the deadly gun: 
 
 " Will you accept the mass ? " 
 
 Henry remained mute. 
 
 Charles IX. shook the vaults of the Louvre with the most 
 terrible oath that ever issued from the lips of man, and grew 
 even more livid than before. 
 
 " Death, mass, or the Bastille ! " he cried, taking aim at the 
 King of Navarre. 
 
 " Oh, sire ! " exclaimed Henry, " will you kill me me, your 
 brother ? " 
 
 Henry thus, by his incomparable cleverness, which was one 
 of the strongest faculties of his organization, evaded the 
 answer which Charles IX. expected, for undoubtedly had his 
 reply been in the negative Henry had been a dead man. 
 
 As immediately after the climax of rage, reaction begins, 
 Charles IX. did not repeat the question he had addressed to 
 the Prince of Navarre ; and after a moment's hesitation, dur-
 
 DEATH, MASS, OR THE BASTILLE. 113 
 
 ing which he uttered a hoarse kind of growl, he went back to 
 the open window, and aimed at a man who was running along 
 the quay in front. 
 
 " I must kill some one ! " cried Charles IX., ghastly as a 
 corpse, his eyes suffused with blood ; and firing as he spoke, 
 he struck the man who was running. 
 
 Henry uttered a groan. 
 
 Then, animated by a frightful ardor, Charles loaded and 
 fired his arquebuse without cessation, uttering cries of joy 
 every time his aim was successful. 
 
 " It is all over with me ! " said the King of Navarre to him- 
 self ; " when he sees no one else to kill, he will kill me ! " 
 
 "Well," said a voice behind the princes, suddenly, "is it 
 done ? " 
 
 It was Catharine de Medicis, who had entered unobserved 
 just as the King was firing his last shot. 
 
 " No, thousand thunders of hell ! " said the King, throwing 
 his arquebuse across the room. " No, the obstinate blockhead 
 he will not consent ! " 
 
 Catharine made no reply. She turned her eyes slowly where 
 Henry stood as motionless as one of the figures of the tapestry 
 against which he was leaning. She then gave a glance at the 
 King, which seemed to say : 
 
 " Then why he is alive ? " 
 
 "He is alive, he is alive ! " murmured Charles IX., who per- 
 fectly understood the glance, and replied to it without hesita- 
 tion, " he is alive because he is my relative." 
 
 Catharine smiled. 
 
 Henry saw the smile, and realized that his struggle was to be 
 with Catharine. 
 
 " Madame," he said to her, " the whole thing comes from 
 you, I see very well, and my brother-in-law Charles is not to 
 blame. You laid the plan for drawing me into a snare. You 
 made your daughter the bait which was to destroy us all. You 
 separated me from my wife that she might not see me killed 
 before her eyes " 
 
 " Yes, but that shall not be ! " cried another voice, breathless 
 and impassioned, which Henry instantly recognized and which 
 made Charles start with surprise and Catharine with rage. 
 
 " Marguerite ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " Margot ! " said Charles IX. 
 
 " My daughter ! " muttered Catharine.
 
 114 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Sire,'' said Marguerite to Henry, " your last words were an 
 accusation against me, and you were both right and wrong, 
 right, for I am the means by which they attempted to destroy 
 you ; wrong, for I did not know that you were going to your 
 destruction. I, sire, owe my own life to chance to my 
 mother's f orgetfulness, perhaps ; but as soon as I learned your 
 danger I remembered my duty, and a wife's duty is to share 
 her husband's fortunes. If you are exiled, sire, I will follow 
 you into exile ; if you are put into prison I will be your fellow- 
 captive ; if they kill you, I will also die." 
 
 And she offered her husband her hand, which he eagerly 
 seized, if not with love, at least with gratitude. 
 
 " Oh, my poor Margot ! " said Charles, " you had much 
 better bid him become a Catholic ! " 
 
 " Sire," replied Marguerite, with that lofty dignity which 
 was so natural to her, "for your own sake do not ask any 
 prince of your house to commit a cowardly act." 
 
 Catharine darted a significant glance at Charles. 
 
 " Brother,'' cried Marguerite, who equally well with Charles 
 IX. understood Catharine's ominous pantomime, " my brother, 
 remember ! you made him my husband ! " 
 
 Charles IX., at bay between Catharine's commanding eyes 
 and Marguerite's supplicating look, as if between the two 
 opposing principles of good and evil, stood for an instant un- 
 decided ; at last Ormazd won the day. 
 
 " In truth," said he, whispering in Catharine's ear, " Margot 
 is right, and Harry is my brother-in-law." 
 
 " Yes," replied Catharine in a similar whisper in her son's 
 ear, " yes but supposing he were not ? " 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY OF THE INNOCENTS. 
 
 As soon as Marguerite reached her own apartments she 
 tried in vain to divine the words which Catharine de Medicis 
 had whispered to Charles IX., and which had cut short the 
 terrible council of life and death which was taking place. 
 
 She spent a part of the morning in attending to La Mole, 
 and the rest in trying to guess the enigma, which her mind 
 could not discover.
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY. 115 
 
 The King of Navarre remained a prisoner in the Louvre, 
 the persecution of the Huguenots went on hotter than ever. 
 The terrible night was followed by a day of massacre still 
 more horrible. No longer the bells rang the tocsin, but Te 
 Deums, and the echoes of these joyous notes, resounding amid 
 fire and slaughter, were perhaps even more lugubrious in sun- 
 light than had been the last night's knell sounding in dark- 
 ness. This was not all. A strange thing had happened: a 
 hawthorn-tree, which had blossomed in the spring, and which, 
 as usual, had lost its odorous flowers in the month of June, 
 had blossomed again dumig the night, and the Catholics, who 
 saw a miracle in this event, spread the report of the miracle 
 far and wide, thus making God their accomplice ; and with 
 cross and banners they marched in a procession to the Ceme- 
 tery of the Innocents, where this hawthorn-tree was blooming. 
 
 This method of acquiescence which Heaven seemed to show 
 in the massacres redoubled the ardor of the assassins, and 
 while every street, every square, every alley-way of the city 
 continued to present a scene of desolation, the Louvre had 
 become the common tomb for all Protestants who had been 
 shut up there when the signal was given. The King of Na- 
 varre, the Prince de Conde, and La Mole were the only sur- 
 vivors. 
 
 Assured as to La Mole, whose wounds, as she had declared 
 the evening before, were severe but not dangerous, Margue- 
 rite's mind was now occupied with one single idea : that was 
 to save her husband's life, which was still threatened. No 
 doubt the first sentiment which actuated the wife was one of 
 generous pity for a man for whom, as the Bearnais himself 
 had said, she had sworn, if not love, at least alliance ; but 
 there was, beside, another sentiment not so pure, which had 
 penetrated the queen's heart. 
 
 Marguerite was ambitious, and had foreseen almost the cer- 
 tainty of royalty in her marriage Avith Henry de Bourbon. 
 Navarre, though beset on one side by the kings of France and 
 on the other by the kings of Spain, who strip by strip had ab- 
 sorbed half of its territory, might become a real kingdom with 
 the French Huguenots for subjects, if only Henry de Bourbon 
 should fulfil the hopes which the courage shown by him on the 
 infrequent occasions vouchsafed him of drawing his sword had 
 aroused. 
 
 Marguerite, with her keen, lofty intellect, foresaw and reck-
 
 116 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 oned on all this. So if she lost Henry she lost not only a 
 husband, but a throne. 
 
 As she was absorbed in these reflections she heard some one 
 knocking at the door of the secret corridor. She started, 
 for only three persons came by that door, the King, the 
 queen mother, and the Due d'Alenqon. She opened the closet 
 door, made a gesture of silence to Gillonne and La Mole, and 
 then went to let her visitor in. 
 
 It was the Due d'Alenqon. 
 
 The young prince had not been seen since the night before. 
 For a moment, Marguerite had conceived the idea of asking his 
 intercession for the King of Navarre, but a terrible idea re- 
 strained her. The marriage had taken place against his 
 wishes. Francois detested Henry, and had evinced his neu- 
 trality toward the Bearnais only because he was convinced 
 that Henry and his wife had remained strangers to each other. 
 A mark of interest shown by Marguerite in her husband 
 might thrust one of the three threatening poniards into his 
 heart instead of turning it aside. Marguerite, therefore, on 
 perceiving the young prince, shuddered more than she had 
 shuddered at seeing the King or even the queen mother. 
 Nevertheless no one could have told by his appearance that 
 anything unusual was taking place either in the city or at the 
 Louvre. He was dressed with his usual elegance. His clothes 
 and linen breathed of those perfumes which Charles IX. de- 
 spised, but of which the Due d'Anjou and he made continual 
 use. 
 
 A practised eye like Marguerite's, however, could detect 
 the fact that in spite of his rather unusual pallor and in spite 
 of a slight trembling in his hands delicate hands, as care- 
 fully treated as a lady's he felt a deep sense of joy in the 
 bottom of his heart. His entrance was in no wise different 
 from usual. He went to his sister to kiss her, but Marguerite, 
 instead of offering him her cheek, as she would have done 
 had it been King Charles or the Due d'Anjou, made a courtesy 
 and allowed him to kiss her forehead. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon sighed and touched his bloodless lips to 
 her brow. 
 
 Then taking a seat he began to tell his sister the sanguinary 
 news of the night, the admiral's lingering and terrible death, 
 Teligny's instantaneous death caused by a bullet. He took 
 his time and emphasized all the bloody details of that night,
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY. 117 
 
 with that love of blood characteristic of himself and his two 
 brothers ; Marguerite allowed him to tell his story. 
 
 " You did not come to tell me this only, brother ? " she then 
 asked. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon smiled. 
 
 " You have something else to say to me ? " 
 
 " No," replied the duke ; " I am waiting." 
 
 Waiting ! for what ? " 
 
 " Have you not told me, dearest Marguerite," said the duke, 
 drawing his armchair close up to his sister's, " that your 
 marriage with the King of Navarre was contracted against 
 your wishes ? " 
 
 " Yes, no doubt. I did not know the Prince of Beam when 
 he was proposed to me as a husband." 
 
 " And after you came to know him, did you not tell me that 
 you felt no love for him ? " 
 
 " I told you so ; it is true." 
 
 " Was it not your opinion that this marriage would make 
 you unhappy ? " 
 
 " My dear Franqois," said Marguerite, " when a marriage is 
 not the height of happiness it is almost always the depth of 
 wretchedness." 
 
 " Well, then, my dear Marguerite, as I said to you, I am 
 waiting." 
 
 " But what are you waiting for ? " 
 
 " For you to display your joy ! " 
 
 "What have I to be joyful for ? " 
 
 " The unexpected chance which offers itself for you to re- 
 sume your liberty." 
 
 " My liberty ? " replied Marguerite, who was determined to 
 compel the prince to express his whole thought. 
 
 " Yes ; your liberty ! You will now be separated from the 
 King of Navarre." 
 
 " Separated ! " said Marguerite, fastening her eyes on the 
 young prince. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon tried to endure his sister's look, but his 
 eyes soon avoided hers with embarrassment. 
 
 " Separated ! " repeated Marguerite ; " let us talk this over, 
 brother, for I should like to understand all you mean, and how 
 you propose to separate us." 
 
 " Why," murmured the duke, " Henry, is a Huguenot."
 
 118 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " No doubt ; but he made no secret of his religion, and that 
 was known when we were married." 
 
 " Yes ; but since your marriage, sister," asked the duke, 
 involuntarily allowing a ray of joy to shine upon his face, 
 " what has Henry been doing ? " 
 
 " Why, you know better than any one, -dYanqois, for he has 
 spent his days almost constantly in your society, either hunt- 
 ing or playing mall or tennis." 
 
 " Yes, his days, no doubt," replied the duke ; " his days 
 but his nights ? " 
 
 Marguerite was silent ; it was now her turn to cast down her 
 eyes. 
 
 " His nights," persisted the Due d'Alenqon, " his nights ? " 
 
 " Well ? " inquired Marguerite, feeling that it was requisite 
 that she should say something in reply. 
 
 " Well, he has been spending them with Madame de Sauve ! " 
 
 " How do you know that ? " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 
 " I know it because I have an interest in knowing it," replied 
 the young prince, growing pale and picking the embroidery of 
 his sleeves. 
 
 Marguerite began to understand what Catharine had 
 whispered to Charles, but pretended to remain in ignorance. 
 
 " Why do you tell me this, brother ? " she replied, with a 
 well-affected air of melancholy ; " was it to remind me that no 
 one here loves me or takes my part, neither those whom nature 
 gave me as protectors iior the man whom the Church gave me 
 as my husband ? " 
 
 " You are unjust," said the Due d'Alenqon, drawing his 
 armchair still nearer to his sister, " I love you and protect 
 you ! " 
 
 " Brother," said Marguerite, looking at him sharply, " have 
 you anything to say to me from the queen mother ? " 
 
 " I ! you mistake, sister. I swear to you what can make 
 you think that ? " 
 
 " What can make me think that ? why, because you are 
 breaking off the intimacy that binds you to my husband, be- 
 cause you are abandoning the cause of the King of Navarre." 
 
 " The cause of the King of Navarre ! " replied the Due 
 d'Alenqon, wholly at his wits' end. 
 
 " Yes, certainly. Now look here, Franqois ; let us speak 
 frankly. You have come to an agreement a score of times ;
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY. 119 
 
 you cannot raise yourself or even hold your own except by 
 mutual help. This alliance "- 
 
 " Has now become impossible, sister," interrupted the Due 
 d'Alen<pn. 
 
 " And why so ? " 
 
 " Because the King has designs on your husband ! Pardon 
 me, when I said your husband, I erred ; I meant Henry of 
 Navarre. Our mother has seen through the whole thing. I 
 entered into an alliance with the Huguenots because I believed 
 the Huguenots were in favor; but now they are killing the 
 Huguenots, and in another week there will not remain fifty in 
 the whole kingdom. I gave my hand to the King of Navarre 
 because he was your husband ; but now he is not your hus- 
 band. What can you say to that you who are not only the 
 loveliest woman in France, but have the clearest head in the 
 kingdom ? " 
 
 "Why, I have this to say," replied Marguerite, "1 know 
 our brother Charles ; I saw him yesterday in one of those fits 
 of frenzy, every one of which shortens his life ten years. I 
 have to say that unfortunately these attacks are very frequent, 
 and that thus, in all probability, our brother Charles has not 
 very long to live ; and, finally, I have to say that the King of 
 Poland has just died, and the question of electing a prince of 
 the house of France in his stead is much discussed ; and when 
 circumstances are thus, it is not the moment to abandon allies 
 who, in the moment of struggle, might support us with the 
 strength of a nation and the power of a kingdom." 
 
 " And you ! " exclaimed the duke, " do you not act much 
 more treasonably to me in preferring a foreigner to your own 
 brother ? " 
 
 " Explain yourself, Francois ! In what have I acted trea- 
 sonably to you ? " 
 
 " You yesterday begged the life of the King of Navarre 
 from King Charles." 
 
 " Well ? " said Marguerite, with pretended innocence. 
 
 The duke rose hastily, paced round the chamber twice or 
 thrice with a bewildered air, then came back and took Mar- 
 guerite's hand. 
 
 It was cold and unresponsive. 
 
 " Good-by, sister ! " he said at last. " You will not under- 
 stand me ; do not, therefore, complain of whatever misfortunes 
 may happen to you."
 
 120 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Marguerite grew pale, but remained motionless in her place. 
 She saw the Due d'Alenqon go away, without making any 
 attempt to detain him ; but he had scarcely more than disap- 
 peared down the corridor when he returned. 
 
 " Listen, Marguerite," he said, " I had forgotten to tell you 
 one thing ; that is, that by this time to-morrow the King of 
 Navarre will be dead." 
 
 Marguerite uttered a cry, for the idea that she was the 
 instrument of assassination caused in her a terror she could not 
 subdue. 
 
 " And you will not prevent his death ? " she said ; " you will 
 not save your best and most faithful ally ?" 
 
 " Since yesterday the King of Navarre is no longer my ally." 
 
 " Who is, pray ? " 
 
 " Monsieur de Guise. By destroying the Huguenots, Mon- 
 sieur de Guise has become the king of the Catholics." 
 
 " And does a son of Henry II. recognize a duke of Lorraine 
 as his king ? " 
 
 " You are in a bad frame of mind, Marguerite, and you do 
 not understand anything." 
 
 " I confess that I try in vain to read your thoughts." 
 
 " Sister, you are of as good a house as the Princesse de Por- 
 cian; De Guise is no more immortal than the King of 
 Navarre. Now, then, Marguerite, suppose three things, three 
 possibilities : first, suppose monsieur is chosen King of 
 Poland ; the second, that you loved me as I love you ; well, I 
 am King of France, and you are queen of the Catholics." 
 
 Marguerite hid her face in her hands, overwhelmed at the 
 depth of the views of this youth, whom no one at court thought 
 possessed of even common understanding. 
 
 " But," she asked after a moment's silence, " I hope you are 
 not jealous of Monsieur le Due de Guise as you were of the 
 King of Navarre ! " 
 
 " What is done is done," said the Due d'Alenqon, in a 
 muffled voice, "and if I had to be jealous of the Due de Guise, 
 well, then, I was ! " 
 
 " There is only one thing that can prevent this capital plan 
 from succeeding, brother." 
 
 And what is that ? " 
 
 " That I no longer love the Due de Guise." 
 
 " And whom, pray, do you love ? " 
 
 " No one."
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY. 121 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon looked at Marguerite with the astonish- 
 ment of a man who takes his turn in failing to understand, 
 and left the room, pressing his icy hand on his forehead, which 
 ached to bursting. 
 
 Marguerite remained alone and thoughtful ; the situation 
 was beginning to take a clear and definite shape before her 
 eyes ; the King had permitted Saint Bartholomew's, Queen 
 Catharine and the Due de Guise had put it into execution. 
 The Due de Guise and the Due d'Alenqon were about to join 
 partnership so as to get the greatest possible advantage. The 
 death of the King of Navarre would be a natural result of this 
 great catastrophe. With the King of Navarre out of the way, 
 his kingdom would be seized upon, Marguerite would be left a 
 throneless, impotent widow with no other prospect before her 
 than a nunnery, where she would not even have the sad con- 
 solation of weeping for a consort who had never been her 
 husband. 
 
 She was still in the same position when Queen Catharine 
 sent to ask if she would not like to go with her and the whole 
 court on a pious visitation to the hawthorn of the Cemetery 
 of the Innocents. Marguerite's first impulse was to refuse to 
 take part in this cavalcade. But the thought that this excur- 
 sion might possibly give her a chance to learn something new 
 about the King of Navarre's fate decided her to go. So she 
 sent word that if they would have a palfrey ready for her she 
 would willingly go with their majesties. 
 
 Five minutes later a page came to ask if she was ready to 
 go down, for the procession was preparing to start. 
 
 Marguerite warned Gillonne by a gesture to look after the 
 wounded man and so went downstairs. 
 
 The King, the queen mother, Tavannes, and the principal 
 Catholics were already mounted. Marguerite cast a rapid 
 glance over the group, which was composed of about a score of 
 persons ; the King of Navarre was not of the party. 
 
 Madame de Sauve was there. Marguerite exchanged a 
 glance with her, and was convinced that her husband's mistress 
 had something to tell her. 
 
 They rode down the Rue de 1'Astruce and entered into the 
 Hue Saint Honore. As the populace caught sight of the King, 
 Queen Catharine, and the principal Catholics they flocked 
 together and followed the procession like a rising tide, and 
 shouts rent the air.
 
 122 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Vive le Roi ! " 
 
 " Vive la Messe." 
 
 " Death to the Huguenots ! " 
 
 These acclamations were accompanied by the waving of 
 ensanguined swords and smoking arquebuses, which showed 
 the part each had taken in the awful work just accomplished. 
 
 When they reached the top of the Rue des Prouvelles they 
 met some men who were dragging a headless carcass. It was 
 the admiral's. The men were going to hang it by the feet at 
 Montfaucon. 
 
 They entered the Cemetery des Saints Innocents by the gate 
 facing the Rue des Chaps, now known as the Rue des Dechar- 
 geurs ; the clergy, notified in advance of the visit of the King 
 and the queen mother, were waiting for their majesties to 
 make them speeches. 
 
 Madame de Sauve took advantage of a moment when Catha- 
 rine was listening to one of the discourses to approach the 
 Queen of Navarre, and beg leave to kiss her hand. Mar- 
 guerite extended her arm toward her, and Madame de Sauve, 
 as she kissed the queen's hand, slipped a tiny roll of paper up 
 her sleeve. 
 
 Madame de Sauve drew back quickly and with clever dis- 
 simulation ; yet Catharine perceived it, and turned round 
 just as the maid of honor was kissing Marguerite's hand. 
 
 The two women saw her glance, which penetrated them 
 like a flash of lightning, but both remained unmoved ; only 
 Madame de Sauve left Marguerite and resumed her place 
 near Catharine. 
 
 When Catharine had finished replying to the address which 
 had just been made to her she smiled and beckoned the Queen 
 of Navarre to go to her. 
 
 " Eh, my daughter," said the queen mother, in her Italian 
 patois, " so you are on intimate terms with Madame de Sauve, 
 are you ? " 
 
 Marguerite smiled in turn, and gave to her lovely counte- 
 nance the bitterest expression she could, and replied : 
 
 " Yes, mother; the serpent came to bite my hand ! " 
 
 " Aha ! " replied Catharine, with a smile ; " you are jealous, 
 I think ! " 
 
 " You are mistaken, madame," replied Marguerite ; " I am 
 no more jealous of the King of Navarre than the King of Na- 
 varre is in love with me, but I know how to distinguish my
 
 THE HAWTHORN OF THE CEMETERY. 123 
 
 friends from my enemies. I like those that like me, and 
 detest those that hate me. Otherwise, madame, should I be 
 your daughter ? " 
 
 Catharine smiled so as to make Marguerite understand that 
 if she had had any suspicion it had vanished. 
 
 Moreover, at that instant the arrival of other pilgrims 
 attracted the attention of the august throng. 
 
 The Due de Guise came with a troop of gentlemen all warm 
 still from recent carnage. They escorted a richly decorated 
 litter, which stopped in front of the King. 
 
 " The Duchesse de Nevers ! " cried Charles IX., " Ah ! let 
 that lovely robust Catholic come and receive our compliments. 
 Why, they tell me, cousin, that from your own window you have 
 been hunting Huguenots, and that you killed one with a stone." 
 
 The Duchesse de Nevers blushed exceedingly red. 
 
 " Sire," she said in a low tone, and kneeling before the 
 King, "on the contrary, it was a wounded Catholic whom I had 
 the good fortune to rescue." 
 
 " Good good, my cousin ! there are two ways of serving 
 me : one is by exterminating my enemies, the other is by rescu- 
 ing my friends. One does what one can, and I ain certain 
 that if you could have done more you would ! " 
 
 While this was going on, the populace, seeing the harmony 
 existing between the house of Lorraine and Charles IX., 
 shouted exultantly : 
 
 Vive le Roi ! " 
 
 " Vive le Due de Guise ! " 
 
 " Vive la Messe ! " 
 
 " Do you return to the Louvre with us, Henriette ? " in- 
 quired the queen mother of the lovely duchess. 
 
 Marguerite touched her friend on the elbow, and she, under- 
 standing the sign, replied : 
 
 " No, madame, unless your majesty desire it ; for I have 
 business in the city with her majesty the Queen of Navarre." 
 
 " And what are you going to do together ? " inquired Cath- 
 arine. 
 
 " To see some very rare and curious Greek books found at 
 an old Protestant pastor's, and which have been taken to the 
 Tower of Saint Jacques la Boucherie," replied Marguerite. 
 
 " You would do much better to see the last Huguenots flung 
 into the Seine from the top of the Pont des Meuniers," said 
 Charles IX. ; " that is the place for all good Frenchmen."
 
 124 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 "We will go, if it be your Majesty's desire," replied the 
 Duchesse de Nevers. 
 
 Catharine cast a look of distrust on the two young women. 
 Marguerite, on the watch, remarked it, and turning round 
 uneasily, looked about her. 
 
 This assumed or real anxiety did not escape Catharine. 
 
 " What are you looking for ? " 
 
 " I am seeking I do not see " she replied. 
 
 " Whom are you seeking ? Who is it you fail to see ? " 
 
 " La Sauve," said Marguerite ; " can she have returned to 
 the Louvre?" 
 
 " Did I not say you were jealous ? " said Catharine, in her 
 daughter's ear. " Oh, bestia ! Come, come, Henriette," she 
 added, shrugging her shoulders, " begone, and take the Queen 
 of Navarre with you." 
 
 Marguerite pretended to be still looking about her ; then, 
 turning to her friend, she said in a whisper : 
 
 " Take me away quickly ; I have something of the greatest 
 importance to say to you." 
 
 The duchess courtesied to the King and queen mother, and 
 then, bowing low before the Queen of Navarre : 
 
 " Will your majesty deign to come into my litter ?" 
 
 " Willingly, only you will have to take me back to the 
 Louvre." 
 
 " My litter, like my servants and myself, are at your 
 majesty's orders." 
 
 Queen Marguerite entered the litter, while Catharine and 
 her gentlemen returned to the Louvre just as they had come. 
 But during the route it was observed that the queen mother 
 kept talking to the King, pointing several times to Madame 
 de Sauve, and at each time the King laughed as Charles IX. 
 laughed ; that is, with a laugh more sinister than a threat. 
 
 As soon as Marguerite felt the litter in motion, and had no 
 longer to fear Catharine's searching eyes, she quickly drew 
 from her sleeve Madame de Sauve's note and read as follows : 
 
 " / have received orders to send to-night to the King of 
 Navarre two keys ; one is that of the room in which he is shut 
 up, and the other is the key of my chamber ; when once he has 
 reached my apartment, I am enjoined to keep him there until 
 six o'clock in the morning. 
 
 " Let your majesty rejiect let your majesty decide. Let 
 your majesty esteem my life as nothing"
 
 MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. 125 
 
 " There is now no doubt," murmured Marguerite, " and the 
 poor woman is the tool of which they wish to make use to 
 destroy us all. But we will see if the Queen Margot, as my 
 brother Charles calls me, is so easily to be made a nun of." 
 
 " Tell me, whom is the letter from ? " asked the Duchesse de 
 Nevers. 
 
 " Ah, duchess, I have so many things to say to you ! " 
 replied Marguerite, tearing the note into a thousand bits. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. 
 
 " AND, first, where are we going ? " asked Marguerite ; " not 
 to the Pont des Meuniers, I suppose, I have seen enough 
 slaughter since yesterday, my poor Henriette." 
 
 " I have taken the liberty to conduct your majesty " 
 
 "First and foremost, my majesty requests you to forget my 
 majesty you were taking me " 
 
 " To the Hotel de Guise, unless you decide otherwise." 
 
 " No, no, let us go there, Henriette ; the Due de Guise is not 
 there, your husband is not there." 
 
 " Oh, no," cried the duchess, her bright emerald eyes spark- 
 ling with joy ; " no, neither my husband, nor my brother-in- 
 law, nor any one else. I am free free as air, free as a bird, 
 free, my queen ! Do you understand the happiness there is 
 in that word ? I go, I come, I command. Ah, poor queen, 
 you are not free and so you sigh." 
 
 " You go, you come, you command. Is that all ? Is that 
 all the use of liberty ? You are happy with only freedom as 
 an excuse ! " 
 
 " Your majesty promised to tell me a secret." 
 
 " Again ' your majesty ' ! I shall be angry soon, Henriette. 
 Have you forgotten our agreement ? " 
 
 " No ; your respectful servant in public in private, your 
 madcap confidante, is it not so, madame ? Is it not so, 
 Marguerite ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," said the queen, smiling. 
 
 " No family rivalry, no treachery in love ; everything fair, 
 open, and aboveboard ! An offensive and defensive alliance,
 
 126 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 for the sole purpose of finding and, if we can, catching on the 
 fly, that ephemeral thing called happiness." 
 
 " Just so, duchess. Let us again seal the compact with a 
 kiss." 
 
 And the two beautiful women, the one so pale, so full of 
 melancholy, the other so roseate, so fair, so animated, joined 
 their lips as they had united their thoughts. 
 
 " Tell me, what is there new ? " asked the duchess, giving 
 Marguerite an eager, inquisitive look. 
 
 "Is n't everything new since day before yesterday ? " 
 
 " Oh, I am speaking of love, not of politics. When we are 
 as old as dame Catharine we will take part in politics ; but we 
 are only twenty, my pretty queen, and so let us talk about 
 something else. Let me see ! can it be that you are really 
 married ? " 
 
 " To whom ? " asked Marguerite, laughing. 
 
 " Ah ! you reassure me, truly ! " 
 
 " Well, Henriette, that which reassures you, alarms me. 
 Duchess, I must be married." 
 
 When ? " 
 
 " To-morrow." 
 
 " Oh, poor little friend ! and is it necessary ? " 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 " Mordi ! as an acquaintance of mine says, this is very 
 sad." 
 
 " And so you know some one who says mordi ? " asked 
 Marguerite, with a smile. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " And who is this some one ? " 
 
 " You keep asking me questions when I am talking to you. 
 Finish and I will begin." 
 
 " In two words, it is this : The King of Navarre is in love, 
 and not with me ; I am not in love, but I do not want him, yet 
 we must both of us change, or seem to change, between now 
 and to-morrow." 
 
 " Well, then, you change, and be very sure he will do the 
 same." 
 
 " That is quite impossible, for I am less than ever inclined 
 to change." 
 
 " Only with respect to your husband, I hope." 
 
 " Henriette, I have a scruple." 
 
 " A scruple ! about what ? "
 
 MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. 127 
 
 " A religious one. Do you make any difference between 
 Huguenots and Catholics ? " 
 
 " In politics ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Of course." 
 
 " And in love ? " 
 
 " My dear girl, we women are such heathens that we admit 
 every kind of sect, and recognize many gods." 
 
 " In one, eh ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied the duchess, her eyes sparkling ; " he who is 
 called Eros, Cupido, Amor. He who has a quiver on his back, 
 wings on his shoulders, and a fillet over his eyes. Mordi, 
 vive la devotion ! " 
 
 " You have a peculiar method of praying ; you throw stones 
 on the heads of Huguenots." 
 
 " Let us do our duty and let people talk. Ah, Marguerite ! 
 how the finest ideas, the noblest actions, are spoilt in passing 
 through the mouths of the vulgar ! " 
 
 " The vulgar ! why, it was my brother Charles who con- 
 gratulated you on your exploits, was n't it ? " 
 
 " Your brother Charles is a mighty hunter blowing the horn 
 all day, and that makes him very thin. I reject his compli- 
 ments ; besides, I gave him his answer did n't you hear what 
 I said ? " 
 
 " No ; you spoke so low." 
 
 " So much the better. I shall have more news to tell you. 
 Now, then, finish your story, Marguerite." 
 
 " I was going to say - to say " 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " I was going to say," continued the queen, laughing, " if 
 the stone my brother spoke of be a fact, I should resist." 
 
 " Ah ! " cried Henriette, " so you have chosen a Huguenot, 
 have you ? Well, to reassure your conscience, I promise you 
 that I. will choose one myself on the first opportunity." 
 
 " Ah, so you have chosen a Catholic, have you ? " 
 
 " Mordi ! " replied the duchess. 
 
 " I see, I see." 
 
 " And what is this Huguenot of yours ? " 
 
 " I did not choose him. The young man is nothing and 
 probably never will be anything to me." 
 
 " But what sort is he ? You can tell me that : you know 
 how curious I am about these matters."
 
 128 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 "A poor young fellow, beautiful as Benvenuto Cellini's 
 Nisus, and he came and took refuge in my room." 
 
 " Oho ! of course without any suggestion on your part ? " 
 
 " Poor fellow ! Do not laugh so, Henriette ; at this very 
 moment he is between life and death." 
 
 " He is ill, is he ? " 
 
 " He is grievously wounded." 
 
 "A wounded Huguenot is very disagreeable, especially in 
 these times ; and what have you done with this wounded 
 Huguenot, who is not and never will be anything to you ? " 
 
 " He is in my closet; I am concealing him and I want to 
 save him." 
 
 " He is handsome ! he is young ! he is wounded. You hide 
 him in your closet ; you want to save him. This Huguenot of 
 yours will be very ungrateful if he is not too grateful." 
 
 " I am afraid he is already much more so than I could 
 wish." 
 
 " And this poor young man interests you ? " 
 
 " From motives of humanity that 's all." 
 
 " Ah, humanity ! my poor queen, that is the very virtue 
 that is the ruin of all of us women." 
 
 " Yes ; and you understand : as the King, the Due d' Alen- 
 QOU, my mother, even my husband, may at any moment enter 
 my room " 
 
 " You want me to hide your little Huguenot as long as he is 
 ill, on condition I send him back to you when he is cured ? " 
 
 " Scoffer ! " said Marguerite, " no ! I do not lay my plans so far 
 in advance ; but if you could conceal the poor fellow, if you 
 could preserve the life I have saved, I confess I should be 
 most grateful. You are free at the Hotel de Guise ; you have 
 neither brother-in-law nor husband to spy on you or constrain 
 you ; besides, behind your room there is a closet like mine 
 into which no one is entitled to enter; so lend me your closet 
 for my Huguenot, and when he is cured open the cage and let 
 the bird fly away." 
 
 "There is only one difficulty, my dear queen: the cage is 
 already occupied." 
 
 " What, have you also saved somebody ? " 
 
 " That is exactly what I answered your brother with." 
 
 " Ah, I understand ! that 's why you spoke so low that I 
 could not hear you." 
 
 " Listen, Marguerite : it is an admirable story is no less
 
 MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. 129 
 
 poetical and romantic than yours. After I had left you six of 
 my guards, I returned with the rest to the Hotel de Guise, 
 and I was watching them pillage and burn a house separated 
 from my brother's palace only by the Rue des Quatre Fils, 
 when I heard the voices of men swearing and of women cry- 
 ing. I went out on the balcony and the first thing I saw was 
 a sword flashing so brilliantly that it seemed to light up the 
 whole scene. I was filled with admiration for this fiery sword. 
 I am fond of fine things, you know ! Then naturally enough I 
 tried to distinguish the arm wielding it and then the body to 
 which the arm belonged. Amid sword-thrusts and shouts I at 
 last made out the man and I saw a hero, an Ajax Telemon. 
 I heard a voice the voice of a Stentor. My enthusiasm 
 awoke I stood there panting, trembling at every blow aimed 
 at him, at every thrust he parried ! That was a quarter 
 hour of emotion such as I had never before experienced, my 
 queen ; and never believed was possible to experience. So 
 there I was panting, holding my breath, trembling, and voice- 
 less, when all of a sudden my hero disappeared." 
 
 How ? " 
 
 " Struck down by a stone an old woman threw at him. Then, 
 like Cyrus, I found my voice, and screamed, < Help ! help ! ' 
 my guards went out, lifted him up, and bore him to the room 
 which you want for your protege" 
 
 " Alas, my dear Henriette, I can better understand this 
 story because it is so nearly my own." 
 
 " With this difference, queen, that as I am serving my King 
 and my religion, I have no reason to send Monsieur Annibal de 
 Coconnas away." 
 
 " His name is Annibal de Coconnas ! " said Marguerite, 
 laughing. 
 
 " A terrible name, is it not ? Well, he who bears it is 
 worthy of it. What a champion he is, by Heaven ! and how he 
 made the blood flow ! Put on your mask, my queen, for we 
 are now at the palace." 
 
 " Why put on my mask ? " 
 
 " Because I wish to show you my hero." 
 
 " Is he handsome ? " 
 
 " He seemed magnificent to me during the conflict. To be 
 sure, it was at night and he was lighted up by the flames. 
 This morning by daylight I confess he seemed to me to have 
 lost a little.''
 
 130 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " So then my protege is rejected at the Hotel de Guise. I 
 am sorry for it, for that is the last place where they would 
 look for a Huguenot." 
 
 " Oh, no, your Huguenot shall come ; I will have him 
 brought this evening : one shall sleep in the right-hand corner 
 of the closet and the other in the left." 
 
 " But when they recognize each other as Protestant and 
 Catholic they will fight." 
 
 " Oh, there is no danger. Monsieur de Coconnas has had a 
 cut down the face that prevents him from seeing very well ; 
 your Huguenot is wounded in the chest so that he can't move ; 
 and, besides, you have only to tell him to be silent on the 
 subject of religion, and all will go well." 
 
 " So be it." 
 
 " It 's a bargain ; and now let us go in." 
 
 " Thanks," said Marguerite, pressing her friend's hand. 
 
 " Here, madame," said the duchess, " you are again ' your 
 majesty ; ' suffer me, then, to do the honors of the Hotel de 
 Guise fittingly for the Queen of Navarre." 
 
 And the duchess, alighting from the litter, almost knelt on 
 the ground in helping Marguerite to step down ; then pointing 
 to the palace door guarded by two sentinels, arquebuse in hand, 
 she followed the queen at a respectful distance, and this 
 humble attitude she maintained as long as she was in sight. 
 
 As soon as she reached her room, the duchess closed the 
 door, and, calling to her waiting-woman, a thorough Sicilian, 
 said to her in Italian, 
 
 " Mica, how is Monsieur le Comte ? " 
 
 "Better and better," replied she. 
 
 " What is he doing ? " 
 
 " At this moment, madame, he is taking some refreshment." 
 
 " It is always a good sign," said Marguerite, " when the 
 appetite returns." 
 
 " Ah, that is true. I forgot you were a pupil of Ambroise 
 Pare. Leave us, Mica." 
 
 " Why do you send her away ? " 
 
 " That she may be on the watch." 
 
 Mica left the room. 
 
 "Now," said the duchess, "will you go in to see him, or 
 shall I send for him here ? " 
 
 " Neither the one nor the other. I wish to see him without 
 his seeing me."
 
 MUTUAL CONFIDENCES. 131 
 
 " What matters it ? You have your mask." 
 
 " He may recognize me by my hair, iny hands, a jewel." 
 
 " How cautious she is since she has been married, my pretty 
 queen ! " 
 
 Marguerite smiled. 
 
 " Well," continued the duchess, " I see only one way." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " To look through the keyhole." 
 
 " Very well ! take me to the door." 
 
 The duchess took Marguerite by the hand and led her to a 
 door covered with tapestry ; then bending one knee, she applied 
 her eye to the keyhole. 
 
 " 'T is all right ; he is sitting at table, with his face turned 
 toward us ; come ! " 
 
 The queen took her friend's place, and looked through the 
 keyhole ; Coconnas, as the duchess had said, was sitting at a 
 well-served table, and, despite his wounds, was doing ample 
 justice to the good things before him. 
 
 " Ah, great heavens ! " cried Marguerite, starting back. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " asked the duchess in amazement. 
 
 " Impossible ! no ! yes ! - on my soul, 't is the very 
 man ! " 
 
 Who ? " 
 
 " Hush," said Marguerite, getting to her feet and seizing the 
 duchess's hand; " 'tis the man who pursued my Huguenot into 
 my room, and stabbed him in my arms ! Oh, Heuriette, how 
 fortunate he did not see me ! " 
 
 " Well, then, you have seen him fighting ; was he not hand- 
 some ? " 
 
 " I do not know," said Marguerite, " for I was looking at 
 the man he was pursuing." 
 
 " What is his name ? " 
 
 " You will not mention it before the count ? " 
 
 " No, I give you my promise ! " 
 
 " Lerac de la Mole." 
 
 " And what do you think of him now ? " 
 
 " Of Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " No, of Monsieur de Coconnas ? " 
 
 " Faith ! " said Marguerite, " I confess I think " 
 
 She stopped. 
 
 " Come, come," said the duchess, " I see you are angry with 
 him for having wounded your Huguenot."
 
 132 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Why, so far," said Marguerite, laughing, " my Huguenot 
 owes him nothing ; the slash he gave him under his eye " 
 
 " They are quits, then, and we can reconcile them. Send 
 me your wounded man." 
 
 " Not now by and by." 
 
 When ? " 
 
 "When you have found yours another room." 
 
 Which ? " 
 
 Marguerite looked meaningly at her friend, who, after a 
 moment's silence, laughed. 
 
 " So be it," said the duchess ; " alliance firmer than ever." 
 
 " Friendship ever sincere ! " 
 
 " And the word, in case we need each other ? " 
 
 " The triple name of your triple god, ' Eros, Cupido, Amor.' " 
 
 And the two princesses separated after one more kiss, and 
 pressing each other's hand for the twentieth time. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOW THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS THEY ARE NOT 
 MEANT FOR. 
 
 THE Queen of Navarre on her return to the Louvre found 
 Gillonne in great excitement. Madame de Sauve had been 
 there in her absence. She had brought a key sent her by the 
 queen mother. It was the key of the room in which Henry 
 was confined. It was evident that the queen mother for some 
 purpose of her own wished the Bearnais to spend that night in 
 Madame de Sauve's apartment. 
 
 Marguerite took the key and turned it over and over ; she 
 made Gillonne repeat Madame de Sauve's every word, weighed 
 them, letter by letter, in her mind, and at length thought she 
 detected Catharine's plan. 
 
 She took pen and ink, and wrote : 
 
 " Instead of going to Madame de Sauve to-night, come to 
 the Queen of Navarre. 
 
 " MARGUERITE." 
 
 She rolled up the paper, put it in the hollow of the key, 
 and ordered Gillonne to slip the key under the king's door as 
 soon as it was dark.
 
 THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS. 133 
 
 This first duty having been attended to, Marguerite thought 
 of the wounded man, closed all the doors, entered the closet, 
 and, to her great surprise, found La Mole dressed in all his 
 clothes, torn and blood-stained as they were. 
 
 On seeing her he strove to rise, but, still dizzy, could not 
 stand, and fell back upon the sofa which had served for his 
 bed. 
 
 " What is the matter, sir ? " asked Marguerite ; " and why do 
 you thus disobey your physician's orders ? I recommended 
 you rest, and instead of following my advice you do just the 
 contrary." 
 
 " Oh, madame," said Gillonne, " it is not my fault ; I have 
 entreated Monsieur le Comte not to commit this folly, but he 
 declares that nothing shall keep him any longer at the Louvre." 
 
 " Leave the Louvre ! " said Marguerite, gazing with astonish- 
 ment at the young man, who cast down his eyes. " Why, it is 
 impossible you cannot walk ; you are pale and weak ; your 
 knees tremble. Only a few hours ago the wound in your 
 shoulder was still bleeding." 
 
 " Madame," said the young man, " as earnestly as I thanked 
 your majesty for having given me shelter, as earnestly do I 
 pray you now to suffer me to depart." 
 
 " I scarcely know what to call such a resolution," said Mar- 
 guerite ; " it is worse than ingratitude." 
 
 " Oh," cried La Mole, clasping his hands, " think me not un- 
 grateful ; my gratitude will cease only with ray life." 
 
 " It will not last long, then," said Marguerite, moved at these 
 words, the sincerity of which it was impossible to doubt ; " for 
 your wounds will open, and you will die from loss of blood, or 
 you will be recognized for a Huguenot and killed ere you 
 have gone fifty yards in the street." 
 
 "Nevertheless I must leave the Louvre," murmured La 
 Mole. 
 
 " Must," returned Marguerite, fixing her serene, inscrutable 
 eyes upon him ; then turning rather pale she added, " ah, 
 yes ; forgive me, sir, I understand ; doubtless there is some 
 one outside the Louvre who is anxiously waiting for you. You 
 are right, Monsieur de la Mole ; it is natural, and I under- 
 stand it. Why did n't you say so at first ? or rather, why 
 did n't I think of it myself ? It is duty in the exercise of hos- 
 pitality to protect one's guest's affections as well as to cure his 
 wou'nds, and to care for the spirit just as one cares for the body."
 
 134 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Alas, madame," said La Mole, " you are laboring under a 
 strange mistake. I am well nigh alone in the world, and 
 altogether so in Paris, where no one knows me. My assassin 
 is the first man I have spoken to in this city ; your majesty 
 the first woman who has spoken to me." 
 
 " Then," said Marguerite, " why would you go ? " 
 
 " Because," replied La Mole, " last night you got no rest, 
 and to-night " 
 
 Marguerite blushed. 
 
 " Gillonne," said she, " it is already evening and time to 
 deliver that key." 
 
 Gillonne smiled, and left the room. 
 
 "But," continued Marguerite, "if you are alone in Paris, 
 without friends, what will you do ? " 
 
 " Madame, I soon shall have friends enough, for while I was 
 pursued I thought of my mother, who was a Catholic ; me- 
 thought I saw her with a cross in her hand gliding before me 
 toward the Louvre, and I vowed that if God should save my 
 life I would embrace my mother's religion. Madame, God 
 did more than save my life, he sent me one of his angels to 
 make me love life." 
 
 " But you cannot walk ; before you have gone a hundred 
 steps you will faint away." 
 
 " Madame, I have made the experiment in the closet, I 
 walk slowly and painfully, it is true ; but let me get as far as 
 the Place du Louvre ; once outside, let befall what will." 
 
 Marguerite leaned her head on her hand and sank into deep 
 thought. 
 
 " And the King of Navarre," said she, significantly, " you 
 no longer speak of him ? In changing your religion, have 
 you also changed your desire to enter his service ? " 
 
 " Madame," replied La Mole, growing pale, " you have just 
 hit upon the actual reason of my departure. I know that the 
 King of Navarre is exposed to the greatest danger, and that 
 all your majesty's influence as a daughter of France will 
 barely suffice to save his life." 
 
 " What do you mean, sir," exclaimed Marguerite, " and what 
 danger do you refer to ? " 
 
 " Madame," replied La Mole, with some hesitation, " one 
 can hear everything from the closet where I am." 
 
 " 'T is true," said Marguerite to herself ; " Monsieur de Guise 
 told rne so before."
 
 THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS. 135 
 
 " Well," added she, aloud, " what did you hear ? " 
 
 " In the first place, the conversation between your majesty 
 and your brother." 
 
 " With Francois ? " said Marguerite, changing color. 
 
 " Yes, madame, with the Due d'Alenqon ; and then after you 
 went out I heard what Gillonne and Madame de Sauve said." 
 
 " And these two conversations " 
 
 " Yes, madame ; married scarcely a week, you love your 
 husband ; your husband will come, in his turn, in the same 
 way that the Due d' Alenqon and Madame de Sauve came. He 
 will confide his secrets to you. Well, then, I must not overhear 
 them ; I should be indiscreet I cannot I must not I will 
 not be ! " 
 
 By the tone in which La Mole uttered these last words, by 
 the anxiety expressed in his voice, by the embarrassment 
 shown in his eyes, Marguerite was enlightened as by a sudden 
 revelation. 
 
 " Aha ! " said she, " so you have heard everything that has 
 been said in this room ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 These words were uttered in a sigh. 
 
 " And you wish to depart to-night, this evening, to avoid 
 hearing any more ? " 
 
 " This moment, if it please your majesty to allow me to go." 
 
 " Poor fellow ! " said Marguerite, with a strange accent of 
 tender pity. 
 
 Astonished by such a gentle reply when he was expecting 
 a rather forcible outburst, La Mole timidly raised his head ; 
 his eyes met Marguerite's and were riveted as by a magnetic 
 power on their clear and limpid depths. 
 
 " So then you feel you cannot keep a secret, Monsieur de 
 la Mole ? " said Marguerite in a soft voice as she stood lean- 
 ing on the back of her chair, half hidden in the shadow of a 
 thick tapestry and enjoying the felicity of easily reading his 
 frank and open soul while remaining impenetrable herself. 
 
 " Madame," said La Mole, " I have a miserable disposition : 
 I distrust myself, and the happiness of another gives me 
 pain." 
 
 " Whose happiness ? " asked Marguerite, smiling. " Ah, yes 
 the King of Navarre's ! Poor Henry ! " 
 
 " You see," cried La Mole, passionately, " he is happy." 
 
 Happy ? "
 
 136 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Yes, for your majesty is sorry for him." 
 
 Marguerite crumpled up the silk of her purse and smoothed 
 out the golden fringe. 
 
 " So then you decline to see the King of Navarre ? " said 
 she ; " you have made up your mind ; you are decided ? " 
 
 " I fear I should be troublesome to his majesty just at the 
 present time." 
 
 " But the Due d'Alenqon, my brother ? " 
 
 " Oh, no, madarne ! " cried La Mole, " the Due d'Alempn 
 even still less than the King of Navarre." 
 
 "Why so?" asked Marguerite, so stirred that her voice 
 trembled as she spoke. 
 
 " Because, although I am already too bad a Huguenot to be 
 a faithful servant of the King of Navarre, I am not a suffi- 
 ciently good Catholic to be friends with the Due d'Alentjon and 
 Monsieur de Guise." 
 
 This time Marguerite cast down her eyes, for she felt the 
 very depths of her heart stirred by what he said, and yet she 
 could not have told whether his reply was meant to give her 
 joy or pain. 
 
 At this moment Gillonne came back. Marguerite asked her 
 a question with a glance ; Gillonne's answer, also conveyed by 
 her eyes, was in the affirmative. She had succeeded in getting 
 the key to the King of Navarre. 
 
 Marguerite turned her eyes toward La Mole, who stood 
 before her, his head drooping on his breast, pale, like one 
 suffering alike in mind and in body. 
 
 "Monsieur de la Mole is proud," said she, "and I hesitate 
 to make him a proposition he will doubtless reject." 
 
 La Mole rose, took one step toward Marguerite, and was 
 about to bow low before her to signify that he was at her 
 service ; but an intense, keen, burning pang forced the tears 
 from his eyes, and conscious that he was in danger of falling, 
 he clutched a piece of tapestry and clung to it. 
 
 " Don't you see, sir," cried Marguerite, springing to him and 
 supporting him in her arms, " don't you see that you still 
 need me ? " 
 
 A scarcely perceptible movement passed over La Mole's lips. 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " he whispered, " like the air I breathe, like the 
 light I see ! " 
 
 At this moment three knocks were heard at Marguerite's 
 door.
 
 THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS. 137 
 
 " Do you hear, madame ? " cried Gillonne, alarmed. 
 
 " Already ! " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 
 Shall I open ? " 
 
 " Wait ! perhaps it is the King of Navarre." 
 
 " Oh, madame !" cried La Mole, recalled to himself by these 
 words, which the queen had spoken in such a low tone that 
 she hoped Gillonne only had heard them, " on my knees I 
 entreat you, let me depart. Yes, dead or alive ! madame, have 
 pity on me ! Oh ! you do not answer. I will tell you all, and 
 then you will drive me away, I hope." 
 
 " Be silent," said Marguerite, who found an indescribable 
 charm in the young man's reproaches ; " be silent." 
 
 " Madame," replied La Mole, who did not find that anger he 
 expected in the voice of the queen, " madame, I tell you again, 
 everything is audible in this closet. Oh, do not make me perish 
 by tortures more cruel than the executioner could inflict " 
 
 " Silence ! silence ! " said Marguerite. 
 
 " Oh, madame, you are merciless ! you will not hear me, you 
 will not understand me. Know, then, that I love you " 
 
 " Silence ! I tell you," interrupted Marguerite, placing on 
 his mouth her warm, perfumed hand, which he seized between 
 both of his and pressed eagerly to his lips. 
 
 " But " he whispered. 
 
 "Be silent, child who is this rebel that refuses to obey 
 his queen ? " 
 
 Then darting out of the closet, she shut the door and stood 
 leaning against the wall pressing her trembling hand to her 
 heart, as if to control it. 
 
 " Open, Gillonne." 
 
 Gillonne left the room, and an instant after, the fine, intel- 
 lectual, but rather anxious countenance of the King of Na- 
 varre appeared behind the tapestry. 
 
 " You have sent for me, madame ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire. Your majesty received my letter ? " 
 
 " And not without some surprise, I confess," said Henry, 
 looking round with distrust, which, however, almost instantly 
 vanished from his mind. 
 
 " And not without some apprehension," added Marguerite. 
 
 " I confess it, madame ! But still, surrounded as I am by 
 deadly enemies, by friends still more dangerous, perhaps, than 
 my open foes, I recollected that one evening I had seen a noble 
 generosity shining in your eyes 'twas the night of our
 
 138 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 marriage ; that one other evening I had seen the star of cour- 
 age beaming in them 't was yesterday, the day fixed for my 
 death." 
 
 " Well, sire ? " said Marguerite, smiling, while Henry seemed 
 striving to read her heart. 
 
 " Well, madame," returned the king, " thinking of these 
 things, I said to myself, as I read your letter bidding me come : 
 1 Without friends, for he is a disarmed prisoner, the King of 
 Navarre has but one means of dying nobly, of dying a death 
 that will be recorded in history. It is to die betrayed by his 
 wife ; and I am come ' " 
 
 " Sire," replied Marguerite, " you will change your tone when 
 you learn that all this is the work of a woman who loves you 
 
 and whom you love." 
 
 Henry started back at these words, and his keen gray eyes 
 under their black lashes were fixed on the queen with curiosity. 
 
 " Oh, reassure yourself, sire," said the queen, smiling ; " I 
 am not that person." 
 
 " But, madame," said Henry, " you sent me this key, and 
 this is your writing." 
 
 " It is my writing, I confess ; the letter came from me, but 
 the key is a different matter. Let it satisfy you to know that 
 it has passed through the hands of four women before it 
 reached you." 
 
 " Of four women ? " exclaimed Henry in astonishment. 
 
 " Yes," said Marguerite ; " Queen Catharine's, Madame de 
 Sauve's, Gillonne's, and mine." 
 
 Henry pondered over this enigma. 
 
 " Now let us talk reasonably, sire," said Marguerite, " and 
 above all let us speak frankly. Common report has it that 
 your majesty has consented to abjure. Is it true ? " 
 
 " That report is mistaken ; I have not yet consented." 
 
 " But your mind is made up ? " 
 
 " That is to say, I am deliberating. When one is twenty 
 and almost a king, venire, saint gris ! there are many things 
 well worth a mass." 
 
 " And among other things life, for instance ! " 
 
 Henry could not repress a fleeting smile. 
 
 " You do not tell me your whole thought," said Marguerite. 
 
 " I have reservations for my allies, madame ; and you know 
 we are but allies as yet ; if indeed you were both my ally 
 
 and"
 
 THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS. 139 
 
 " And your wife, sire ? " 
 
 " Faith ! yes, and my wife " 
 
 What then ? " 
 
 " Why, then, it might be different, and I perhaps might re- 
 solve to remain King of the Huguenots, as they call me. But 
 as it is, I must be content to live." 
 
 Marguerite looked at Henry in such a peculiar manner that it 
 would have awakened suspicion in a less acute mind than his. 
 
 " And are you quite sure of succeeding even in that ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Why, almost ; but you know, in this world nothing is 
 certain." 
 
 "It is true," replied Marguerite, "your majesty shows such 
 moderation and professes such disinterestedness, that after 
 having renounced your crown, after having renounced your 
 religion, you will probably renounce your alliance with a 
 daughter of France ; at least this is hoped for." 
 
 These words bore a significance which sent a thrill through 
 Henry's whole frame ; but instantaneously repressing the emo- 
 tion, he said : 
 
 " Deign to recollect, madame, that at this moment I am. not 
 my own master ; I shall therefore do what the King of France 
 orders me. If I were consulted the least in the world on this 
 . question, affecting as it does my throne, my honor, and my 
 life, rather than build my future on this forced marriage of 
 ours, I should prefer to enter a monastery or turn gamekeeper." 
 
 This calm resignation, this renunciation of the world, 
 alarmed Marguerite. She thought perhaps this rupture of the 
 marriage had been agreed upon by Charles IX., Catharine, and 
 the King of Navarre. Why should she not be taken as a dupe 
 or a victim ? Because she was sister of the one -and daughter 
 of the other ? Experience had taught her that this relation- 
 ship gave her no ground on which to build her security. 
 
 So ambition was gnawing at this young woman's, or rather 
 this young queen's heart, and she was too far above vulgar 
 frailties to be drawn into any selfish meanness ; in the case of 
 every woman, however mediocre she may be, when she loves 
 her love has none of these petty trials, for true love is also an 
 ambition. 
 
 " Your majesty," said Marguerite, with a sort of mocking 
 disdain, " has no confidence in the star that shines over the 
 head of every king ! "
 
 140 MARGUERITE 1)E V A LOTS. 
 
 " Ah," said Henry, " I vainly look for mine now, I cannot 
 see it ; 't is hidden by the storm which now threatens me ! " 
 
 " And suppose a woman's breath were to dispel this tempest, 
 and make the star reappear, brilliant as ever ? " 
 
 " 'T were difficult." 
 
 " Do you deny the existence of this woman ? " 
 
 " No, I deny her power." 
 
 " You mean her will ? " 
 
 " I said her power, and I repeat, her powec. A woman is 
 powerful only when love and interest are combined within her 
 in equal degrees ; if either sentiment predominates, she is, like 
 Achilles, vulnerable ; now as to this woman, if I mistake not, 
 I cannot rely on her love." 
 
 Marguerite made no reply. 
 
 " Listen," said Henry ; " at the last stroke of the bell of 
 Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois you must have thought of regain- 
 ing your liberty, sacrificed for the purpose of destroying my 
 followers. My concern was to save my life : that was the 
 most essential thing. We lose Navarre, indeed; but what is 
 that compared with your being enabled to speak aloud in your 
 room, which you dared not do when you had some one listen- 
 ing to you in yonder closet ? " 
 
 Deeply absorbed as she was in her thoughts, Marguerite 
 could not refrain from smiling. The king rose and prepared 
 to seek his own apartment, for it was some time after eleven, 
 and every one at the Louvre was, or seemed to be, asleep. 
 
 Henry took three steps toward the door, then suddenly 
 stopped as if for the first time recollecting the motive of his 
 visit to the queen. 
 
 " By the way, madame," said he, " had you not some- 
 thing to communicate to me? or did you desire to give me an 
 opportunity of thanking you for the reprieve which your brave 
 presence in the King's armory brought me ? In truth it was just 
 in time, madame ; I cannot deny it, you appeared like a god- 
 dess of antiquity, in the nick of time to save my life." 
 
 " Unfortunate man ! " cried Marguerite, in a muffled voice, 
 and seizing her husband's arm, "do you not see that nothing 
 is saved, neither your liberty, your crown, nor your life ? 
 Infatuated madman ! Poor madman ! Did you, then, see 
 nothing in my letter but a rendezvous ? Did you believe that 
 Marguerite, indignant at your coldness, desired reparation ? "
 
 THERE ARE KEYS WHICH OPEN DOORS. 141 
 
 " I confess, madaine,'' said Henry in astonishment, " I con- 
 fess " 
 
 Marguerite shrugged her shoulders with an expression 
 impossible to describe. 
 
 At this instant a strange sound was heard, like a sharp 
 insistent scratching at the secret door. 
 
 Marguerite led the king toward the little door. 
 
 " Listen," said she. 
 
 " The queen mother is leaving her room," said a trembling 
 voice outside, which Henry instantly recognized as -Madame 
 de Sauve's. 
 
 " Where is she going ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " She is coming to your majesty." 
 
 And then the rustling of a silk gown, growing fainter, 
 showed that Madame de Sauve was hastening rapidly away. 
 
 " Oho ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " I was sure of this," said Marguerite. 
 
 " And I," replied Henry, " feared it, and this is the proof 
 of it." 
 
 And half opening his black velvet doublet, he showed the 
 queen that he had beneath it a shirt of mail, and a long Milan 
 poniard, which instantly glittered in his hand like a viper in 
 the sun. 
 
 " As if you needed weapon and cuirass here ! " cried Mar- 
 guerite. " Quick, quick, sire ! conceal that dagger ; 't is the 
 queen mother, indeed, but the queen mother only." 
 
 Yet ' 
 
 " Silence ! I hear her." 
 
 And putting her mouth close to Henry's ear, she whispered 
 something which the young king heard with attention mingled 
 with astonishment. Then he hid himself behind the curtains 
 of the bed. 
 
 Meantime, with the quickness of a panther, Marguerite 
 sprang to the closet, where La Mole was waiting in a fever 
 of excitement, opened the door, found the young man, and 
 pressing his hand in the darkness " Silence," said she, 
 approaching her lips so near that he felt her warm and balmy 
 breath ; " silence ! " 
 
 Then returning to her chamber, she tore off her head-dress, 
 cut the laces of her dress with her poniard, and sprang into bed. 
 
 It was time the key turned in the lock. Catharine had a 
 key for every door in the Louvre.
 
 142 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Who is there ? " cried Marguerite, as Catharine placed on 
 guard at the door the four gentlemen by whom she was 
 attended. 
 
 And, as if frightened by this sudden intrusion into her 
 chamber, Marguerite sprang out from behind the curtains of 
 her bed in a white dressing-gown, and then recognizing 
 Catharine, came to kiss her hand with such well-feigned sur- 
 prise that the wily Florentine herself could not help being 
 deceived by it. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT. 
 
 THE queen mother cast a marvellously rapid glance around 
 her. The velvet slippers at the foot of the bed, Marguerite's 
 clothes scattered over the chairs, the way she rubbed her eyes 
 as if to drive away her sleepiness, all convinced Catharine 
 that she had awakened her daughter. 
 
 Then she smiled as a woman does when she has succeeded 
 in her plans, and drawing up an easy chair, she said : 
 
 " Let us sit down, Marguerite, and talk." 
 
 " Madame, I am listening." 
 
 "It is time," said Catharine, slowly shutting her eyes in 
 the characteristic way of people who weigh each word or who 
 deeply dissimulate, " it is time, my daughter, that you should 
 know how ardently your brother and myself desire to see you 
 happy." 
 
 This exordium for one who knew Catharine was alarming. 
 
 " What can she be about to say ? " thought Marguerite. 
 
 " To be sure," continued La Florentine, " in giving you in 
 marriage we fulfilled one of those acts of policy frequently 
 required by important interests of those who govern ; but I 
 must confess, my poor child, that we had no expectation that 
 the indifference manifested by the King of Navarre for one so 
 young, so lovely, and so fascinating as yourself would be so 
 obstinate." 
 
 Marguerite arose, and folding her robe de chambre around 
 her, courtesied with ceremonious respect to her mother. 
 
 " I have heard to-night only," continued Catharine, " other- 
 wise I should have paid you an earlier visit, that your hus-
 
 THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT. 143 
 
 band is far from showing you those attentions yon have a right 
 to claim, not merely as a beautiful woman, but as a princess 
 of France." 
 
 Marguerite sighed, and Catharine, encouraged by this mute 
 approval proceeded. 
 
 " In fact, that the King of Navarre is openly cohabiting one 
 of my maids of honor who is scandalously smitten with him, 
 that he scorns the love of the woman graciously given to him, 
 is an insult to which we poor powerful ones of the earth cannot 
 apply a remedy, and yet the meanest gentleman in our kingdom 
 would avenge it by calling out his son-in-law or having his 
 son do so." 
 
 Marguerite dropped her head. 
 
 " For some time, my daughter," Catharine went on to say, 
 " I have seen by your reddened eyes, by your bitter sallies 
 against La Sauve, that in spite of your efforts your heart must 
 show external signs of its bleeding wound." 
 
 Marguerite trembled: a slight movement had shaken the 
 curtains ; but fortunately Catharine did not notice it. 
 
 " This wound," said she with affectionate sweetness re- 
 doubled, " this wound, my daughter, a mother's hand must 
 cure. Those who with the intention of securing your happi- 
 ness have brought about your marriage, and who in their 
 anxiety about you notice that every night Henry of Navarre 
 goes to the wrong rooms ; those who cannot allow a kinglet like 
 him to insult a woman of such beauty, of such high rank, and so 
 worthy, by scorning your person and neglecting his chances of 
 posterity ; those who see that at the first favorable wind, this 
 wild and insolent madcap will turn against our family and 
 expel you from his house I say have not they the right to 
 secure your interests by entirely dividing them from his, so 
 that your future may be better suited to yourself and your 
 rank ? 
 
 " And yet, madame," replied Marguerite, " in spite of these 
 observations so replete with maternal love, and filling me with 
 joy and pride, I am bold enough to affirm to your majesty that 
 the King of Navarre is my husband." 
 
 Catharine started with rage, and drawing closer to Mar- 
 guerite she said : 
 
 " He, your husband ? Is it sufficient to make you husband 
 and wife that the Church has pronounced its blessing npon 
 you ? And is the marriage consecration only in the words of
 
 144 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 the priest ? He, your husband ? Ah, my daughter ! if you 
 were Madame de Sauve you might give me this reply. But 
 wholly contrary of what we expected of him since you granted 
 Henry of Navarre the honor of calling you his wife, he has 
 given all your rights to another woman, and at this very in- 
 stant even," said Catharine, raising her voice, " this key 
 opens the door of Madame de Sauve's apartment come with 
 me and you will see " 
 
 " Oh, not so loud, madame, not so loud, I beseech you ! " 
 said Marguerite, " for not only are you mistaken, but " 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well, you will awaken my husband ! " 
 
 As she said these words Marguerite arose with a perfectly 
 voluptuous grace, her white dress fluttering loosely around her, 
 while the large open sleeves displayed her bare and faultlessly 
 modelled arm and truly royal hand, and taking a rose-colored 
 taper she held it near the bed, and drawing back the curtain, 
 and smiling significantly at her mother, pointed to the haughty 
 profile, the black locks, and the parted lips of the King of 
 Navarre, who, as he lay upon the disordered bed, seemed 
 buried in profound repose. 
 
 Pale, with haggard eyes, her body thrown back as if an abyss 
 had opened at her feet, Catharine uttered not a cry, but a 
 hoarse bellow. 
 
 " You see, madame," said Marguerite, " you were misin- 
 formed." 
 
 Catharine looked first at Marguerite, then at Henry. In her 
 active mind she combined Marguerite's smile with the picture 
 of that pale and dewy brow, those eyes circled by dark -colored 
 rings, and she bit her thin lips in silent fury. 
 
 Marguerite allowed her mother for a moment to contemplate 
 this picture, which affected her like the head of Medusa. Then 
 she dropped the curtain and stepping on her tip-toes she came 
 back to Catharine and sat down : 
 
 " You were saying, madame ?" 
 
 The Florentine for several seconds tried to fathom the young 
 woman's naivete ; but as if her keen glance had become blunted 
 on Marguerite's calmness, she exclaimed, "Nothing," and 
 hastily left the room. 
 
 As soon as the sound of her departing footsteps had died 
 away down the long corridor, the bed-curtains opened a second 
 time, and Henry, with sparkling eyes, trembling hand, and
 
 THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT. 145 
 
 panting breath, came out and knelt at Marguerite's feet ; he was 
 dressed only in his short-clothes and his coat of mail, so that 
 Marguerite, seeing him in such an odd rig, could not help 
 laughing even while she was warmly shaking hands with him. 
 
 " Ah, madam e ! ah, Marguerite ! " he cried, " how shall I 
 ever repay you ? " 
 
 And he covered her hand with kisses which gradually 
 strayed higher up along her arm. 
 
 " Sire," said she, gently retreating, " can you forget that a 
 poor woman to whom you owe your life is mourning and 
 suffering on your account ? Madame de Sauve," added she, in 
 a lower tone, " has forgotten her jealousy in sending you to 
 me ; and to that sacrifice she may probably have to add her 
 life, for you know better than any one how terrible is my 
 mother's anger ! " 
 
 Henry shuddered ; and, rising, started to leave the room. 
 
 " Upon second thoughts," said Marguerite, with admirable 
 coquetry, " I have thought it all over and I see no cause for 
 alarm. The key was given to you without any directions, and 
 it will be supposed that you granted me the preference for 
 to-night." 
 
 " And so I do, Marguerite ! Consent but to forget " 
 
 " Not so loud, sire, not so loud ! " replied the queen, em- 
 ploying the same words she had a few minutes before used to 
 her mother ; " any one in the adjoining closet can hear you. 
 And as I am not yet quite free, I will ask you to speak in a 
 lower tone." 
 
 " Oho ! " said Henry, half smiling, half gloomily, " that 's 
 true ! I was forgetting that I am probably not the one destined 
 to play the end of this interesting scene ! This closet " 
 
 " Let me beg of your majesty to enter there," said Marguer- 
 ite ; " for I am desirous of having the honor of presenting to 
 you a worthy gentleman, wounded during the massacre while 
 making his way to the Louvre to apprise your majesty of the 
 danger with which you were threatened." 
 
 The queen went toward the door, and Henry followed her. 
 She opened it, and the king was thunderstruck at beholding 
 a man in this cabinet, fated to reveal such continued surprises. 
 
 But La Mole was still more surprised at thus unexpectedly 
 finding himself in the presence of Henry of Navarre. The 
 result was that the king cast an ironical glance on Marguerite, 
 who bore it without flinching.
 
 146 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Sire," said she, " I am in dread lest this gentleman may 
 be murdered even here, in my very chamber ; he is devoted to 
 your majesty's service, and for that reason I commend him to 
 your royal protection." 
 
 " Sire," continued the young man, " I am the Comte Lerac 
 de la Mole, whom your majesty was expecting ; I was recom- 
 mended to you by that poor Monsieur de Teligny, who was 
 killed by my side." 
 
 " Aha ! " replied Henry ; " you are right, sir. The queen 
 gave me his letter ; but have you not also a letter from the 
 governor of Languedoc ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire, and I was recommended to deliver it to your 
 majesty as soon as I arrived." 
 
 " Why did you not do so ? " 
 
 " Sire, I hastened to the Louvre last evening, but your 
 majesty was too much occupied to give me audience." 
 
 " True ! " answered the king ; " but I should think you 
 might have sent the letter to me ? " 
 
 "I had orders from Monsieur d'Auriac to give it to no one 
 else but your majesty, since it contained, he said, information 
 so important that he feared to entrust it to any ordinary 
 messenger." 
 
 "The contents are, indeed, of a serious nature," said the 
 king, when he had received and read the letter ; " advising my 
 instant withdrawal from the court of France, and retirement 
 to Beam. M. d'Auriac, although a Catholic, was always a 
 stanch friend of mine ; and it is possible that, acting as 
 governor of a province, he got scent of what was in the wind 
 here. Venire saint gris ! monsieur ! why was not this letter 
 given to me three days ago, instead of now ? " 
 
 " Because, as I before assured your majesty, that using all 
 the speed and diligence in my poAver, it was wholly impossible 
 to arrive before yesterday." 
 
 " That is very unfortunate, very unfortunate, " murmured 
 the king ; " we should then have been in security, either at 
 Rochelle or in some broad plain surrounded by two or three 
 thousand trusty horsemen." 
 
 " Sire, what is done is done," said Marguerite, in a low voice, 
 " and instead of wasting your time complaining over the past 
 you must do the best possible with the future." 
 
 " If you were in my place, madame," replied Henry, with 
 his questioning look, " you would still have hope, would you ? "
 
 THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT. 147 
 
 " Certainly I should ; I should consider myself as playing a 
 game of three points, of which I had lost only the first." 
 
 " Ah, madame," whispered Henry, " if I dared but hope that 
 you would go partners with me in the game " 
 
 "If I had intended to side with your adversaries," replied 
 Marguerite, " I should scarcely have delayed so long." 
 
 " True ! " replied Henry, " and I am ungrateful ; and as you 
 say, the past may still be repaired." 
 
 " Alas ! sire," said La Mole, " I wish your majesty every 
 kind of good fortune ; but now the admiral is no more." 
 
 Over Henry's face passed that sly, peasant-like smile, which 
 was not understood at court until after he became King of 
 France. 
 
 " But, madame," said the king, attentively observing La 
 Mole, " this gentleman cannot remain here without causing 
 you considerable inconvenience, and being himself subject to 
 very unpleasant surprises. What will you do with him ? " 
 
 " Could we not remove him from the Louvre ? " asked 
 Marguerite, " for I entirely agree with you ! " 
 
 " It will be difficult." 
 
 " Then could not Monsieur de la Mole find accommodation 
 in your majesty's apartments ? " 
 
 " Alas, madame ! you speak as if I were still King of the 
 Huguenots, and had subjects to command. You are aware 
 that I am half converted to the Catholic faith and have no 
 people at all." 
 
 Any one but Marguerite would have promptly answered : 
 " He is a Catholic." 
 
 But the queen wished Henry himself to ask her to do the 
 very thing she was desirous of effecting ; while La Mole, per- 
 ceiving his protectress's caution and not knowing where to set 
 foot on the slippery ground of such a dangerous court as that 
 of France, remained perfectly silent. 
 
 " But what is this the governor says in his letter ? " said 
 Henry, again casting his eyes over the missive he held in his 
 hand. " He states that your mother was a Catholic, and from 
 that circumstance originates the interest he felt in you." 
 
 "And what were you telling me, Monsieur le Cornte," said 
 Marguerite, " respecting a vow you had formed to change your 
 religion ? I confess my recollection on the subject is some- 
 what confused. Have the goodness to assist me, M. de la
 
 148 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Mole. Did not your conversation refer to something of the 
 nature the king appears to desire ? " 
 
 " Alas ! niadame, what I did say was so coldly received by 
 your majesty that I did not dare " 
 
 " Simply because it in no way concerned me," answered 
 Marguerite. " But explain yourself to the king explain ! " 
 
 " Well, what was the vow ? " asked the king. 
 
 " Sire," said La Mole, " when pursued by assassins, myself 
 unarmed, and almost expiring from my two wounds, I fancied 
 I beheld my mother's spirit holding a cross in her hands and 
 guiding me to the Louvre. Then I vowed that if my life were 
 preserved I would adopt the religion of iny mother, who had 
 been permitted to leave her grave to direct me to a place of 
 safety during that horrible night. Heaven conducted me 
 here, sire. I find myself here under the protection of a 
 princess of France and of the King of Navarre ; my life was 
 miraculously saved, therefore I must fulfil my vow. I am 
 ready to become a Catholic." 
 
 Henry frowned. Sceptic that he was, he could well under- 
 stand a change of religion from motives of interest, but he 
 distrusted abjuration through faith. 
 
 " The king does not want to take charge of my protege,'' 
 thought Marguerite. 
 
 La Mole still remained mute and awkward between the two 
 opposing wills. He felt, without being able to define why, that 
 he was in a ridiculous position. Marguerite's womanly tact 
 came to his relief. 
 
 " Sire," said she, " we forget that the poor wounded gentle- 
 man has need of repose. I myself am half asleep. Ah, see ! " 
 
 La Mole did indeed turn pale ; but it was at Marguerite's 
 last words, which he had interpreted according to his own 
 ideas. 
 
 " Well, madame," answered Henry, " nothing can be simpler. 
 Can we not leave Monsieur de la Mole to take his repose." 
 
 The young man fixed a supplicating look on Marguerite, and, 
 in spite of the presence of the two majesties, sunk upon a chair, 
 overcome with fatigue and pain. 
 
 Marguerite understood all the love in his look, all the de- 
 spair in his weakness. 
 
 " Sire," said she, " your majesty is bound to confer on this 
 young man, who imperilled his life for his king, since he re- 
 ceived his wounds while coming hither to inform you of the
 
 THE SECOND MARRIAGE NIGHT. 149 
 
 admiral's death and Teligny's, your majesty is bound, I re- 
 peat, to confer on him an honor for which he will be grateful 
 all his life long." 
 
 " What is it, inadame ? " asked Henry. " Command me, I 
 am ready." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole must sleep to-night at your majesty's 
 feet, while you, sire, can sleep on this couch. With the per- 
 mission of my august spouse," added Marguerite, smiling, " I 
 will summon Gillonue and return to bed, for I assure you I 
 am not the least wearied of us three." 
 
 Henry had shrewd sense and a quick perception of things ; 
 friends and enemies subsequently found fault with him for 
 possessing too much of both. He fully admitted that she who 
 thus banished him from the nuptial bed was well justified in 
 so doing by the indifference he had himself manifested toward 
 her ; and then, too, she had just repaid this indifference by 
 saving his life ; he therefore allowed no self-love to dictate his 
 answer. 
 
 " Madame," said he, " if Monsieur de la Mole were able to 
 come to my quarters I would give him iny own bed." 
 
 " Yes," replied Marguerite, " but your quarters just at the 
 present time would not be safe for either of you, and prudence 
 dictates that your majesty should remain here until morning." 
 
 Then without awaiting the king's reply she summoned Gil- 
 lonne, and bade her prepare the necessary cushions for the 
 king, and to arrange a bed at the king's feet for La Mole, who 
 appeared so happy and contented with the honor that one 
 would have sworn he no longer felt his wounds. 
 
 Then Marguerite, courtesing low to the king, passed into 
 her chamber, the door of which was well furnished with bolts, 
 and threw herself on the bed. 
 
 " One thing is certain," said Marguerite to herself, " to- 
 morrow Monsieur de la Mole must have a protector at the 
 Louvre ; and he who, to-night, sees and hears nothing, may 
 change his mind to-morrow." 
 
 Then she called Gillonne, who was waiting to receive her 
 last orders. 
 
 Gillonne came to her. 
 
 " Gillonne," said she in a whisper, " you must contrive to 
 bring my brother the Due d'Alenqon here to-morrow morning 
 before eight o'clock." 
 
 It was just striking two at the Louvre.
 
 150 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 La Mole for a few moments talked on political subjects with 
 the king, who gradually grew drowsy and was soon snoring. 
 
 La Mole might have slept as well as the king, but Mar- 
 guerite was not asleep ; she kept turning from side to side in 
 her bed, and the noise she made disturbed the young man's 
 ideas and sleep. 
 
 " He is very young," murmured Marguerite in her wakeful 
 mood, " he is very timid ; perhaps but we must see per- 
 haps it will be ridiculous. Yet he has handsome eyes and 
 a good figure, and he is very charming ; but if he should not 
 turn out to be brave ! He ran away ! He is renouncing his 
 faith ! It is too bad the dream began well. However, let 
 things take their course and entrust them to that madcap 
 Henriette's triple god." 
 
 And toward daybreak Marguerite fell asleep, murmuring : 
 
 "Eros, Cupido, Amor." 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 WHAT WOMAT* WILLS, GOD WILLS. 
 
 MARGUERITE was not mistaken : the wratjh distilled in the 
 depths of Catharine's heart at sight of this comedy, the intrigue 
 of which she followed without being in any way able to change 
 its denouement, required a victim. So instead of going directly 
 to her own room the queen mother proceeded to that of her 
 lady in waiting. 
 
 Madame de Sauve was in expectation of two visits one 
 she hoped to receive from Henry, and the other she feared 
 was in store for her from the queen mother. As she lay in her 
 bed only partially undressed, while Dariole kept watch in the 
 antechamber, she heard a key turn in the lock, and then 
 slowly approaching footsteps which would have seemed heavy 
 if they had not been deadened by thick rugs. She did not 
 recognize Henry's light, eager step ; she suspected that Dariole 
 was prevented from coming to warn her, and so leaning on her 
 elbow she waited with eye and ear alert. The portiere was 
 lifted and the trembling young woman saw Catharine de 
 Medicis appear. 
 
 Catharine seemed calm ; but Madame de Sauve, accus- 
 tomed for two years to study her, well knew what dark designs,
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 151 
 
 and possibly cruel vengeance, might be concealed beneath that 
 apparent calm. 
 
 At sight of Catharine, Madame de Sauve was about to spring 
 from her bed, but Catharine signed to her to stay where she 
 was ; and poor Charlotte was fixed to the spot, inwardly en- 
 deavoring to collect all the forces of her soul to endure the 
 storm which was silently gathering. 
 
 " Did you convey the key to the King of Navarre ? " in- 
 quired Catharine, without the tone of her voice betraying any 
 change ; and yet as she spoke her lips grew paler and paler. 
 
 " I did, madame," answered Charlotte, in a voice which she 
 vainly tried to make as firm and assured as Catherine's was. 
 
 " And have you seen him ? '' 
 
 " Who ? " asked Madame de Sauve. 
 
 " The King of Navarre." 
 
 " No, madame ; but I am expecting him, and when I heard 
 the key turn in the lock, I firmly believed it was he." 
 
 At this answer, which indicated either perfect confidence or 
 deep dissimulation on Madame de Sauve's part, Catharine could 
 not repress a slight shiver. She clinched her short plump 
 hand. 
 
 " And yet you knew perfectly well," said she with her evil 
 smile, " you knew perfectly well, Carlotta, that the King of 
 Navarre would not come to-night." 
 
 " I, madame ? I knew that ? " exclaimed Charlotte, with a 
 tone of surprise perfectly well assumed. 
 
 " Yes, you knew it ! " 
 
 " If he does not come, he must be dead ! " replied the young 
 woman, shuddering at the mere supposition. 
 
 What gave Charlotte the courage to lie so was the certainty 
 that she would suffer from a terrible vengeance if her little 
 treason should be discovered. 
 
 " But did you not write to the king, Carlotta mia ? " inquired 
 Catharine, with the same cruel and silent laugh. 
 
 "No, madame," answered Charlotte, with well-assumed 
 naivete, " I cannot recollect receiving your majesty's com- 
 mands to do so." 
 
 A short silence followed, during which Catharine continued 
 to gaze on Madame de Sauve as the serpent looks at the bird 
 it wishes to fascinate. 
 
 " You think you are pretty," said Catharine, "you think 
 you are clever, do you not ? "
 
 152 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " No, madame," answered Charlotte ; " I only know that 
 sometimes your majesty has been graciously pleased to com- 
 mend both my personal attractions and address." 
 
 " Well, then," said Catharine, growing eager and animated, 
 " you were mistaken if you think so, and I lied when I told 
 you so ; you are a simpleton and hideous compared to my 
 daughter Margot." 
 
 " Oh, madame," replied Charlotte, " that is a fact I will not 
 even try to deny least of all in your presence." 
 
 " So, then, the King of Navarre prefers my daughter to 
 you ; a circumstance, I presume, not to your wishes, and cer- 
 tainly not what we agreed should be the case." 
 
 " Alas, madame," cried Charlotte, bursting into a torrent 
 of tears which now flowed from no feigned source, " if it be 
 so, I can but say I am very unfortunate ! " 
 
 " It is so," said Catharine, darting the two-fold keenness of 
 her eyes like a double poniard into Madame de Sauve's heart. 
 
 " But who can make you believe that ? " asked Charlotte. 
 
 " Go down to the Queen of Navarre's pazza, and you will 
 find your lover there ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Madame de Sauve. 
 
 Catharine shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " Are you jealous, pray ? " asked the queen mother. 
 
 " I ? " exclaimed Madame de Sauve, recalling her fast-fail- 
 ing strength. 
 
 " Yes, you ! I should like to see a Frenchwoman's jealousy." 
 
 "But," said Madame de Sauve, "how should your majesty 
 expect me to be jealous except out of vanity ? I love the 
 King of Navarre only as far as your majesty's service re- 
 quires it." 
 
 Catharine gazed at her for a moment with dreamy eyes. 
 
 " What you tell me may on the whole be true," she mur- 
 mured. 
 
 " Your majesty reads my heart." 
 
 " And your heart is wholly devoted to me ? " 
 
 "Command me, madame, and you shall judge for yourself." 
 
 "Well, then, Carlotta, since you are ready to sacrifice your- 
 self in my service, you must still continue for my sake to be 
 in love with the King of Navarre and, above all, to be very 
 jealous, jealous as an Italian woman." 
 
 "But, madame," asked Charlotte, "how does an Italian 
 woman show her jealousy ? "
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 153 
 
 " I will tell you," replied Catharine, and after nodding her 
 head two or three times she left the room as deliberately and 
 noiselessly as she had come in. 
 
 Charlotte, confused by the keen look of those eyes dilated 
 like a cat's or a panther's without thereby losing anything of 
 their inscrutability, allowed her to go without uttering a single 
 word, without even letting her breathing be heard, and she did 
 not even take a respiration until she heard the door close 
 behind her and Dariole came to say that the terrible appari- 
 tion had departed. 
 
 " Dariole,'' said she, " draw up an armchair close to my 
 bed and spend the night in it. I beg you to do so, for I should 
 not dare to stay alone." 
 
 Dariole obeyed ; but in spite of the company of her faithful 
 attendant, who stayed near her, in spite of the light from the 
 lamp which she commanded to be left burning for the sake of 
 greater tranquillity, Madame de Sauve also did not fall asleep 
 till daylight, so insistently rang in her ears the metallic 
 accent of Catharine's voice. 
 
 Though Marguerite had not fallen asleep till daybreak she 
 awoke at the first blast of the trumpets, at the first barking of 
 the dogs. She instantly arose and began to put on a costume 
 so negligent that it could not fail to attract attention. Then 
 she summoned her women, and had the gentlemen ordinarily 
 in attendance on the King of Xavarre shown into her ante- 
 chamber, and finally opening the door which shut Henry and 
 De la Mole into the same room, she gave the count an affec- 
 tionate glance and addressing her husband she said : 
 
 " Come, sire, it is not sufficient to have made madame my 
 mother believe in what is not ; it still remains for you to con- 
 vince your whole court that a perfect understanding exists 
 between us. But make yourself quite easy," added she, 
 laughing, " and remember my words, rendered almost solemn 
 by the circumstances. To-day will be the last time that I 
 shall put your majesty to such a cruel test." 
 
 The King of Navarre smiled and ordered his gentlemen to 
 be admitted. 
 
 Just as they were bowing to him he pretended suddenly to 
 recollect having left his mantle on the queen's bed and begged 
 their excuse for receiving them in such a way ; then, taking 
 his mantle from the hands of Marguerite, who stood blushing
 
 154 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 by his side, he clasped it on his shoulder. Next, turning to 
 his gentlemen, he inquired what news there was in the city 
 and at court. 
 
 Marguerite was engaged in watching out of the corner of 
 her eye the imperceptible signs of astonishment betrayed by 
 the gentlemen at detecting this newly revealed intimacy 
 between the king and queen of Navarre, when an usher entered, 
 followed by three or four gentlemen, and announced the Due 
 d'AleiiQon. 
 
 To bring him there Gillonne had only to tell him that the 
 king had spent the night in the queen's room. 
 
 Francois rushed in so precipitately that he almost upset 
 those who preceded him. His first glance was for Henry ; his 
 1 next was for Marguerite. 
 
 Henry replied with a courteous bow ; Marguerite composed 
 her features so that they expressed the utmost serenity. 
 
 Then the duke cast a vague but scrutinizing look around 
 the whole room : he saw the two pillows placed at the head of 
 the bed, the derangement of its tapestried coverings, and the 
 king's hat thrown on a chair. 
 
 He turned pale, but quickly recovering himself, he said : 
 
 " Does my royal brother Henry join this morning with the 
 King in his game of tennis ? " 
 
 " Does his Majesty do me the honor to select me as his 
 partner ? " inquired Henry, " or is it only a little attention on 
 your part, my brother-in-law ? " 
 
 "His Majesty has not so said, certainly," replied the duke, 
 somewhat embarrassed ; " but don't you generally play with 
 him ? " 
 
 Henry smiled, for so many and such serious events had 
 occurred since he last played with the King that he would not 
 have been astonished to learn that the King had changed his 
 habitual companions at the game. 
 
 " I shall go there," said Henry, with a smile. 
 
 " Come," cried the duke. 
 
 " Are you going away ? " inquired Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes, sister ! " 
 
 " Are you in great haste ? " 
 
 " In great haste." 
 
 " Might I venture to detain you for a few minutes ? " 
 
 Such a request was so unusual coming from Marguerite that 
 her brother looked at her while her color came and went.
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 155 
 
 " What can she be going to say to him ? " thought Henry, 
 no less surprised than the duke himself. 
 
 Marguerite, as if she had guessed her husband's thought, 
 turned toward him. 
 
 " Sire," said she, with a charming smile, " you may go back 
 to his majesty if it seem good to you, for the secret which I 
 am going to reveal to my brother is already known to you, 
 for the reason that the request which I made you yesterday 
 in regard to this secret was as good as refused by your 
 majesty. I should not wish, therefore," continued Marguerite, 
 " to weary your majesty a second time by expressing in your 
 presence a wish which seemed to be disagreeable." 
 
 " What do you mean ? " asked Francois, looking at both of 
 them with astonishment. 
 
 " Aha ! " exclaimed Henry, flushing, with indignation, " I 
 know what you mean, madame. In truth, I regret that I am 
 not free. But if I cannot offer Monsieur de la Mole such 
 hospitality as would be equivalent to an assurance, I cannot do 
 less than to recommend to my brother D'Alenqon the person 
 in whom you feel such a lively interest. Perhaps," he added, 
 in order to give still more emphasis to the words italicized, 
 " perhaps my brother will discover some way whereby you 
 will be permitted to keep Monsieur de la Mole here near you 
 that would be better than anything else, would it not, 
 madame ? " 
 
 " Come, come ! " said Margiierite to herself, " the two to- 
 gether will do what neither of them would do individually." 
 
 And she opened the closet door and invited the wounded 
 young man to come forth, saying to Henry as she did so : 
 
 " Your majesty must now explain to my brother why we are 
 interested in Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 Henry, caught in the snare, briefly related to M. d'Alenqon, 
 half a Protestant for the sake of opposition, as he himself 
 was partly a Catholic from prudence, the arrival of Monsieur 
 de la Mole at Paris, and how the young man had been 
 severely wounded while bringing to him a letter from M. 
 d'Auriac. 
 
 When the duke turned round, La Mole had come out from 
 the closet and was standing before him. 
 
 Frangois, at the sight of him, so handsome, so pale, and 
 consequently doubly captivating by reason of his good looks 
 and his pallor, felt a new sense of distrust spring up in the
 
 156 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 depths of his soul. Marguerite held him both through jealousy 
 and through pride. 
 
 " Brother," said Marguerite, " I will engage that this young 
 gentleman will be useful to whoever may employ him. 
 Should you accept his services, he will obtain a powerful pro- 
 tector, and you, a devoted servitor. In such times as the present, 
 brother," continued she, " we cannot be too well surrounded 
 by devoted friends ; more especially," added she, lowering her 
 voice so as to be heard by no one but the duke, " when one is 
 ambitious, and has the misfortune to be only third in the suc- 
 cession to the throne." 
 
 Then she put her finger on her lip, to intimate to Franqois 
 that in spite of the initiation she still kept secret an important 
 part of her idea. 
 
 " Perhaps," she added, " you may differ from Henry, in con- 
 sidering it not befitting that this young gentleman should re- 
 main so immediately in the vicinity of my apartments." 
 
 " Sister," replied Frauqois, eagerly, " if it meet your wishes, 
 Monsieur de la Mole shall, in half an hour, be installed in my 
 quarters, where, I think, he can have no cause to fear any 
 danger. Let him love me and I will love him." 
 
 Francois was untruthful, for already in the very depths of 
 his heart he detested La Mole. 
 
 " Well, well ! So then I was not mistaken," said Marguer- 
 ite to herself, seeing the King of Navarre's scowling face. 
 " Ah, I see that to lead you two, one must lead the other." 
 
 Then finishing her thought : 
 
 " There ! < then you are doing well, Marguerite,' Henriette 
 would say." 
 
 In fact, half an hour later La Mole, having been solemnly 
 catechised by Marguerite, kissed the hem of her gown and 
 with an agility remarkable in a wounded man was mounting 
 the stairs that led to the Due d'Alemjon's quarters. 
 
 Two or three days passed, during which the excellent under- 
 standing between Henry and his wife seemed to grow more 
 and more firmly established. 
 
 Henry had obtained permission not to make a public re- 
 nunciation of his religion ; but he had formally recanted in the 
 presence of the king's confessor, and every morning he listened 
 to the mass performed at the Louvre. At night he made a 
 show of going to his wife's rooms, entered by the principal
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 157 
 
 door, talked a few minutes with her, and then took his departure 
 by the small secret door, and went up to Madame de Sauve, 
 who had duly informed him of the queen mother's visit as well 
 as the unquestionable danger which threatened him. Warned 
 on both sides, Henry redoubled his watchfulness against the 
 queen mother and felt all distrust of her because little by 
 little her face began to unbend, and one morning Henry 
 detected a friendly smile on her bloodless lips. That day he 
 had the greatest difficulty to bring himself to eat anything 
 else than eggs cooked by himself or to drink anything else 
 than water which his own eyes had seen dipped up from the 
 Seine. 
 
 The massacres were still going on, but nevertheless were 
 diminishing in violence. There had been such a wholesale 
 butchery of the Huguenots that their number was greatly 
 reduced. The larger part were dead ; many had fled ; a few 
 had remained in concealment. Occasionally a great outcry 
 arose in one district or another ; it meant that one of these 
 was discovered. Then the execution was either private or 
 public according as the victim was driven into a corner or 
 could escape. In such circumstances it furnished great amuse- 
 ment for the neighborhood where the affair took place ; for 
 instead of growing calmer as their enemies were annihilated, 
 the Catholics grew more and more ferocious ; the fewer the 
 remaining victims, the more bloodthirsty they seemed in their 
 persecution of the rest. 
 
 Charles IX. had taken great pleasure in hunting the 
 Huguenots, and when he could no longer continue the chase 
 himself he took delight in the noise of others hunting them. 
 
 One day, returning from playing at mall, which with tennis 
 and hunting were his favorite amusements, he went to his 
 mother's apartments in high spirits, followed by his usual train 
 of courtiers. 
 
 " Mother," he said, embracing the Florentine, who, observing 
 his joy, was already trying to detect its cause ; " mother, good 
 news ! Mort de tons Les diables ! Do you know that the admiral's 
 illustrious carcass which it was said was lost has been found ? " 
 
 " Aha ! " said Catharine. 
 
 " Oh, heavens ! yes. You thought as I did, mother, the 
 dogs had eaten a wedding dinner off him, but it was not so. 
 My people, my dear people, my good people, had a clever idea 
 and have hung the admiral up at the gibbet of Montfaucon.
 
 158 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Du haut en bas Gaspard on ajete, 
 Et puis de bas en haut on Va monte" ' 
 
 " Well ! " said Catharine. 
 
 " Well, good mother," replied Charles IX., " I have a strong 
 desire to see him again, dear old man, now I know he is really 
 dead. It is very fine weather and everything seems to be 
 blooming to-day. The air is full of life and perfume, and 
 I feel better than I ever did. If you like, mother, we will 
 get on horseback and go to Montfaucon." 
 
 " Willingly, my son,", said Catharine, " if I had not made 
 an appointment which I cannot defer ; and beside, to pay a 
 visit to a man of such importance as the admiral, we should 
 invite the whole court. It will be an occasion for observers 
 to make curious observations. We shall see who comes and 
 who stays away." 
 
 " Faith, you are right, mother, we will put it off till to- 
 morrow ; that will be better, so send out your invitations and 
 I will send mine ; or rather let us not invite any one. We 
 will only say we are going, and then every one will be free. 
 Good-by, mother ! I am going to play on the horn." 
 
 " You will exhaust yourself, Charles, as Ambroise Pare is 
 always telling you, and he is right. It is too severe an exercise 
 for you." 
 
 " Bah ! bah ! bah ! " said Charles ; " I wish I were sure noth- 
 ing else would be the cause of my death. I should then bury 
 every one here, including Harry, who will one day succeed us 
 all, as Nostradamus prophesies." 
 
 Catharine frowned. 
 
 "My son," she said, "mistrust especially all things that 
 appear impossible, and meanwhile take care of yourself." 
 
 "Only two or three blasts to rejoice my dogs, poor things; 
 they are wearied to death with doing nothing. I ought to 
 have let them loose on the Huguenots ; that would have done 
 them good ! " 
 
 And Charles IX. left his mother's room, went into his 
 armory, took down a horn, and played on it with a vigor 
 that would have done honor to Roland himself. It was diffi- 
 cult to understand how so weak a frame and such pale lips 
 could blow a blast so powerful. 
 
 1 From up above to down below Qaspard was flung, 
 And then from down below to high above was hung.
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 159 
 
 Catharine, in truth, was awaiting some one as she had told 
 her son. A moment after he had left her, one of her women 
 came and spoke to her in a low voice. The queen smiled, rose, 
 and saluting the persons who formed her court, followed the 
 messenger. 
 
 Rene the Florentine, the man to whom on the eve of Saint 
 Bartholomew the King of Navarre had given such a diplomatic 
 reception, had just entered her oratory. 
 
 " Ah, here you are, Rene," said Catharine, " I was impa- 
 tiently waiting for you." 
 
 Rene bowed. 
 
 " Did you receive the note I wrote you yesterday ? " 
 
 I had that honor." 
 
 " Did you make another trial, as I asked you to do, of the 
 horoscope cast by Ruggieri, and agreeing so well with the 
 prophecy of Nostradamus, which says that all my three sons 
 shall reign ? For several days past, affairs have decidedly 
 changed, Rene, and it has occurred to me that possibly fate 
 has become less threatening." 
 
 " Madame," replied Rene, shaking his head, " your majesty 
 knows well that affairs do not change fate ; on the contrary, 
 fate controls affairs." 
 
 " Still, you have tried the sacrifice again, have you not ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame," replied Rene ; " for it is my duty to obey 
 you in all things." 
 
 Well and the result ? " 
 
 " Still the same, madame." 
 
 " What, the black lamb uttered its three cries ? " 
 
 " Just the same as before, madame." 
 
 " The sign of three cruel deaths in my family," murmured 
 Catharine. 
 
 " Alas ! " said Rene. 
 
 " What then ? " 
 
 " Then, madame, there was in its entrails that strange dis- 
 placement of the liver which we had already observed in the 
 first two it was wrong side up ! " 
 
 " A change of dynasty ! Still still still the same ! " 
 muttered Catharine ; " yet we must fight against this, Rene," 
 she added. 
 
 Rene shook his head. 
 
 " I have told your majesty," he said, " that fate rules." 
 
 " Is that your opinion ? " asked Catharine.
 
 160 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Do you remember Jeanne d' Albret's horoscope ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Repeat it to me, I have quite forgotten it." 
 
 " Vives honorata" said Rene, " morieris reformidata, regina 
 amplificabere." 
 
 " That means, I believe," said Catharine, " Thou shalt live 
 honored and she lacked common necessaries, poor thing ! 
 Thou shalt die feared and we laughed at her. Thou shalt 
 be greater than thou hast been as a queen and she is dead, 
 and sleeps in a tomb on which we have not even engraved her 
 name." 
 
 " Madame, your majesty does not translate the vives hono- 
 rata rightly. The Queen of Navarre lived honored ; for all 
 her life she enjoyed the love of her children, the respect of her 
 partisans ; respect and love all the more sincere in that she was 
 poor." 
 
 "Yes," said Catharine, "I grant you the vives honorata; 
 but morieris reformidata : how will you explain that ? " 
 
 " Nothing more easy : Thou shalt die feared." 
 
 u Well did she die feared ? " 
 
 " So much so that she would not have died had not your 
 majesty feared her. Then As a, queen thou shalt be greater ; 
 or, Thou shalt be greater than thou hast been as a queen. This 
 is equally true, madame ; for in exchange for a terrestrial 
 crown she has doubtless, as a queen and martyr, a celestial 
 crown ; and, besides, who knows what the future may reserve 
 for her posterity ? " 
 
 Catharine was excessively superstitious ; she was even 
 more alarmed at Rene's coolness than at the steadfastness of 
 the auguries, and as in her case any scrape was a chance for 
 her boldly to master the situation, she said suddenly to him, 
 without any other transition than the working of her own 
 thoughts : 
 
 " Are any perfumes come from Italy ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Send me a boxful." 
 
 Of which ? " 
 
 " Of the last, of those " 
 
 Catharine stopped. 
 
 " Of those the Queen of Navarre was so fond of ? " asked 
 Rene.
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 161 
 
 Exactly." 
 
 " I need not prepare them, for your majesty is now as skil- 
 ful at them as I am." 
 
 " You think so ? " said Catharine. " They certainly suc- 
 ceed." 
 
 " Has your majesty anything more to say to me ? " asked 
 the perfumer. 
 
 " Nothing," replied Catharine, thoughtfully ; " at least I 
 think not, only if there is any change in the sacrifices, let me 
 know it in time. By the way, let us leave the lambs, and try 
 the hens." 
 
 " Alas, madame, I fear that in changing the victim we shall 
 not change the presages." 
 
 " Do as I tell you." 
 
 The perfumer bowed and left the apartment. 
 
 Catharine mused for a short time, then rose and returning 
 to her bedchamber, where her women awaited her, announced 
 the pilgrimage to Montfaucon for the morrow. 
 
 The news of this pleasure party caused great excitement in 
 the palace and great confusion in the city : the ladies prepared 
 their most elegant toilets; the gentlemen, their finest arms 
 and steeds ; the tradesmen closed their shops, and the populace 
 killed a few straggling Huguenots, in order to furnish company 
 for the dead admiral. 
 
 There was a tremendous hubbub all the evening and during 
 a good part of the night. 
 
 La Mole had spent a miserable day, and this miserable day 
 had followed three or four others equally miserable. Monsieur 
 d'Alenqon, to please his sister, had installed him in his apart- 
 ments, but had not seen him since. He felt himself like a 
 poor deserted child, deprived of the tender care, the soothing 
 attention of two women, the recollection of one of whom 
 occupied him perpetually. He had heard of her through the 
 surgeon Ambroise Pare, whom she had sent to him, but what 
 he heard from a man of fifty who was ignorant or pretended 
 to be ignorant of the interest felt by La Mole in everything 
 appertaining to Marguerite was very fragmentary and insuf- 
 ficient. Gillonne, indeed, had come once, of her own accord, 
 be it understood, to ask after him, and the visit was to him 
 like a sunbeam darting into a dungeon, and La Mole had 
 remained dazzled by it, and had expected a second visit, and 
 yet two days passed and she had not appeared.
 
 162 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 As soon, therefore, as the convalescent heard of this magnif- 
 icent reunion of the whole court for the following day he sent 
 to ask Monsieur d'Alenqon the favor of accompanying it. 
 
 The duke did not even inquire whether La Mole was able 
 to bear the fatigue, but merely answered : 
 
 " Capital ! Let him have one of my horses." 
 
 That was all La Mole wanted. Maitre Ambroise Pare came 
 as usual to dress his wounds, and La Mole explained to him 
 the necessity he was under of mounting on horseback, and 
 begged him to put on the bandages with double care. 
 
 The two wounds, both that on the breast and that on the 
 shoulder, were closed ; the one on the shoulder only pained 
 him. Both were rose-red in color, which showed that they 
 were in a fair way of healing. Maitre Ambroise Pare covered 
 them with gummed taffetas, a remedy greatly in vogue then, 
 and promised La Mole that if he did not exert himself too 
 much everything would go well. 
 
 La Mole was at the height of joy. Save for a certain weak- 
 ness caused by loss of blood and a slight giddiness attributable 
 to the same cause, he felt as well as could be. Besides, doubt- 
 less Marguerite would be in the party ; he should see Mar- 
 guerite again. And when he remembered what benefit he had 
 received from the sight of G-illonne, he had no doubt that 
 her mistress would have a still more efficacious influence upon 
 him. 
 
 So La Mole spent a part of the money which he had received 
 when he went away from his family in the purchase of the 
 most beautiful white satin doublet and the finest embroidered 
 mantle that could be furnished by a fashionable tailor. The 
 same tailor procured for him a pair of those perfumed boots 
 such as were worn at that period. The whole outfit was 
 brought to him in the morning only a half hour later than the 
 time at which La Mole had ordered it, so that he had not 
 much fault to find. 
 
 He dressed himself quickly, looked in the glass, and found 
 that he was suitably attired, arranged, and perfumed. Then 
 by walking up and down the room several times, he assured 
 himself that though it caused him some sharp pangs, still the 
 happiness which he felt in his heart would render these physi- 
 cal inconveniences of no account. A cherry-colored mantle of 
 his own design, and cut rather longer than they were worn 
 then, proved to be very becoming to him.
 
 WHAT WOMAN WILLS, GOD WILLS. 163 
 
 While he was thus engaged in the Louvre, another scene, of 
 a similar kind, was going on at the Hotel de Guise. A tall 
 gentleman, with red hair, was examining, before a glass, a 
 reddish mark which went across his face very disagreeably ; 
 he combed and perfumed his mustache, and while he was 
 perfuming it, he kept spreading over that unfortunate 
 mark which, in spite of all the cosmetics then in use, persisted 
 in reappearing, a three-fold layer of white and red ; but as the 
 application was insufficient an idea came to him : a hot sun, 
 an August sun, was flashing its rays into the court-yard ; he 
 made his way down there, took his hat in his hand, and with 
 his nose in the air and his eyes closed, he walked up and down 
 for ten minutes, fully exposed to the devouring flarne which 
 fell from heaven like a torrent. At the end of these ten min- 
 utes, owing to the unexampled ardor of the sun, the gentle- 
 man's face had acquired such a brilliant color that the red 
 streak was now no more in harmony with the rest than it 
 had been, but in comparison seemed yellow. 
 
 Nevertheless, the gentleman did not seem much dissatisfied 
 with this rainbow effect which he did his best to bring into 
 accord with the rest of his face by spreading a layer of ver- 
 milion over it, after which he put on a magnificent suit which 
 a tailor had brought to his room without any commands from 
 him. Thus attired, scented, and armed from head to foot, he 
 again went down into the court-yard and began to pat a large 
 black horse whose beauty would have been matchless but for a 
 small cut, like his own, made by a reiter's sabre in. one of the 
 last civil conflicts. 
 
 Yet, enchanted with the good steed as he was with him- 
 self, the gentleman, whom no doubt our readers have easily 
 recognized, was on his back a quarter of an hour before any of 
 the others and making the court-yard of the Hotel de Guise 
 resound with the whinnying of the charger accompanied by 
 exclamations of mordi, pronounced in every variety of accent 
 according as he compelled the horse to submit to this author- 
 ity. At the end of a moment the horse completely subdued, 
 recognized by his obedience and subjection his master's legiti- 
 mate control, but the victory had not been obtained without 
 noise, and this noise, which was perhaps the very thing our 
 gentleman reckoned upon, this noise had attracted to the 
 windows a lady whom our queller of horses saluted respect- 
 fully, and who smiled at him in the most agreeable manner.
 
 164 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 Five minutes later Madame de Nevers summoned her 
 steward. 
 
 " Sir," said she, " has Monsieur le Comte Annibal de 
 Coconnas been furnished a suitable breakfast?" 
 
 " Yes, madame," replied the steward, " he ate this morning 
 with a better appetite than usual." 
 
 " Very well, sir," said the duchess. 
 
 Then addressing her first gentleman in waiting : 
 
 " Monsieur d'Arguzon," she said, " let us set out for the 
 Louvre, and keep an eye, I beg, on Monsieur le Comte Annibal 
 de Coconnas, for he is wounded, and consequently still weak ; 
 and I would not for all the world any accident should happen 
 to him. That would make the Huguenots laugh, for they owe 
 him a spite since the blessed night of Saint Bartholomew." 
 
 And Madame de Nevers, mounting her horse, went joyfully 
 towards the Louvre, which was the general rendezvous. 
 
 It was two o'clock in the afternoon as a file of cavaliers, 
 overflowing with gold, jewels, and magnificent garments, 
 appeared in the Rue Saint Denis, entering by the corner of the 
 Cemetery of the Innocents and stretching itself out in the sun- 
 light between the two rows of gloomy looking houses like an 
 immense reptile with variegated rings. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY ALWAYS SMELLS SWEET. 
 
 No brilliant company, however, could give any idea of this 
 spectacle. The rich and elegant silk dresses, bequeathed as a 
 magnificent fashion by Frangois I. to his successors, had not 
 yet been changed into those formal and sombre vestments 
 which came into fashion under Henry III. ; so that the 
 costume of Charles IX., less rich, but perhaps more elegant 
 than those of preceding reigns, displayed its perfect harmony. 
 In our day no similar cortege could have any standard of com- 
 parison, for when we wish magnificence of display we are 
 reduced to mere symmetry and uniform. 
 
 Pages, esquires, gentlemen of low degree, dogs and horses, 
 following on the flanks and in the rear, formed of the royal cor-
 
 A DEAD. ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 165 
 
 tege an absolute army. Behind this army came the populace, 
 or rather the populace was everywhere. 
 
 It followed, trooped alongside, and rushed ahead ; there were 
 shouts of Noel and Haro, for there were distinguishable in the 
 procession many Calvinists to hoot at, and the populace harbors 
 resentment. 
 
 That morning Charles, in presence of Catharine and the 
 Due de Guise, had, as a perfectly natural thing spoken before 
 Henry of Navarre of going to visit the gibbet of Montfaucon, 
 or, rather, the admiral's mutilated corpse which had been sus- 
 pended from it. Henry's first impulse had been to refuse to take 
 part in this excursion. Catharine supposed he would. At 
 the first words in which he expressed his repugnance she ex- 
 changed a glance and a smile with the Due de Guise. Henry 
 detected them both, understood what they meant, and suddenly 
 recovering his presence of mind said : 
 
 " But why should I not go ? I am a Catholic, and am 
 bound to my new religion." 
 
 Then addressing the King : 
 
 "Your Majesty may reckon on my company," he said ; " and 
 I shall be always happy to accompany you wheresoever you 
 may go." 
 
 And he threw a sweeping glance around, to see whose brows 
 might be frowning. 
 
 Perhaps of all that cortege, the person who was looked at 
 with the greatest curiosity was that motherless son, that 
 kingless king, that Huguenot turned Catholic. His long and 
 marked countenance, his somewhat vulgar figure, his familiar- 
 ity with his inferiors, which he carried to a degree almost 
 derogatory to a king, a familiarity acquired by the moun- 
 taineer habits of his youth, and which he preserved till his 
 death, marked him out to the spectators, some of whom cried : 
 
 " To mass, Harry, to mass ! " 
 
 To which Henry replied : 
 
 " I attended it yesterday, to-day, and I shall attend it again 
 to-morrow. Venire saint gris ! surely that is sufficient." 
 
 Marguerite was on horseback so lovely, so fresh, so ele- 
 gant that admiration made a regular concert around her, 
 though it must be confessed that a few notes of it were 
 addressed to her companion, the Duchesse de Nevers, who had 
 just joined her on a white horse so proud of his burden that 
 he kept tossing his head.
 
 166 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Well, duchees ! " said the Queen of Navarre, " what is 
 there new ? " 
 
 " Why, madame," replied the duchess, aloud, " I know of 
 nothing." 
 
 Then in a lower tone : 
 
 " And what has become of the Huguenot ? " 
 
 " I have found him a retreat almost safe," replied Margue- 
 rite. " And the wholesale assassin, what have you done with 
 him ? " 
 
 " He wished to take part in the festivity, and so we mounted 
 him on Monsieur de Nevers' war-horse, a creature as big as an 
 elephant. He is a fearful cavalier. I allowed him to be 
 present at the ceremony to-day, as I felt that your Huguenot 
 would be prudent enough to keep his chamber and that there 
 was no fear of their meeting." 
 
 " Oh, faith ! " replied Marguerite, smiling, " if he were here, 
 and he is not here, I do not think a collision would take place. 
 My Huguenot is remarkably handsome, but nothing more - 
 a dove, and not a hawk ; he coos, but does not bite. After all," 
 she added, with a gesture impossible to describe, and shrug- 
 ging her shoulders slightly, "after all, perhaps our King 
 thought him a Huguenot while he is only a Brahmin, and his 
 religion forbids him to shed blood." 
 
 " But where, pray, is the Due d'Alenqon ? " inquired Hen- 
 riette ; " I do not see him." 
 
 " He will join us later ; his eyes troubled him this morning 
 and he was inclined not to come, but as it is known that be- 
 cause he holds a different opinion from Charles and his brother 
 Henry he inclines toward the Huguenots, he became convinced 
 that the King might put a bad interpretation on his absence 
 and he changed his mind. There, hark ! people are gazing and 
 shouting yonder ; it must be that he is coming by the Porte 
 Montmartre." 
 
 " You are right ; 't is he ; I recognize him. How elegant he 
 looks to-day," said Henriette. " For some time he has taken 
 particular pains with his appearance ; he must be in love. See 
 how nice it is to be a prince of the blood, he gallops over every 
 one, they all draw on one side." 
 
 " Yes," said Marguerite, laughing, " he will ride over us. 
 For Heaven's sake draw your attendants to one side, duchess, 
 for there is one of them who will be killed if he does not 
 give way."
 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 167 
 
 " It is my hero ! " cried the duchess ; " look, only look ! " 
 
 Coconnas had left his place to approach the Duchesse de 
 Nevers, but just as his horse was crossing the kind of exterior 
 boulevard which separates the street from the Faubourg Saint 
 Denis, a cavalier of the Due d'Alengon's suite, trying in vain 
 to rein in his excited horse, dashed full against Coconnas. 
 Coconnas, shaken by the collision, reeled on his colossal mount, 
 his hat nearly fell off ; he put it on more firmly and turned 
 round furiously. 
 
 " Heavens ! " said Marguerite, in a low tone, to her friend, 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ! " 
 
 " That handsome, pale young man ? " exclaimed the duchess, 
 unable to repress her first impression. 
 
 " Yes, yes ; the very one who nearly upset your Pied- 
 mo ntese." 
 
 " Oh," said the duchess, " something terrible will happen ! 
 they look at each other recollect each other ! " 
 
 Coconnas had indeed recognized La Mole, and in his surprise 
 dropped his bridle, for he believed he had killed his old com- 
 panion, or at least put him hors de combat for some time. La 
 Mole had also recognized Coconnas, and he felt a fire mount up 
 into his face. For some seconds, which sufficed for the expres- 
 sion of all the sentiments these two men harbored, they gazed 
 at each other in a way which made the two women shudder. 
 
 After which, La Mole, having looked about him, and doubt- 
 less seeing that the place was ill chosen for an explanation, 
 spurred his horse and rejoined the Due d'Alenqon. Coconnas 
 remained stationary for a moment, twisting his mustache until 
 the point almost entered his eye ; then seeing La Mole dash off 
 without a word, he did the same. 
 
 " Ah, ha ! " said Marguerite, with pain and contempt, " so I 
 was not mistaken it is really too much ; " and she bit her 
 lips till the blood came. 
 
 " He is very handsome," added the Duchesse de Nevers, 
 with commiseration. 
 
 Just at this moment the Due d'Alenqon reached his place 
 behind the King and the queen mother, so that his suite, in 
 following him, were obliged to pass before Marguerite and the 
 Duchesse de Nevers. La Mole, as he rode before the two 
 princesses, raised his hat, saluted the queen, and, bowing to 
 his horse's neck, remained uncovered until her majesty should 
 honor him with a look.
 
 168 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 But Marguerite turned her head aside disdainfully. 
 
 La Mole, no doubt, comprehended the contemptuous expres- 
 sion of the queen's features, and from pale he became livid, 
 and that he might not fall from his horse was compelled to 
 hold on by the mane. 
 
 " Oh, oh ! " said Henriette to the queen ; " look, cruel that 
 you are ! he is going to faint." 
 
 " Good," said the queen, with a cruel smile ; " that is the 
 only thing we need. Where are your salts ? " 
 
 Madame de Nevers was mistaken. La Mole, with an effort, 
 recovered himself, and sitting erect on his horse took his 
 place in the Due d'Alenqon's suite. 
 
 Meantime they kept on their way and at length saw the 
 lugubrious outline of the gibbet, erected and first used by 
 Enguerrand de Marigny. Never before had it been so 
 adorned. 
 
 The ushers and guards went forward and made a wide circle 
 around the enclosure. As they drew near, the crows perched on 
 the gibbet flew away with croakings of despair. 
 
 The gibbet erected at Montfaucon generally offered behind 
 its posts a shelter for the dogs that gathered there attracted by 
 frequent prey, and for philosophic bandits who came to ponder 
 on the sad chances of fortune. 
 
 That day at Montfaucon there were apparently neither dogs 
 nor bandits. The ushers and guards had scared away the dogs 
 together with the crows, and the bandits had mingled with the 
 throng so as to make some of the lucky hits which are the 
 more cheerful vicissitudes of their profession. 
 
 The procession moved forward ; the King and Catharine 
 arrived first, then came the Due d'Anjou, Due d'Alenqon, the 
 King of Navarre, Monsieur de Guise, and their followers, then 
 Madame Marguerite, the Duchesse de Nevers, and all the 
 women who composed what was called the queen's flying 
 squadron ; then the pages, squires, attendants, and people 
 in all ten thousand persons. 
 
 From the principal gibbet hung a misshapen mass, a black 
 corpse stained with coagulated blood and mud, whitened by 
 layers of dust. The carcass was headless, and it was hung by 
 the legs, and the populace, ingenious as it always is, had 
 replaced the head with a bunch of straw, to which was fastened 
 a mask ; and in the mouth of this mask some wag, knowing the 
 admiral's habit, had introduced a toothpick.
 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 169 
 
 At once appalling and singular was the spectacle of all 
 these elegant lords and handsome ladies like a procession 
 painted by Goya, riding along in the midst of those blackened 
 carcasses and gibbets, with their long lean arms. 
 
 The noisier the exultation of the spectators, the more strik- 
 ingly it contrasted with the melancholy silence and cold 
 insensibility of those corpses objects of ridicule which made 
 even the jesters shudder. 
 
 Many could scarcely end are this horrible spectacle, and by 
 his pallor might be distinguished, in the centre of collected 
 Huguenots, Henry, who, great as was his power of self-con- 
 trol and the degree of dissimulation conferred on him by 
 Heaven, could no longer bear it. 
 
 He made as his excuse the strong stench which emanated 
 from all those human remains, and going to Charles, who, 
 with Catharine, had stopped in front of the admiral's dead 
 body, he said: 
 
 " Sire, does not your Majesty find that this poor carcass 
 smells so strong that it is impossible to remain near it any 
 longer ? " 
 
 " Do you find it so, Harry ? " inquired the King, his eyes 
 sparkling with ferocious joy. 
 
 Yes, sire." 
 
 " Well, then, I am not of your opinion ; a dead enemy's 
 corpse always smells sweet." 
 
 " Faith, sire," said Tavannes, " since your Majesty knew 
 that we were going to make a little call on the admiral, you 
 should have invited Pierre Ronsard, your teacher of poetry ; 
 he would have extemporized an epitaph for the old Gaspard." 
 
 " There is no need of him for that," said Charles IX., after 
 an instant's thought : 
 
 " Ci-git, mais c'est mal entendu, 
 
 Pour lui le mot est trop honnete, 
 Id I'amiral est pendu 
 
 Par les pieds, a faute de tete." ! 
 
 " Bravo ! bravo ! " cried the Catholic gentlemen in unison, 
 while the collected Huguenots scowled and kept silent, and 
 Henry, as he was talking with Marguerite and Madame de 
 Nevers, pretended not to have heard. 
 
 iHere lies the term the question begs, 
 
 For him you need a word that "s stronger : 
 Here hangs the admiral by the legs 
 
 Because he has a head no longer)
 
 170 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Come, come, sir ! " said Catharine, who, in spite of the 
 perfumes with which she was covered, began to be made ill by 
 the odor. "Come, however agreeable company may be, it 
 must be left at last; let us therefore say good-by to the 
 admiral, and return to Paris." 
 
 She nodded ironically as when one takes leave of a friend, 
 and, taking the head of the column, turned to the road, while 
 the cortege denied before Coligny's corpse. 
 
 The sun was sinking in the horizon. 
 
 The throng followed fast on their majesties so as to enjoy 
 to the very end all the splendors of the procession and the 
 details of the spectacle ; the thieves followed the populace, so 
 that in ten minutes after the King's departure there was no 
 person about the admiral's mutilated carcass on which now 
 blew the first breezes of the evening. 
 
 When we say no person, we err. A gentleman mounted on 
 a black horse, and who, doubtless, could not contemplate at his 
 ease the black mutilated trunk when it was honored by the 
 presence of princes, had remained behind, and was examining, 
 in all their details, the bolts, stone pillars, chains, and in fact 
 the gibbet, which no doubt appeared to him (but lately ar- 
 rived in Paris, and ignorant of the perfection to which things 
 could be brought in the capital) the paragon of all that man 
 could invent in the way of awful ugliness. 
 
 We need hardly inform our friends that this man was M. 
 Annibal de Coconnas. 
 
 A woman's practised eye had vainly looked for him in the 
 cavalcade and had searched among the ranks without being 
 able to find him. 
 
 Monsieur de Coconnas, as we have said, was standing ecstat- 
 ically contemplating Enguerrand de Marigny's work. 
 
 But this woman was not the only person who was trying to 
 find Monsieur de Coconnas. Another gentleman, noticeable 
 for his white satin doublet and gallant plume, after looking 
 toward the front and on all sides, bethought him to look back, 
 and saw Coconnas's tall figure and the silhouette of his 
 gigantic horse standing out strongly against the sky reddenec 7 by 
 the last rays of the setting sun. 
 
 Then the gentleman in the white satin doublet turned out 
 from the road taken by the majority of the company, struck 
 into a narrow footpath, and describing a curve rode back toward 
 the gibbet.
 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 171 
 
 Almost at the same time the lady whom we have recognized 
 as the Duchesse de Nevers, just as we recognized the tall gentle- 
 man on the black horse as Coconnas, rode alongside of Mar- 
 guerite and said to her : 
 
 " We were both mistaken, Marguerite, for the Piedniontese 
 has remained behind and Monsieur de la Mole has gone back 
 to meet him." 
 
 "By Heaven!" exclaimed Marguerite, laughing, "then some- 
 thing is going to happen. Faith, I confess I should not be 
 sorry to revise my opinion about him." 
 
 Marguerite then turned her horse and witnessed the ma- 
 noeuvre which we have described La Mole as performing. 
 
 The two princesses left the procession ; the opportunity was 
 most favorable : they were passing by a hedge-lined footpath 
 which led up the hill, and in doing so pasted within thirty 
 yards of the gibbet. Madame de Nevers whispered a word in 
 her captain's ear, Marguerite beckoned to Gillonne, and the 
 four turned into this cross path and went and hid behind the 
 shrubbery nearest to the place where the scene which they 
 evidently expected to witness was to take place. It was about 
 thirty yards, as we have already said, from the spot where 
 Coconnas in a state of ecstasy was gesticulating before the 
 admiral. 
 
 Marguerite dismounted, Madame de Nevers and Gillonne did 
 the same ; the captain then got down and took the bridles of the 
 four horses. Thick green furnished the three women a seat 
 such as princesses often seek in vain. The glade before them 
 was so open that they would not miss the slightest detail. 
 
 La Mole had accomplished his circuit. He rode up slowly 
 and took his stand behind Coconnas ; then stretching out his 
 hand tapped him on the shoulder. 
 
 The Piedmontese turned round. 
 
 " Oh ! " said he, " so it was not a dream ! You are still 
 alive ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir," replied La Mole ; " yes, I am still alive. It is 
 no fault of yours, but I am still alive." 
 
 " By Heaven ! I know you again well enough," replied Co- 
 connas, " in spite of your pale face. You were redder than 
 that the last time we met ! " 
 
 " And I," said La Mole, " I also recognize you, in spite of 
 that yellow line across your face. You were paler than that 
 when I made that mark for you ! "
 
 172 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 Coconnas bit his lips, but, evidently resolved on continuing 
 the conversation in a tone of irony, he said : 
 
 " It is curious, is it not, Monsieur de la Mole, particularly 
 for a Huguenot, to be able to look at the admiral suspended 
 from that iron hook? And yet they say there are people 
 extravagant enough to accuse us of killing even small Hugue- 
 nots, sucklings." 
 
 " Count," said La Mole, bowing, " I am no longer a Hugue- 
 not ; I have the happiness of being a Catholic ! " 
 
 " Bah ! " exclaimed Coconnas, bursting into loud laughter ; 
 " so you are a convert, sir ? Oh, that was clever of you ! " 
 
 " Sir," replied La Mole, with the same seriousness and the 
 same politeness, " I made a vow to become a convert if I 
 escaped the massacre." 
 
 " Count," said the Piedmontese, " that was a very prudent 
 vow, and I beg to congratulate you. Perhaps you made still 
 others ? " 
 
 " Yes, I made a second," answered La Mole, patting his 
 horse with entire coolness. 
 
 " And what might that be ? " inquired Coconnas. 
 
 " To hang you up there, by that small nail which seems to 
 await you beneath Monsieur de Coligny." 
 
 "What, as I am now?" asked Coconnas, "alive and 
 merry ? " 
 
 " No, sir ; after I have passed my sword through your 
 body ! " 
 
 Coconnas became purple, and his eyes darted flames. 
 
 " Do you mean," said he in a bantering tone, " to that nail ? " 
 
 Yes," replied La Mole, " to that nail." 
 
 " You are not tall enough to do it, my little sir !" 
 
 " Then I '11 get on your horse, my great man-slayer," replied 
 La Mole. " Ah, you believe, my dear Monsieur Annibal de 
 Coconnas, that one may with impunity assassinate people 
 under the loyal and honorable excuse of being a hundred 
 to one, forsooth ! But the day comes when a man finds his 
 man ; and I believe that day has come now. I should very 
 well like to send a bullet through your ugly head ; but, bah ! 
 I might miss you, for my hand is still trembling from the 
 traitorous wounds you inflicted upon me." 
 
 " My ugly head ! " shouted Coconnas, leaping down from 
 his steed. " Down down from your horse, M. le Comte, 
 and draw ! "
 
 COCONNAS AT THE GIBBET.
 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 173 
 
 And he drew his sword. 
 
 " I believe your Huguenot called Monsieur de Coconnas an 
 1 ugly head/ " whispered the Duehesse de Nevers. " Do you 
 think he is bad looking ? '' 
 
 " He is charming," said Marguerite, laughing, " and I am 
 compelled to acknowledge that fury renders Monsieur de La 
 Mole unjust ; but hush ! let us watch ! " 
 
 In fact, La Mole had dismounted from his horse with as 
 much deliberation as Coconnas had shown of precipitation ; he 
 had taken off his cherry-colored cloak, laid it leisurely on the 
 ground, drawn his sword, and put himself on guard. 
 
 " Ai'e ! " he exclaimed, as he stretched out his arm. 
 
 " Ouf ! " muttered Coconnas, as he moved his, for both, 
 as it will be remembered, had been wounded in the shoulder 
 and it hurt them when they made any violent movement. 
 
 A burst of laughter, ill repressed, came from the clump of 
 bushes. The princesses could not quite contain themselves at 
 the sight of their two champions rubbing their omoplates and 
 making up faces. 
 
 This burst of merriment reached the ears of the two gentle- 
 men, who were ignorant that they had witnesses ; turning 
 round, they beheld their ladies. 
 
 La Mole resumed his guard as firm as an automaton, and 
 Coconnas crossed his blade with an emphatic " By Heaven ! " 
 
 " Ah qa ! now they will murder each other in real earnest, 
 if we do not interfere. There has been enough of this. Hola, 
 gentlemen ! hola ! " cried Marguerite. 
 
 " Let them be ! let them be ! " said Henriette, who having 
 seen Coconnas at work, hoped in her heart that he would 
 have as easy a victory over La Mole as he had over Mercan- 
 don's son and two nephews. 
 
 " Oh, they are really beautiful so ! " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 " Look they seem to breathe fire ! " 
 
 Indeed, the combat, begun with sarcasms and mutual insults, 
 became silent as soon as the champions had crossed their 
 swords. Each distrusted his own strength, and each, at every 
 quick pass, was compelled to restrain an expression of pain 
 occasioned by his own wounds. Nevertheless, with eyes fixed 
 and burning, mouth half open, and teeth clenched, La Mole 
 advanced with short and firm steps toward his adversary, who, 
 seeing in him a most skilful swordsman, retreated step by 
 step. They both thus reached the edge of the ditch on the
 
 174 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 other side of which were the spectators ; then, as if his retreat 
 had been only a simple stratagem to draw nearer to his lady, 
 Coconnas took his stand, and as La Mole made his guard a 
 little too wide, he made a thrust with the quickness of light- 
 ning and instantly La Mole's white satin doublet was stained 
 with a spot of blood which kept growing larger. 
 
 " Courage ! " cried the Duchesse de Nevers. 
 
 " Ah, poor La Mole ! " exclaimed Marguerite, with a cry of 
 distress. 
 
 La Mole heard this cry, darted at the queen one of those 
 looks which penetrate the heart even deeper than a sword- 
 point, and taking advantage of a false parade, thrust vigorously 
 at his adversary. 
 
 This time the two women vittered two cries which seemed 
 like one. The point of La Mole's rapier had appeared, all 
 covered with blood, behind Coconnas's back. 
 
 Yet neither fell. Both remained erect, looking at each other 
 with open mouth, and feeling that on the slightest movement 
 they must lose their balance. At last the Piedmontese, more 
 dangerously wounded than his adversary, and feeling his senses 
 forsaking him with his blood, fell on La Mole, grasping him 
 with one hand, while with the other he endeavored to unsheath 
 his poniard. 
 
 La Mole roused all his strength, raised his hand, and let 
 fall the pommel of his sword on Coconnas's forehead. Coconnas, 
 stupefied by the blow, fell, but in his fall drew down his 
 adversary with him, and both rolled into the ditch. 
 
 Then Marguerite and the Duchesse de Nevers, seeing that, 
 dying as they were, they were still struggling to destroy each 
 other, hastened to them, followed by the captain of the guards ; 
 but before they could reach them the combatants' hands un- 
 loosened, their eyes closed, and letting go their grasp of their 
 weapons they stiffened in what seemed like their final agony. 
 A wide stream of blood bubbled round them. 
 
 "Oh, brave, brave La Mole !" cried Marguerite, unable any 
 longer to repress her admiration. " Ah ! pardon me a thousand 
 times for having a moment doubted your courage." 
 
 And her eyes filled with tears. 
 
 " Alas ! alas ! " murmured the duchess, " gallant Annibal. 
 Did you ever see two such intrepid lions, madame ? " 
 
 And she sobbed aloud. 
 
 " Heavens ! what ugly thrusts," said the captain, endeavoring
 
 A DEAD ENEMY'S BODY SMELLS SWEET. 175 
 
 to stanch the streams of blood. " Hola ! you, there, come 
 here as quickly as you can here, I say " 
 
 He addressed a man who, seated on a kind of tumbril or 
 cart painted red, appeared in the evening mist singing this old 
 song, which had doubtless been suggested to him by the 
 miracle of the Cemetery of the Innocents : 
 
 " Bel aubespin fleurissant 
 
 Verdissant, 
 
 Le long de ce beau rivage, 
 Tu es vetu, jusqu'au bas 
 
 Des longs bras 
 Ifune lambrusche sauvage. 
 
 " Le chantre rossignolet, 
 
 Nouvelet, 
 
 Courtisant sa bien-aimee 
 Pour ses amours alleger 
 
 Vient loger 
 Tous les ans sous ta ramee. 
 
 " Or, vis, gentil aubespin 
 
 Vis sans fin ; 
 
 Vis, sans que jamais tonnerre, 
 Ou la cognee, ou les vents 
 
 On le temps 
 Te puissent ruer par. 7 ' . . . * 
 
 " Hola ! he ! " shouted the captain a second time, " come 
 when you are called. Don't you see that these gentlemen 
 need help ? " 
 
 1 Hawthorn brightly blossoming, 
 
 Thou dost fling 
 
 Verdant shadows down the river ; 
 Thou art clad from top to roots 
 
 With long shoots 
 On which graceful leaflets quiver. 
 
 Here the poetic nightingale 
 
 Ne'er doth fail 
 Having sung his love to capture 
 To repair to consecrate, 
 "Neath thy verdure, hours of rapture. 
 
 Therefore live, O Hawthorn fair, 
 
 Live fore'er! 
 
 May no thunder bolt dare amite thee! 
 May no axe or cruel blast 
 
 Overcast ! 
 May the tooth of time . . .
 
 176 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 The carter, whose repulsive exterior and coarse face formed 
 a singular contrast with the sweet and sylvan song we have 
 just quoted, stopped his horse, got out, and bending over the 
 two bodies said : 
 
 " These be terrible wounds, sure enough, but I have made 
 worse in my time." 
 
 " Who are you, pray ? " inquired Marguerite, experiencing, 
 in spite of herself, a certain vague terror which she could not 
 overcome. 
 
 " Madame," replied the man, bowing down to the ground, " I 
 am Maitre Caboche, headsman to the provostry of Paris, and 
 I have come to hang up at the gibbet some companions for 
 Monsieur the Admiral." 
 
 " Well ! and I am the Queen of Navarre," replied Marguerite ; 
 " cast your corpses down there, spread in your cart the housings 
 of our horses, and bring these two gentlemen softly behind us 
 to the Louvre." 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MAfTRE AMBROISE PARC's CONFRERE. 
 
 THE tumbril in which Coconnas and La Mole were laid 
 started back toward Paris, following in the shadow the 
 guiding group. It stopped at the Louvre, and the driver was 
 amply rewarded. The wounded men were carried to the Due 
 d'Alenqon's quarters, and Maitre Ambroise Pare was sent for. 
 
 When he arrived, neither of the two men had recovered con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 La Mole was the least hurt of the two. The sword had 
 struck him below the right armpit, but without touching any 
 vital parts. Coconnas was run through the lungs, and the 
 air that escaped from his wound made the flame of a candle 
 waver. 
 
 Ambroise Pare would not answer for Coconnas. 
 
 Madame de Nevers was in despair. Relying on Coconnas' s 
 strength, courage, and skill, she had prevented Marguerite from 
 interfering with the duel. She would have had Coconnas 
 taken to the Hotel de Guise and gladly bestowed on him a 
 second time the care which she had already lavished on his 
 comfort, but her husband was likely to arrive from Rome at any
 
 MAITRE AMBROISE FARE'S CONFRERE. 177 
 
 moment and find fault with the introduction of a strange man 
 in the domestic establishment. 
 
 To hide the cause of the wounds, Marguerite had had the 
 two young men brought to her brother's rooms, where one 
 of them, to be sure, had already been installed, by saying that 
 they were two gentlemen who had been thrown from their 
 horses during the excursion, but the truth was divulged by the 
 captain, who, having witnessed the duel, could not help express- 
 ing his admiration, and it was soon known at court that two 
 new raffines 1 had burst into sudden fame. Attended by the 
 same surgeon, who divided his attentions between them, the 
 two wounded men passed through the different phases of con- 
 valescence arising from the greater or less severity of their 
 wounds. La Mole, who was less severely wounded of the two, 
 was the first to recover consciousness. A terrible fever had 
 taken possession of Coconnas and his return to life was at- 
 tended by all the symptoms of the most horrible delirium. 
 
 Though La Mole was confined in the same room with Co- 
 connas, he had not, when he came to himself, seen his com- 
 panion, or if he saw him, he betrayed no sign that he saw him. 
 Coconnas, on the contrary, as soon as he opened his eyes, fast- 
 ened them on La Mole with an expression which proved that 
 the blood he had lost had not modified the passions of his fiery 
 temperament. 
 
 Coconnas thought he was dreaming, and that in this dream 
 he saw the enemy he imagined he had twice slain, only the 
 dream was unduly prolonged. After having observed La Mole 
 laid, like himself, on a couch, and his wounds dressed by the 
 surgeon, he saw him rise up in bed, while he himself was still 
 confined to his by his fever, his weakness, and his pain ; he saw 
 him get out of bed, then walk, first leaning on the surgeon's 
 arm, and then on a cane, and finally without assistance. 
 
 Coconnas, still delirious, viewed these different stages of his 
 companion's recovery with eyes sometimes dull, at others wan- 
 dering, but always threatening. 
 
 All this presented to the Piedmontese's fiery spirit a fearful 
 mixture of the fantastic and the real. For him La Mole was 
 dead, wholly dead, having been actually killed twice and not 
 merely once, and yet he recognized this same La Mole's ghost 
 lying in a bed like his own ; then, as we have said, he saw this 
 
 l Rajflne or raffine. d'honneur was a term applied in the 18th century to men sensi- 
 tively punctilious and ready to draw their B words at the slightest provocation. N.H.D.
 
 1T8 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 ghost get up, walk round, and, horrible to relate, come toward 
 his bed. This ghost, whom Coconnas would have wished to 
 avoid, even had it been in the depths of hell, came straight to 
 him and stopped beside his pillow, standing there and looking 
 at him ; there was in his features a look of gentleness and 
 compassion which Coconnas took for the expression of hellish 
 derision. 
 
 There arose in his mind, possibly more wounded than his 
 body, an insatiable thirst of vengeance. He was wholly oc- 
 cupied with one idea, that of procuring some weapon, and with 
 that weapon piercing the body or the ghost of La Mole which 
 so cruelly persecuted him. His clothes, stained with blood, had 
 been placed on a chair by his bed, but afterwards removed, it 
 being thought imprudent to leave them in his sight ; but his 
 poniard still remained on the chair, for it was imagined it would 
 be some time before he would want to use it. 
 
 Coconnas saw the poniard ; three nights while La Mole 
 was slumbering he strove to reach it ; three nights his strength 
 failed him, and he fainted. At length, on the fourth night, he 
 clutched it convulsively, and groaning with the pain of the 
 effort, hid the weapon beneath his pillow. 
 
 The next day he saw something he had never deemed possible. 
 La Mole's ghost, which every day seemed to gain strength, 
 while he, occupied with the terrible dream, kept losing his in 
 the eternal weaving of the scheme which was to rid him of 
 it, La Mole's ghost, growing more and more energetic, walked 
 thoughtfully up and down the room three or four times, then, 
 after having put on his mantle, buckled on his sword, and put 
 on a broad-brimmed felt hat, opened the door and went out. 
 
 Coconnas breathed again. He thought that he was freed 
 from his phantom. For two or three hours his blood circulated 
 more calmly and coolly in his veins than it had done since the 
 duel. La Mole's absence for one day would have restored Co- 
 connas to his senses ; a week's absence would perhaps have 
 cured him ; unfortunately, La Mole returned at the end of two 
 hours. 
 
 This reappearance of La Mole was like a poniard-stab for 
 Coconnas ; and although La Mole did not return alone, Co- 
 connas did not give a single look at his companion. 
 
 And yet his companion was worth looking at. 
 
 He was a man of forty, short, thick-set, and vigorous, with 
 black hair which came to his eyebrows, and a black beard,
 
 MA!TRE AMBROISE FARE'S CONFRERE. 179 
 
 which, contrary to the fashion of the period, thickly covered 
 the chin; but he seemed one who cared little for the fashion. 
 
 He wore a leather jerkin, all covered with brown spots ; red 
 hose and leggings, thick shoes coming above the ankle, a cap 
 the same color as his stockings, and a girdle, from which hung 
 a large knife in a leather sheaf, completed his attire. 
 
 This singular personage, whose presence in the Louvre 
 seemed so anomalous, threw his brown mantle on a chair and 
 unceremoniously approached Coconnas, whose eyes, as if fas- 
 cinated, remained fixed upon La Mole, who remained at some 
 distance. He looked at the sick man, and shaking his head, 
 said to La Mole : 
 
 " You have waited till it was rather late, my dear gentle- 
 man." 
 
 " I could not get out sooner,'' said La Mole. 
 
 " Eh ! Heavens ! you should have sent for me." 
 
 Whom had I to send ? " 
 
 " True, I forgot where we are. I had told those ladies, but 
 they would not listen to me. If my prescriptions had been 
 followed instead of those of that ass, Ambroise Pare, you would 
 by this time have been in a condition to go in pursuit of ad- 
 ventures together, or exchange another sword-thrust if such 
 had been your good pleasure ; but we shall see. Does your 
 friend listen to reason ? " 
 
 " Scarcely." 
 
 " Hold out your tongue, my dear gentleman." 
 
 Coconnas thrust out his tongue to La Mole, making such a 
 hideous grimace that the practitioner shook his head a second 
 time. 
 
 " Oho ! " he muttered, " contraction of the muscles. There 's 
 no time to be lost. This evening I will send you a potion 
 ready prepared ; you must make him take it three times : once 
 at midnight, once at one o'clock, and once at two." 
 
 "Very well." 
 
 " But who will make him take it ? " 
 
 I will." 
 
 "You?" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " You give me your word ? " 
 
 " On my honor." 
 
 " And if any physician should attempt to abstract the slightest 
 portion to analyze it and discover what its ingredients are "
 
 180 MARGUERITE DE VALO1S. 
 
 " I will spill it to the last drop." 
 
 " This also on your honor ? " 
 
 " I swear it ! " 
 
 " Whom shall I send you this potion by ? " 
 
 " Any one you please." 
 
 " But my messenger "- 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " How will he get to you ? " 
 
 " That is easily managed. He will say that he comes from 
 Monsieur Rene, the perfumer." 
 
 " That Florentine who lives on the Pont Saint Michel ? " 
 
 " Exactly. He is allowed to enter the Louvre at any hour, 
 day or night." 
 
 The man smiled. 
 
 " In fact," said he, " the queen mother at least owes him that 
 much. It is understood, then ; he will come from Maitre Rene, 
 the perfumer. I may surely use his name for once : he has 
 often enough practised my profession without having taken 
 his degree either." 
 
 " Then," said La Mole, " I may rely on you." 
 
 You may." 
 
 " And about the payment ? " 
 
 " Oh, we will arrange about that with the gentleman him- 
 self when he is well again." 
 
 " You may be quite easy on that score, for I am sure he will 
 pay you generously." 
 
 " I believe you. And yet," he added with a strange smile, 
 " as the people with whom I have to do are not wont to be 
 grateful, I should not be surprised if when he is on his legs 
 again he should forget or at least not think to give a single 
 thought to me." 
 
 " All right," said La Mole, smiling also, " in that case I 
 should have to jog his memory." 
 
 " Very well, we '11 leave it so. In two hours you will receive 
 the medicine." 
 
 " Au revoir ! " 
 
 " You said " 
 
 "Au revoir." 
 
 The man smiled. 
 
 " It is always my custom," he added, " to say adieu ! So 
 adieu, Monsieur de la Mole. In two hours you will have the
 
 MAfTRE AMBROISE PAKE'S CONFRERE. 181 
 
 potion. You understand, it must be given at midnight in 
 three doses at intervals of an hour." 
 
 So saying he took his departure, and La Mole was left alone 
 with Coconnas. 
 
 Coconnas had heard the whole conversation, but understood 
 nothing of it ; a senseless babble of words, a senseless jangling 
 of phrases, was all that came to him. Of the whole interview 
 he remembered nothing except the word "midnight." 
 
 He continued to watch La Mole, who remained in the room, 
 pacing thoughtfully up and down. 
 
 The unknown doctor kept his word, and at the appointed 
 time sent the medicine, which La Mole placed on a small 
 silver chafing-dish, and having taken this precaution, went to 
 bed. 
 
 This action on the part of La Mole gave Coconnas a little 
 quietude. He tried to shut his eyes, but his feverish slumbers 
 were only a continuation of his waking delirium. The same 
 phantom which haunted him by day came to disturb him by 
 night ; across his hot eyelids he still saw La Mole as threaten- 
 ing as ever, and a voice kept repeating in his ear : " Midnight, 
 midnight, midnight ! " 
 
 Suddenly the echoing note of a clock's bell awoke in the 
 night and struck twelve. Coconnas opened his blood-shot 
 eyes ; the fiery breath from his breast scorched his dry lips, 
 an unquenchable thirst devoured his burning throat ; the little 
 night lamp was burning as usual, and its dim light made thou- 
 sands of phantoms dance before his wandering eyes. 
 
 And then a horrible vision he saw La Mole get out of bed, 
 and after walking iip and down the room two or three times, as 
 the sparrow-hawk flits before the little bird it is trying to fas- 
 cinate, come toward him with his fist clinched. 
 
 Coconnas seized his poniard and prepared to plunge it into 
 his enemy. 
 
 La Mole kept coming nearer. 
 
 Coconnas muttered : 
 
 " Ah ! here you are again ! you are always here ! Come on ! 
 You threaten me, do you ! you smile ! Come, come, come ! ah, 
 you still keep coming nearer, a step at a time ! Come, come, 
 and let me kill you." 
 
 And suiting the action to the word, just as La Mole bent 
 down to him, Coconnas flashed out the poniard from under the 
 clothes ; but the effort he made in rising exhausted him, the
 
 182 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 weapon dropped from his hand, and he fell back upon his 
 pillow. 
 
 "There, there!" said La Mole, gently lifting his head; 
 " drink this, my poor fellow, for you are burning up." 
 
 It was really a cup La Mole presented to Coconnas, who in 
 the wild excitement of his delirium took it to be a threatening 
 fist. 
 
 But at the nectarous sensation of this beneficent draught, 
 soothing his lips and cooling his throat, Coconnas's reason, or 
 rather his instinct, came back to him, a never before experienced 
 feeling of comfort pervaded his frame ; he turned an intelli- 
 gent look at La Mole, who was supporting him in his arms, 
 and smiling on him ; and from those eyes, so lately glowing 
 with fury, a tear rolled down his burning cheek, which drank 
 it with avidity. 
 
 " Mordl ! " whispered Coconnas, as he fell back on his 
 bolster. " If I get over this, Monsieur de la Mole, you shall 
 be my friend." 
 
 " And you will get over it," said La Mole, " if you will drink 
 the other two cups, and have no more ugly dreams." 
 
 An hour afterward La Mole, assuming the duties of a nurse, 
 and scrupulously carrying out the unknown doctor's orders, rose 
 again, poured a second dose into the cup, and carried it to 
 Coconnas, who instead of waiting for him with his poniard, 
 received him with open arms, eagerly swallowed the potion, 
 and calmly fell asleep. 
 
 The third cup had a no less marvellous effect. The sick 
 man's breathing became more regular, his stiff limbs relaxed, 
 a gentle perspiration diffused itself over his burning skin, and 
 when Ambroise Pare visited him the next morning, he smiled 
 complacently, saying : 
 
 " I answer for Monsieur de Coconnas now ; and this will not 
 be one of the least difficult cures I have effected." 
 
 This scene, half-dramatic, half-burlesque, and yet not lacking 
 in a certain poetic touch when Coconnas's fierce ways were taken 
 into consideration, resulted in the friendship which the two 
 gentlemen had begun at the Inn of the Belle jfitoile, and which 
 had been so violently interrupted by the Saint Bartholomew 
 night's occurrences, from that time forth taking on a new vigor 
 and soon surpassing that of Orestes and Pylades by five sword- 
 thrusts and one pistol-wound exchanged between them. 
 
 At all events, wounds old and new, slight or serious, were at
 
 THE GHOSTS. 183 
 
 last in a fair way of cure. La Mole, faithful to his duties as 
 nurse, would not forsake the sick-room until Coconnas was en- 
 tirely well. As long as weakness kept the invalid on the bed, 
 he lifted him, and when he began to improve he helped him to 
 walk ; in a word, he lavished on him all the attentions suggested 
 by his gentle and affectionate disposition, and this care, to- 
 gether with the Piedmontese's natural vigor, brought about a 
 more rapid convalescence than would have been expected. 
 
 However, one and the same thought tormented both the 
 young men. Each had in his delirium apparently seen the 
 woman he loved approach his couch, and yet, certainly since 
 they had recovered their senses, neither Marguerite nor 
 Madame de Nevers had entered the room. However, that was 
 perfectly comprehensible ; the one, wife of the King of Navarre, 
 the other, the Due de Guise's sister-in-law, could not have 
 publicly shown two simple gentlemen such a mark of evident 
 interest, could they ? No ! La Mole and Coconnas could not 
 make any other reply to this question. But still the absence 
 of the ladies, tantamount perhaps to utter forgetfulness, was 
 not the less painful. 
 
 It is true the gentleman who had witnessed the duel had 
 come several times, as if of his own accord, to inquire after 
 them ; it is true Gillonne had done the same ; but La Mole 
 had not ventured to speak to the one concerning the queen ; 
 Coconnas had not ventured to speak to the other of Madame 
 de Nevers. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE GHOSTS. 
 
 FOR some time each of the young men kept his secret con- 
 fined to his own heart. At last their reserve burst its barriers, 
 and the thought which had so long occupied them escaped 
 their lips, and both cemented their friendship by this final 
 proof, without which there is no friendship, namely, perfect 
 confidence. 
 
 They were both madly in love one with a princess and the 
 other with a queen. 
 
 For these two poor suitors there was something frightful in
 
 184 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 the almost insuperable distance separating them from the 
 objects of their desires. 
 
 And yet hope is a sentiment so deeply rooted in man's 
 heart that in spite of the madness of their love they hoped ! 
 
 They both, as they recovered from their illness, took great 
 pains with their personal appearance. Every man, even the 
 most indifferent to physical appearance, has, at certain times, 
 mute interviews with his looking-glass, signs of intelligence, 
 after which he generally leaves his confidant, quite satisfied 
 with the interview. Now our two young men were not persons 
 whose mirrors were compelled to give them harsh advice. La 
 Mole, delicate, pale, and elegant, had the beauty of distinction ; 
 Cocounas, powerful, large-framed, and fresh-colored, had the 
 beauty of strength. He had more, for his recent illness had 
 been of advantage to him. He had become thinner, grown 
 paler, and the famous scar which had formerly caused him so 
 much anxiety from its prismatic relationship to the rainbow 
 had disappeared, giving promise, probably like the post-diluvian 
 phenomenon, of a long series of lovely days and calm nights. 
 
 Moreover, the most delicate attentions continued to be 
 lavished on the two wounded men, and each of them on the day 
 when he was well enough to rise found a robe-de-chambre 
 on the easy-chair nearest his bed ; on the day when he was 
 able to dress himself, a complete suit of clothes ; moreover, in 
 the pocket of each doublet was a well-filled purse, which they 
 each kept, intending, of course, to return, in the proper time and 
 place, to the unknown protector who watched over them. 
 
 This unknown protector could not be the prince in whose 
 quarters the two young men resided, for the prince had not 
 only never once paid them a visit, but he had not even sent to 
 make any inquiry after them. 
 
 A vague hope whispered to each heart that this unknown 
 protector was the woman he loved. 
 
 So the two wounded men awaited with intense impatience 
 the moment when they could go out. La Mole, stronger and 
 sooner cured than Coconnas, might have done so long before, 
 but a kind of tacit convention bound him to his friend. It 
 was agreed between them that the first time they went out 
 they should make three calls : 
 
 The first should be upon the unknown doctor whose suave 
 medicine had brought such a remarkable improvement in the 
 inflammation of Coconnas's lungs.
 
 THE GHOSTS. 185 
 
 The second to the dwelling of the defunct Maitre La Huriere, 
 where each of them had left his portmanteau and horse. 
 
 The third to the Florentine Rene, who, uniting to his title of 
 perfumer that of magician, not only sold cosmetics and poisons, 
 but also concocted philters and delivered oracles. 
 
 At length, after two months passed in convalescence and 
 confinement, the long-looked-for day arrived. 
 
 We used the word " confinement; " the use of it is accurate 
 because several times in their impatience they had tried to 
 hasten that day ; but each time a sentinel posted at the door 
 had stopped their passage and they had learned that they could 
 not step out unless Maitre Ambroise Pare gave them their exeat. 
 
 Now, one day that clever surgeon, having come to the con- 
 clusion that the two invalids were, if not completely cured, 
 at least on the road to complete recovery, gave them this exeat, 
 and about two o'clock in the afternoon on a' fine day in au- 
 tumn, such as Paris sometimes offers to her astonished popula- 
 tion, who have already laid up a store of resignation for the 
 winter, the two friends, arm in arm, set foot outside the 
 Louvre. 
 
 La Mole, finding to his great satisfaction, on an armchair, 
 the famous cherry-colored mantle which he had folded so care- 
 fully before the duel, undertook to be Coconnas's guide, and 
 Coconnas allowed himself to be guided without resistance or 
 reflection. He knew that his friend was taking him to the un- 
 known doctor's whose potion (not patented) had cured him in 
 a single night, when all of Master Ambroise Pare's drugs were 
 slowly killing him. He had divided the money in his purse 
 into two parts, and intended a hundred rose-nobles for the an- 
 onymous Esculapius to whom his recovery was due. Coconnas 
 was not afraid of death, but Coconnas was not the less satisfied 
 to be alive and well, and so, as we see, he was intending to 
 recompense his deliverer generously. 
 
 La Mole proceeded along the Rue de 1'Astruce, the wide 
 Rue Saint Honore, the Rue des Prouvelles, and soon found 
 himself on the Place des Halles. Near the ancient fountain, 
 at the place which is at the present time called the Carreau des 
 Holies, was an octagon stone building, surmounted by a vast 
 wooden lantern, which was again surmounted by a pointed 
 roof, on the top of which was a weathercock. This wooden 
 lantern had eight openings, traversed, as that heraldic piece 
 which they call the fastis traverses the field of blazonry, by a
 
 186 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 kind of wooden wheel, which was divided in the middle, in 
 order to admit in the holes cut in it for that purpose the head 
 and hands of such sentenced person or persons as were 
 exposed at one or more of these eight openings. 
 
 This singular arrangement, which had nothing like it in the 
 surrounding buildings, was called the pillory. 
 
 An ill-constructed, irregular, crooked, one-eyed, limping 
 house, the roof spotted with moss like a leper's skin, had, like 
 a toadstool, sprung up at the foot of this species of tower. 
 
 This house was the executioner's. 
 
 A man was exposed, and was thrusting out his tongue at the 
 passers-by ; he was one of the robbers who had been following 
 his profession near the gibbet of Montfaucon, and had by ill 
 luck been arrested in the exercise of his functions. 
 
 Coconnas believed that his friend had brought him to see 
 this singular spectacle, and he joined the crowd of sightseers 
 who were replying to the patient's grimaces by vociferations 
 and gibes. 
 
 Coconnas was naturally cruel, and the sight very much 
 amused him, only he would have preferred that instead of gibes 
 and vociferations they had thrown stones at a convict so inso- 
 lent as to thrust out his tongue at the noble lords that con- 
 descended to visit him. 
 
 So when the moving lantern was turned on its base, in order 
 to show the culprit to another portion of the square, and the 
 crowd followed, Coconnas would have accompanied them, had 
 not La Mole checked him, saying, in a low tone : 
 
 " We did not come here for this." 
 
 " Well, what did we come for, then ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " You will see," replied La Mole. 
 
 The two friends had got into the habit of addressing each 
 other with the familiar "thee" and "thou" ever since the 
 morning of that famous night when Coconnas had tried to 
 thrust his poniard into La Mole's vitals. And he led Coconnas 
 directly to a small window in the house which abutted on the 
 tower ; a man was leaning on the window-sill. 
 
 " Aha ! here you are, gentlemen," said the man, raising his 
 blood-red cap, and showing his thick black hair, which came 
 down to his eyebrows. " You are welcome." 
 
 " Who is this man ? " inquired Coconnas, endeavoring to 
 recollect, for it seemed to him he had seen that face during 
 one of the crises of his fever.
 
 THE GHOSTS. 187 
 
 " Your preserver, my dear friend," replied La Mole ; " he 
 who brought to you at the Louvre that refreshing drink which 
 did you so much good." 
 
 " Oho ! " said Coconnas ; " in that case, my friend " 
 
 And he held out his hand to him. 
 
 But the man, instead of returning the gesture, drew himself 
 up and withdrew from the two friends just the distance occu- 
 pied by the curve of his body. 
 
 " Sir ! " he said to Coconnas, " thanks for the honor you 
 wish to confer on me, but it is probable that if you knew me 
 you would not do so." 
 
 " Faith ! " said Coconnas, " I declare that, even if you were 
 the devil himself, I am very greatly obliged to you, for if it had 
 not been for you I should be dead at this time." 
 
 " I am not exactly the devil," replied the man in the red 
 cap ; " but yet persons are frequently found who would rather 
 see the devil than me." 
 
 " Who are you, pray ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " Sir," replied the man, " I am Maitre Caboche, the execu- 
 tioner of the provostry of Paris " 
 
 " Ah " said Coconnas, withdrawing his hand. 
 
 " You see ! " said Maitre Caboche. 
 
 " No, no ; I will touch your hand, or may the devil fetch 
 me ! Hold it out " 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " Wide as you can." 
 
 Here it is." 
 
 " Open it wider wider ! " 
 
 And Coconnas took from his pocket the handful of gold he 
 had prepared for his anonymous physician and placed it in the 
 executioner's hand. 
 
 " I would rather have had your hand entirely and solely," 
 said Maitre Caboche, shaking his head, "for I do not lack 
 money, but I am in need of hands to touch mine. Never 
 mind. God bless you, my dear gentleman." 
 
 " So then, my friend," said Coconnas, looking at the execu- 
 tioner with curiosity, " it is you who put men to the rack, 
 who break them on the wheel, quarter them, cut off heads, 
 and break bones. Aha ! I am very glad to have made your 
 acquaintance." 
 
 " Sir," said Maitre Caboche, " I do not do all myself ; just 
 as you noble gentlemen have your lackeys to do what you do
 
 188 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 not choose to do yourself, so have I my assistants, who do the 
 coarser work and despatch clownish fellows. Only when, 
 by chance, I have to do with folks of quality, like you and your 
 companion, for instance, ah ! then it is another thing, and I 
 take a pride in doing everything myself, from first to last, 
 that is to say, from the first putting of the question, to the 
 decapitation." 
 
 In spite of himself, Coconnas felt a shudder pervade his 
 veins, as if the brutal wedge was pressing his leg as if the 
 edge of the axe was against his neck. 
 
 La Mole, without being able to account for it, felt the same 
 sensation. 
 
 But Coconnas overcame the emotion, of which he was 
 ashamed, and desirous of taking leave of Maitre Caboche with 
 a jest on his lips, said to him : 
 
 " Well, master, I hold you to your word, and when it is my 
 turn to mount Enguerrand de Marigny's gallows or Monsieur 
 de Nemours's scaffold you alone shall lay hands on me." 
 
 " I promise you." 
 
 " Then, this time here is my hand, as a pledge that I accept 
 your promise," said Cocounas. 
 
 And he offered the executioner his hand, which the latter 
 touched timidly with his own, although it was evident that he 
 had a great desire to grasp it warmly. 
 
 At this light touch Coconnas turned rather pale ; but the 
 same smile lingered on his lips, while La Mole, ill at ease, and 
 seeing the crowd turn as the lantern did and come toward 
 them, touched his cloak. 
 
 Coconnas, who in reality had as great a desire as La Mole to 
 put an end to this scene, which by the natural bent of his 
 character he had delayed longer than he would have wished, 
 nodded to the executioner and went his way. 
 
 " Faith ! " said La Mole, when he and his companion had 
 reached the Croix du Trahoir, " I must confess we breathe 
 more freely here than in the Place des Halles." 
 
 " Decidedly," replied Coconnas ; " but I am none the less 
 glad at having made Maitre Caboche's acquaintance. It is 
 well to have friends everywhere." 
 
 " Even at the sign of the Belle Etoile" said La Mole, 
 laughing. 
 
 " Oh ! as for poor Maitre La Huriere," said Coconnas, " he 
 is dead and dead again. I saw the arquebuse spitting flame, I
 
 THE GHOSTS. 189 
 
 heard the thump of the bullet, which sounded as if it had struck 
 against the great bell of Notre-Dame, and I left him stretched 
 out in the gutter with streams of blood flowing from his nose 
 and mouth. Taking it for granted that he is a friend, he is a 
 friend we shall have in the next world." 
 
 Thus chatting, the two young men entered the Rue de 
 1'Arbre Sec and proceeded toward the sign of the Belle Etoile, 
 which was still creaking in the same place, still presenting to 
 the traveller its astronomic hearth and its appetizing inscrip- 
 tion. Coconnas and La Mole expected to find the house in a 
 desperate state, the widow in mourning, and the little ones 
 wearing crepe on their arms; but to their great astonishment 
 they found the house in full swing of activity, Madame La 
 Huriere mightily resplendent, and the children gayer than ever. 
 
 " Oh, the faithless creature ! " cried La Mole ; " she must 
 have married again." 
 
 Then addressing the new Artemise : 
 
 " Madame," said he, " we are two gentlemen, acquaintances 
 of poor Monsieur La Huriere. We left here two horses and 
 two portmanteaus which we have come to claim." 
 
 " Gentlemen," replied the mistress of the house, after she 
 had tried to bring them to her recollection, " as I have not the 
 honor of knowing you, with your permission I will go and call 
 my husband. Gregoire, ask your master to come." 
 
 Gregoire stepped from the first kitchen, which was the gen- 
 eral pandemonium, into the second, which was the laboratory 
 where Maitre La Huriere in his life-time had been in the habit 
 of concocting the dishes which he felt deserved to be prepared 
 by his clever hands. 
 
 " The devil take me," muttered Coconnas, " if it does not 
 make me feel badly to see this house so gay when it ought to 
 be so melancholy. Poor La Huriere ! " 
 
 " He tried to kill me," said La Mole, " but I pardon him 
 with all my heart." 
 
 La Mole had hardly uttered these words when a man appeared 
 holding in his hand a stew-pan, in the bottom of which he was 
 browning some onions, stirring them with a wooden spoon. 
 
 La Mole and Coconnas gave vent to a cry of amazement. 
 
 As they did so the man lifted his head and, replying by a 
 similar cry, dropped his stew-pan, retaining in his hand only 
 his wooden spoon. 
 
 " In nomine Patris," said the man, waving his spoon as he
 
 190 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 would have done with a holy-water sprinkler, " et Filii, et 
 Spiritus sancti " 
 
 " Maitre La Huriere ! " exclaimed the two young men. 
 
 " Messieurs de Coconnas and de la Mole ! " cried La Huriere. 
 
 " So you are not dead ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " Why ! can it be that you are alive ? " asked the landlord. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I saw you fall," said Coconnas, " I heard the 
 crash of the bullet, which broke something in you, I don't know 
 what. I left you lying in the gutter, with blood streaming out 
 of your nose, out of your mouth, and even out of your eyes." 
 
 " All that is as true as the gospel, Monsieur de Coconnas. 
 But the noise you heard was the bullet striking against my 
 sallat, on which fortunately it flattened itself ; but the blow 
 was none the less severe, and the proof of it," added La Hu- 
 riere, lifting his cap and displaying a pate as bald as a man's 
 knee, " is that as you see I have not a spear of hair left." 
 
 The two young men burst out laughing when they saw his 
 grotesque appearance. 
 
 " Aha ! you laugh, do you ? " said La Huriere, somewhat re- 
 assured, "you do not come, then, with any evil intentions." 
 
 " Now tell us, Maitre La Huriere, are you entirely cured of 
 your bellicose inclinations ? " 
 
 " Faith, that I am, gentlemen ; and now " 
 
 " Well, and now " 
 
 " Now I have vowed not to meddle with any other fire than 
 that in my kitchen." 
 
 " Bravo ! " cried Coconnas, " see how prudent he is ! Now," 
 added the Piedmontese, " we left in your stables two horses, 
 and in your rooms two portmanteaus." 
 
 " Oh, the devil ! " replied the landlord, scratching his ear. 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 "Two horses, you say ? " 
 
 " Yes, in your stable." 
 
 " And two portmanteaus ? " 
 
 " Yes, in the rooms we had." 
 
 " The truth is, don't you see you thought I was dead, 
 didn't you ? " 
 
 " Certainly we did." 
 
 " You will agree that as you were mistaken, I also might 
 be." 
 
 " What ? In believing that we also were dead ? You were 
 perfectly free."
 
 THE GHOSTS. 191 
 
 " Now that 's it You see, as you died intestate," continued 
 Maitre La Huriere. 
 
 Go on " 
 
 " I believed something, I was mistaken, I see it now " 
 
 " Tell us, what was it you believed ? " 
 
 " I believed that I might consider myself your heir." 
 
 " Oho ! " exclaimed the two young men. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I could not be more grateful to find that you 
 are alive, gentlemen." 
 
 " So you sold our horses, did you ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " Alas ! " cried La Huriere. 
 
 " And our portmanteaus ? " insisted La Mole. 
 
 " Oh ! your portmanteaus ? Oh, no," cried La Huriere, 
 " only what was in them." 
 
 " Now look here, La Mole," persisted Coconnas, " it seems 
 to me that this is a bold rascal ; suppose we disembowel him ! " 
 
 This threat seemed to have great effect on Maitre La Hu- 
 riere, who stammered out these words : 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, I rather think the affair can be arranged." 
 
 " Listen ! " said La Mole, " I am the one who has the greatest 
 cause of complaint against yo\i." 
 
 " Certainly, Monsieur le Comte, for I recollect that in a 
 moment of madness I had the audacity to threaten you." 
 
 " Yes, with a bullet which flew only a couple of inches above 
 my head." 
 
 " Do you think so ? " 
 
 " I am certain of it." 
 
 " If you are certain of it, Monsieur de la Mole," said La 
 Huriere, picking up his stew-pan with an innocent air, " I am 
 too thoroughly at your service to give you the lie." 
 
 " Well," said La Mole, " as far as 1 am concerned I make 
 no demand upon you." 
 
 " What, my dear gentleman " 
 
 "Except"' 
 
 " A'ie ! a'ie ! " groaned La Huriere. 
 
 "Except a dinner for myself and my friends every time I 
 find myself in your neighborhood." 
 
 " How is this ? " exclaimed La Huriere in an ecstasy. " I 
 am at your service, my dear gentleman ; I am at your service." 
 
 " So it is a bargain, is it ? " 
 
 " With all my heart and you, Monsieur de Coconnas," 
 continued the landlord, " do you agree to the bargain ? "
 
 192 MARGUERITE DE VALO1S. 
 
 11 Yes ; but, like my friend, I must add one small condi- 
 tion." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 " That you restore to Monsieur de la Mole the fifty crowns 
 which I owe him, and which I put into your keeping." 
 
 " To me, sir ? When was that ? " 
 
 " A quarter of an hour before you sold my horse and my 
 portmanteau." 
 
 La Huriere showed that he understood. 
 
 " Ah ! I remember," said he ; and he stepped toward a 
 cupboard and took out from it, one after the other, fifty 
 crowns, which he brought to La Mole. 
 
 " Very well, sir," said that gentleman ; " very well. Serve 
 me an omelet. The fifty crowns are for Gregoire." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried La Huriere ; " in truth, my dear gentlemen, 
 you are genuine ^rinces. and you may count on me for life and 
 for death." 
 
 " If that is so," said Coconnas, " make us the omelet we want, 
 and spare neither butter nor lard." 
 
 Then looking at the clock, 
 
 " Faith, you are right, La Mole," said he, " we still have 
 three hours to wait, and we may as well be here as anywhere 
 else. All the more because, if I am not mistaken, we are 
 already half way to the Pont Saint Michel." 
 
 And the two young men went and sat down at table in the 
 very same room and at the very same place which they had 
 occupied during that memorable evening of the twenty-sixth of 
 August, 1572, when Coconnas had proposed to La Mole to play 
 each against the other the first mistress which they should 
 have ! 
 
 Let us grant for the honor of the morality of our two young 
 men that neither of them this evening had the least idea of 
 making such a proposition to his companion.
 
 THE ABODE OF MA?TRE REN&. 193 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE ABODE OF MAfTBE RENE, PERFUMER TO THE QUEEN 
 MOTHER. 
 
 AT the period of this history there existed in Paris, for pass- 
 ing from one part of the city to another, but five bridges, 
 some of stone and the others of wood, and they all led to the 
 Cite ; there were le Pont des Meuniers, le Pont au Change, le 
 Pont Notre-Dame, le Petit Pont, and le Pont Saint Michel. 
 
 In other places when there was need of crossing the river 
 there were ferries. 
 
 These five bridges were loaded with houses like the Pont 
 Vecchio at Florence at the present time. Of these five bridges, 
 each of which has its history, we shall now speak more partic- 
 ularly of the Pont Saint Michel. 
 
 The Pont Saint Michel had been built of stone in 1373 ; in 
 spite of its apparent solidity, a freshet in the Seine undermined 
 a part of it on the thirty -first of January, 1408 ; in. 1416 it had 
 been rebuilt of wood ; but during the night of December 16, 
 1547, it was again carried away ; about 1550, in other words 
 twenty -two years anterior to the epoch which we have reached, 
 it was again built of wood, and though it needed repairs it was 
 regarded as solid enough. 
 
 In the midst of the houses which bordered the line of the 
 bridge, facing the small islet on which the Templers had been 
 burnt, and where at the present time the platform of the Pont 
 Neuf rests, stood a wooden panelled house over which a large 
 roof impended like the lid of an immense eye. At the only 
 window, which opened on the first story, over the window and 
 door of the ground floor, hermetically sealed, shone a reddish 
 light, which attracted the attention of the passers-by to the low, 
 wide faqade, painted blue, with rich gold mouldings. A kind of 
 frieze separating the ground floor from the first floor represented 
 groups of devils in the most grotesque postures imaginable ; 
 and a wide scroll painted blue like the faqade ran between 
 the frieze and the window, with this inscription : " RENE, 
 FLORENTIN, PERFUMER DE SA MAJESTE LA REINE MERE." 
 
 The door of this shop was, as we have said, well bolted ; but 
 it was defended from nocturnal attacks better than by bolts 
 by its occupant's reputation, so redoubtable that the passengers
 
 194 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 over the bridge usually described a curve which took them to 
 the opposite row of houses, as if they feared the very smell of 
 the perfumes that might exhale through the walls. 
 
 More than this, the right and left hand neighbors, doubt- 
 less fearing that they might be compromised by the proxim- 
 ity, had, since Maitre Rene's occupancy of the house, taken their 
 departure one after the other so that the two houses next to 
 Rene's were left empty and closed. Yet, in spite of this soli- 
 tude and desertedness, belated passers-by had frequently seen, 
 glittering through the crevices of the shutters of these empty 
 habitations, strange rays of light, and had felt certain they 
 heard strange noises like groans, which proved that some 
 beings frequented these abodes, although they did not know if 
 they belonged to this world or the other. 
 
 The result was that the tenants of the two buildings contigu- 
 ous to the two empty houses from time to time queried whether 
 it would not be wise in them to do as their neighbors had done. 
 
 It was, doubtless, owing to the privilege which the dread of 
 him, widely circulated, had procured for him, that Maitre 
 Rene had ventured to keep up a light after the prescribed 
 hour. No round or guard, moreover, would have dared to 
 molest him, a man doubly dear to her majesty as her fellow- 
 countryman and perfumer. 
 
 As we suppose that the reader, panoplied by the philosophi- 
 cal wisdom of this century, no longer believes in magic or magi- 
 cians, we will invite him to accompany us into this dwelling 
 which, at that epoch of superstitious faith, shed around it such 
 a profound terror. 
 
 The shop on the ground floor is dark and deserted after 
 eight o'clock in the evening the hour at which it closes, 
 not to open again until next morning ; there it is that the daily 
 sale of perfumery, unguents, and cosmetics of all kinds, such as 
 a skilful chemist makes, takes place. Two apprentices aid 
 him in the retail business, but do not sleep in the house ; they 
 lodge in the Rue de la Colandre. 
 
 In the evening they take their departure an instant before 
 the shop closes ; in the morning they wait at the door until it 
 opens. 
 
 This ground-floor shop is therefore dark and deserted, as . 
 we have said. 
 
 In this shop, which is large and deep, there are two doors, 
 each leading to a staircase. One of these staircases is in the
 
 THE ABODE OF MAITRE RENE. 195 
 
 wall itself and is lateral, and the other is exterior and visible 
 from the quay now called the Quai des Augustins, and from 
 the riverbank, now called the Quai des Orfevres. 
 
 Both lead to the principal room on the first floor. This room 
 is of the same size as the ground floor, except that it is divided 
 into two compartments by tapestry suspended in the centre 
 and parallel to the bridge. At the end of the first compart- 
 ment opens the door leading to the exterior staircase. On the 
 side face of the second opens the door of the secret staircase. 
 This door is invisible, being concealed by a large carved cup- 
 board fastened to it by iron cramps, and moving with it when 
 pushed open. Catharine alone, besides Rene, knows the secret 
 of this door, and by it she comes and departs ; and with eye 
 or ear placed against the cupboard, in which are several small 
 holes, she sees and hears all that occurs in the chamber. 
 
 Two other doors, visible to all eyes, present themselves at 
 the sides of the second compartment. One opens into a small 
 chamber lighted from the roof, and having nothing in it but 
 a large stove, some alembecs, retorts, and crucibles : it is the al- 
 chemist's laboratory ; the other opens into a cell more singular 
 than the rest of the apartment, for it is not lighted at all - 
 has neither carpet nor furniture, but only a kind of stone altar. 
 
 The floor slopes from the centre to the ends, and from the 
 ends to the base of the wall is a kind of gutter ending in a 
 funnel, through whose orifice may be seen the dark waters of 
 the Seine. On nails driven into the walls are hung singular- 
 shaped instruments, all keen or pointed with points as fine as 
 a needle and edges as sharp as a razor ; some shine like 
 mirrors ; others, on the contrary, are of a dull gray or murky 
 blue. 
 
 In a corner are two black fowls struggling with each other 
 and tied together by the claws. This is the soothsayer's sanc- 
 tuary. 
 
 Let us return to the middle chamber, that with two com- 
 partments. 
 
 Here the common herd of clients are introduced ; here 
 ibises from Egypt ; mummies, with gilded bands ; the crocodile, 
 yawning from the ceiling ; death's-heads, with eyeless sockets 
 and loose teeth ; and old musty volumes, torn and rat-eaten, 
 are presented to the visitor's eye in pellmell confusion. 
 Behind the curtain are phials, singularly shaped boxes, and 
 weird-looking vases ; all this is lighted up by two small silver
 
 196 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 lamps exactly alike, perhaps stolen from some altar of Santa 
 Maria Novella or the Church Dei Lervi of Florence; these, 
 supplied with perfumed oil, cast their yellow flames around 
 the sombre vault from which each hangs by three blackened 
 chains. 
 
 Rene, alone, his arms crossed, is pacing up and down the 
 second compartment with long strides, and shaking his head. 
 After a lengthened and painful musing he causes before an 
 hour-glass : 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " says he, " I forget to turn it ; and perhaps the 
 sand has all run through a long time ago." 
 
 Then, looking at the moon as it struggled through a heavy 
 black cloud which seemed to hang over Notre-Dame, he said : 
 " It is nine o'clock. If she comes, she will come, as usual, in 
 an hour or an hour and a half; then there will be time for all." 
 
 At this moment a noise was heard on the bridge. Rene 
 applied his ear to the orifice of a long tube, the other end of 
 which reached down the street, terminating in a heraldic viper- 
 head. 
 
 "No," he said, "it is neither she nor they ; it is men's foot- 
 steps, and they stop at my door they are coming here." 
 
 And three sharp knocks were heard at the door. 
 
 Rene hurried downstairs and put his ear against the door, 
 without opening it. 
 
 The three sharp blows were repeated. 
 
 " Who 's there ? " asked Maitre Rene. 
 
 " Must we mention our names ? " inquired a voice. 
 
 " It is indispensable," replied Rene. 
 
 "Well, then, I am the Comte Annibal de Coconnas," said the 
 same voice. 
 
 " And I am the Comte Lerac de la Mole," said another 
 voice, which had not as yet been heard. 
 
 " Wait, wait, gentlemen, I am at your service." 
 
 And at the same moment Rene drew the bolts and, lifting 
 the bars, opened the door to the two young men locking it 
 after him. Then, conducting them by the exterior staircase, he 
 introduced them into the second compartment. 
 
 La Mole, as he entered, made the sign of the cross under his 
 cloak. He was pale, and his hand trembled without his being 
 able to repress this symptom of weakness. 
 
 Coconnas looked at everything, one after the other; and 
 seeing the door of the cell, was about to open it.
 
 THE ABODE OF MAITRE RENti. 197 
 
 " Allow me to observe, my dear young gentleman," said 
 Rene", in his deep voice, and placing his hand on Coconnas's, 
 "those that do me the honor of a visit have access only to 
 this part of the room." 
 
 " Oh, very well," replied Coconnas ; " besides, I feel like 
 sitting down." And he took a seat. 
 
 There was unbroken silence for a moment Maitre Rene 
 was waiting for one or the other of the young men to open 
 the conversation. 
 
 " Maitre Rene," at length said Coconnas, " you are a skilful 
 man, and I pray you tell me if I shall always remain a 
 sufferer from my wound that is, always experience this short- 
 ness of breath, which prevents me from riding on horseback, 
 using my sword, and eating larded omelettes ? " 
 
 Rene put his ear to Coconnas's chest and listened attentively 
 to the play of the lungs. 
 
 " No, Monsieur le Comte," he replied, " you will get well." 
 
 "Really?" 
 
 " Yes, I assure you." 
 
 " Well, you fill me with delight." 
 
 There was silence once more. 
 
 " Is there nothing else you would desire to know, M. le 
 Comte ? " 
 
 " I wish to know," said Coconnas, " if I am really in love ? " 
 
 " You are," replied Rene. 
 
 " How do you know ? " 
 
 " Because you asked the question." 
 
 " By Heaven ! you are right. But with whom ? " 
 
 " With her who now, on every occasion, uses the oath you 
 have just uttered." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Coconnas, amazed ; " Maitre Rene, you are a 
 clever man ! Now, La Mole, it is your turn." 
 
 La Mole reddened, and seemed embarrassed. 
 
 " I, Monseiur Rene," he stammered, and speaking more 
 firmly as he proceeded, " do not care to ask you if I am in 
 love, for I know that I am, and I do not hide it from myself ; 
 but tell me, shall I be beloved in return ? for, in truth, all 
 that at first seemed propitious now turns against me." 
 
 " Perchance you have not done all you should do." 
 
 " What is there to do, sir, but to testify, by one's respect and 
 devotion to the lady of one's thoughts, that she is really and 
 profoundly beloved ? "
 
 198 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " You know," replied Rene, " that these demonstrations are 
 frequently very meaningless." 
 
 " Then must I despair ? " 
 
 " By no means ; we must have recourse to science. In 
 human nature there are antipathies to be overcome sympa- 
 thies which may be forced. Iron is not the lodestone ; but by 
 rubbing it with a lodestone we make it, in its turn, attract iron." 
 
 " Yes, yes," muttered La Mole ; " but I have an objection to 
 all these sorceries." 
 
 " Ah, then, if you have any such objections, you should not 
 come here," answered Rene. 
 
 " Come, come, this is child's play ! " interposed Coconnas. 
 " Maitre Rene, can you show me the devil ? " 
 
 " No, Monsieur le Comte." 
 
 " I 'm sorry for that ; for I had a word or two to say to him, 
 and it might have encouraged La Mole." 
 
 " Well, then, let it be so," said La Mole, " let us go to the 
 point at once. I have been told of figures modelled in wax to 
 look like the beloved object. Is that one way ? " 
 
 " An infallible one." 
 
 " And there is nothing in the experiment likely to affect the 
 life or health of the person beloved ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 " Let us try, then." 
 
 " Shall I make first trial ? " said Coconnas. 
 
 "No," said La Mole, " since I have begun, I will go through 
 to the end." 
 
 " Is your desire mighty, ardent, imperious to know what the 
 obstacle is, Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Oh," exclaimed La Mole, " I am dying with anxiety." 
 
 At this moment some one rapped lightly at the street door 
 so lightly that no one but Maitre Rene heard the noise, 
 doubtless because he had been expecting it. 
 
 Without any hesitation he went to the speaking-tube and 
 put his ear to the mouthpiece, at the same time asking La 
 Mole several idle questions. Then he added, suddenly : 
 
 "Now put all your energy into your wish, and call the per- 
 son whom you love." 
 
 La Mole knelt, as if about to address a divinity ; and Rend, 
 going into the other compartment, went out noiselessly by the 
 exterior staircase, and an instant afterward light steps trod 
 the floor of his shop.
 
 THE ABODE OF MA^TRE RN. 199 
 
 When La Mole rose he beheld before him Maitre Rene. 
 The Florentine held in his hand a small wax .figure, very in- 
 differently modelled ; it wore a crown and mantle. 
 
 " Do you desire to be always beloved by your royal mis- 
 tress ? " demanded the perfumer. 
 
 " Yes, even if it cost me my life even if my soul should be 
 the sacrifice ! " replied La Mole. 
 
 " Very good," said the Florentine, taking with the ends of 
 his fingers some drops of water from a ewer and sprinkling 
 them over the figure, at the same time muttering certain Latin 
 words. 
 
 La Mole shuddered, believing that some sacrilege was com- 
 mitted. 
 
 " What are you doing ? " he asked. 
 
 " I am christening this figure with the name of Marguerite." 
 
 What for ? " 
 
 " To establish a sympathy." 
 
 La Mole opened his mouth to prevent his going any further, 
 but a mocking look from Coconnas stopped him. 
 
 Rene, who had noticed the impulse, waited. " Your absolute 
 and undivided will is necessary," he said. 
 
 " Go on," said La Mole. 
 
 Rene wrote on a small strip of red paper some cabalistic 
 characters, put it into the eye of a steel needle, and with the 
 needle pierced the small wax model in the heart. 
 
 Strange to say, at the orifice of the wound appeared a small 
 drop of blood ; then he set fire to the paper. 
 
 The heat of the needle melted the wax around it and dried 
 up the spot of blood. 
 
 " Thus," said Rene, " by the power of sympathy, your love 
 shall pierce and burn the heart of the woman whom you love." 
 
 Coconnas, true to his repute as a bold thinker, laughed in his 
 mustache, and in a low tone jested ; but La Mole, desperately 
 in love and full of superstition, felt a cold perspiration start 
 from the roots of his hair. 
 
 " And now," continued Rene, " press your lips to the lips of 
 the figure, and say : ' Marguerite, I love thee ! Come, Mar- 
 guerite ! ' ' 
 
 La Mole obeyed. 
 
 At this moment the door of the second chamber was heard 
 to open, and light steps approached. Coconnas, curious and 
 incredulous, drew his poniard, and fearing that if he raised
 
 200 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 the tapestry Rene would repeat what he said about the door, 
 he cut a hole in the thick curtain, and applying his eye to the 
 hole, uttered a cry of astonishment, to which two women's voices 
 responded. 
 
 " What is it ? " exclaimed La Mole, nearly dropping the 
 waxen figure, which Rene caught from his hands. 
 
 " Why," replied Coconnas, " the Duchesse de Nevers and 
 Madame Marguerite are there ! " 
 
 " There, now, you unbelievers ! " replied Rene, with an aus- 
 tere smile ; " do you still doubt the force of sympathy ? " 
 
 La Mole was petrified on seeing the queen ; Coconnas was 
 amazed at beholding Madame de Nevers. One believed that 
 Rene's sorceries had evoked the phantom Marguerite ; the other, 
 seeing the door half open, by which the lovely phantoms had 
 entered, gave at once a worldly and substantial explanation to 
 the mystery. 
 
 While La Mole was crossing himself and sighing enough to 
 split a rock, Coconnas, who had taken time to indulge in philo- 
 sophical questionings and to drive away the foul fiend with the 
 aid of that holy water sprinkler called scepticism, having 
 observed, through the hole in the curtain, the astonishment 
 shown by Madame de Nevers and Marguerite's somewhat 
 caustic smile, judged the moment to be decisive, and under- 
 standing that a man may say in behalf of a friend what he 
 cannot say for himself, instead of going to Madame de Nevers, 
 went straight to Marguerite, and bending his knee, after the 
 fashion of the great Artaxerxes as represented in the farces of 
 the day, cried, in a voice to which the whistling of his wound 
 added a peculiar accent not without some power : 
 
 " Madame, this very moment, at the demand of my friend 
 the Comte de la Mole, Maitre Rene was evoking your spirit ; 
 and to my great astonishment, your spirit is accompanied with 
 a body most dear to me, and which I recommend to my friend. 
 Shade of her majesty the Queen of Navarre, will you desire the 
 body of your companion to come to the other side of the cur- 
 tain ? 
 
 Marguerite began to laugh, and made a sign to Henriette, 
 who passed to the other side of the curtain. 
 
 " La Mole, my friend," continued Coconnas, " be as eloquent 
 as Demosthenes, as Cicero, as the Chancellor de 1'Hopital ! 
 and be assured that my life will be imperilled if you do not per-
 
 \ 
 
 THE ABODE OF M AIT RE RENE. 201 
 
 suade the body of Madame de Nevers that I am her most de- 
 voted, most obedient, and most faithful servant." 
 
 " But " stammered La Mole. 
 
 " Do as I say ! And you, Maitre Rene, watch that we are 
 not interrupted." 
 
 Rene did as Coconnas asked. 
 
 " By Heaven, monsieur," said Marguerite, " you are a clever 
 man. I am listening to you. What have you to say ? " 
 
 " I have to say to you, madame, that the shadow of my friend 
 for he is a shadow, and he proves it by not uttering a single 
 little word I say, that this shadow begs me to use the faculty 
 which material bodies possess of speaking so as to be under- 
 stood, and to say to you : Lovely shadow, the gentleman thus 
 disembodied has lost his whole body and all his breath by the 
 cruelty of your eyes. If this were really you, I should ask 
 Maitre Rene to plunge me in some sulphurous pit rather than 
 use such language to the daughter of King Henry II., to the 
 sister of King Charles IX., to the wife of the King of Navarre. 
 But shades are freed from all earthly pride and they are never 
 angry when men love them. , Therefore, pray your body, 
 madame, to love the soul of this poor La Mole a little a soul 
 in trouble, if ever there was one; a soul first persecuted by 
 friendship, which three times thrust into him several inches 
 of cold steel ; a soul burnt by the fire of your eyes fire a 
 thousand times more consuming than all the flames of hell. 
 So have pity on this poor soul ! Love a little what was the 
 handsome La Mole ; and if you no longer possess speech, ah ! 
 bestow a gesture, bestow a smile upon him. My friend's soul 
 is a very intelligent soul, and will comprehend everything. 
 Be kind to him, then; or, by Heaven! I will run my sword 
 through Rene's body in order that, by virtue of the power 
 which he possesses over spirits, he may force yours, which he 
 has already so opportunely evoked, to do all a shade so ami- 
 ably disposed as yours appears to be should do." 
 
 At this burst of eloquence delivered by Coconnas as he stood 
 in front of the queen like JEneas descending into Hades, 
 Marguerite could not refrain from a hearty burst of laughter, 
 yet, preserving the silence which on such an occasion may be 
 the supposed characteristic of a royal shade, she presented her 
 hand to Coconnas. He took it daintily in his, and, calling to 
 La Mole, said : 
 
 " Shade of my friend, come hither instantly ! "
 
 202 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 La Mole, amazed, overcome, silently obeyed. 
 
 " 'T is well," said Coconnas, taking him by the back of the 
 head ; " and now bring the shadow of your handsome brown 
 countenance into contact with the white and vaporous hand 
 before you." 
 
 And Coconnas, suiting the action to the word, raised the 
 delicate hand to La Mole's lips, and kept them for a moment 
 respectfully united, without the hand seeking to withdraw it- 
 self from the gentle pressure. 
 
 Marguerite had not ceased to smile, but Madame de Nevers 
 did not smile at all ; she was still trembling at the unexpected 
 appearance of the two gentlemen. She was conscious that her 
 awkwardness was increased by all the fever of a growing jeal- 
 ousy, for it seemed to her that Coconnas ought not thus to for- 
 get her affairs for those of others. 
 
 La Mole saw her eyebrows contracted, detected the flashing 
 threat of her eyes, and in spite of the intoxicating fever to 
 which his delight was insensibly urging him to succumb he 
 realized the danger which his friend was running and perceived 
 what he should try to do to rescue him. 
 
 So rising and leaving Marguerite's hand in Coconnas's, he 
 grasped the Duchesse de Nevers's, and bending his knee he 
 said : 
 
 " loveliest most adorable of women I speak of 
 living women, and not of shades ! " and he turned a look and 
 a smile to Marguerite ; " allow a soul released from its mortal 
 envelope to repair the absence of a body fully absorbed by 
 material friendship. Monsieur de Coconnas, whom you see, is 
 only a man a man of bold and hardy frame, of flesh hand- 
 some to gaze upon perchance, but perishable, like all flesh. 
 Omnis caro fenum. Although this gentleman keeps on from 
 morning to night pouring into my ears the most touching 
 litanies about you, though you have seen him distribute as 
 heavy blows as were ever seen in wide France this champion, 
 so full of eloquence in presence of a spirit, dares not address a 
 woman. That is why he has addressed the shade of the 
 queen, charging me to speak to your lovely body, and to tell 
 you that he lays at your feet his soul and heart ; that he en- 
 treats from your divine eyes a look in pity, from your rosy 
 ringers a beckoning sign, and from your musical and heavenly 
 voice those words which men can never forget ; if not, he has 
 supplicated another thing, and that is, in case he should not
 
 THE ABODE OF MAfTRE RENE. 203 
 
 soften you, you will run my sword which is a real blade, for 
 swords have no shadows except in the sunshine run my 
 sword right through his body for the second time, for he can 
 live no longer if you do not authorize him to live exclusively 
 for you." All the verve and comical exaggeration which 
 Coconnas had put into his speech found their counterpart in 
 the tenderness, the intoxicating vigor, and the mock humility 
 which La Mole introduced into his supplication. 
 
 Henriette's eyes turned from La Mole, to whom she had 
 listened till he ended, and rested on Coconnas, to see if the 
 expression of that gentleman's countenance harmonized with 
 his friend's ardent address. It seemed that she was satisfied, 
 for blushing, breathless, conquered, she said to Coconnas, with 
 a smile which disclosed a double row of pearls enclosed in 
 coral : 
 
 " Is this true ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! " exclaimed Coconnas, fascinated by her look, 
 "it is true, indeed. Oh, yes, madaine, it is true true on 
 your life true on my death ! " 
 
 " Come with me, then," said Henriette, extending to him 
 her hand, while her eyes proclaimed the feelings of her heart. 
 
 Coconnas flung his velvet cap into the air and with one 
 stride was at the young woman's side, while La Mole, recalled 
 to Marguerite by a gesture, executed at the same time an 
 amorous chassez with his friend. 
 
 B-e'ne appeared at the door in the background. 
 
 " Silence ! " he exclaimed, in a voice which at once damped 
 all the ardor of the lovers ; " silence ! " 
 
 And they heard in the solid wall the sound of a key in a 
 lock, and of a door grating on its hinges. 
 
 " But," said Marguerite, haughtily, " I should think that no 
 one has the right to enter whilst we are here ! " 
 
 " Not even the queen mother ? " whispered Rene" in her ear. 
 
 Marguerite instantly rushed out by the exterior staircase, 
 leading La Mole after her; Henriette and Coconnas almost 
 arm-in-arm followed them, all four taking flight, as fly at the 
 first noise the birds seen engaged in loving parley on the 
 boughs of a flowering shrub.
 
 204 MARGUERITE DE VALOfS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE BLACK HENS. 
 
 IT was time the two couples disappeared ! Catharine was 
 putting the key in the lock of the second door just as Cocon- 
 nas and Madame de Nevers stepped out of the house by the 
 lower entrance, and Catharine as she entered could hear the 
 steps of the fugitives on the stairs. 
 
 She cast a searching glance around, and then fixing her 
 suspicious eyes on Rene, who stood motionless, bowing before 
 her, said : 
 
 Who was that ? " 
 
 " Some lovers, who are satisfied with the assurance I gave 
 them that they are really in love." 
 
 " Never mind them," said Catharine, shrugging her shoul- 
 ders ; " is there no one else here ? " 
 
 " No one but your majesty and myself." 
 
 " Have you done what I ordered you ? " 
 
 " About the two black hens ? " 
 
 Yes ! " 
 
 " They are ready, madame." 
 
 " Ah," muttered Catharine, " if you were a Jew ! " 
 
 " Why a Jew, madame ? " 
 
 " Because you could then read the precious treatises which 
 the Hebrews have written about sacrifices. I have had one of 
 them translated, and I found that the Hebrews did not look 
 for omens in the heart or liver as the Romans did, but in the 
 configuration of the brain, and in the shape of the letters 
 traced there by the all-powerful hand of destiny." 
 
 " Yes, madame ; so I have heard from an old rabbi." 
 
 " There are," said Catharine, " characters thus marked that 
 reveal all the future. Only the Chaldean seers recommend " 
 
 " Recommend what ? " asked Rene, seeing the queen hesi- 
 tate. 
 
 " That the experiment shall be tried on the human brain, as 
 more developed and more nearly sympathizing with the wishes 
 of the consulter." 
 
 " Alas ! " said Rene, "your majesty knows it is impossible." 
 
 " Difficult, at least," said Catharine ; " if we had known this 
 at Saint Bartholomew's, what a rich harvest we might have
 
 THE BLACK HENS. 205 
 
 had The first convict but I will think of it. Meantime, 
 let us do what we can. Is the chamber of sacrifice prepared ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Let us go there." 
 
 Rene lighted a taper made of strange substances, the odor of 
 which, both insidious and penetrating as well as nauseating 
 and stupefying, betokened the introduction of many elements ; 
 holding this taper up, he preceded Catharine into the cell. 
 
 Catharine selected from amongst the sacrificial instruments a 
 knife of blue steel, while Rene took up one of the two fowls that 
 were huddling in one corner, with anxious, golden eyes. 
 
 " How shall we proceed ? " 
 
 " We will examine the liver of the one and the brain of the 
 other. If these two experiments lead to the same result we 
 must be convinced, especially if these results coincide with 
 those we got before." 
 
 " Which shall we begin with ? " 
 
 " With the liver." 
 
 " Very well," said Rene, and he fastened the bird down to 
 two rings attached to the little altar, so that the creature, 
 turned on its back, could only struggle, without stirring from 
 the spot. 
 
 Catharine opened its breast with a single stroke of her 
 knife ; the fowl uttered three cries, and, after some convulsions, 
 expired. 
 
 " Always three cries ! " said Catharine ; " three signs of 
 death." 
 
 She then opened the body. 
 
 " And the liver inclining to the left, always to the left, a 
 triple death, followed by a downfall. 'T is terrible, Rene." 
 
 " We must see, madame, whether the presages from the 
 second will correspond with those of the first." 
 
 Rene unfastened the body of the fowl from the altar and 
 tossed it into a corner ; then he went to the other, which, fore- 
 seeing what its fate would be by its companion's, tried to escape 
 by running round the cell, and finding itself pent up in a 
 corner flew over Rene's head, and in its flight extinguished the 
 magic taper Catharine held. 
 
 " You see, Rene, thus shall our race be extinguished," said 
 the queen ; " death shall breathe upon it, and destroy it from 
 the face of the earth ! Yet three sons ! three sons ! " she mur- 
 mured, sorrowfully.
 
 206 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Rene took from her the extinguished taper, and went into 
 the adjoining room to relight it. 
 
 On his return he saw the hen hiding its head in the tunnel. 
 
 "This time," said Catharine, "I will prevent the cries, for 
 I will cut off the head at once." 
 
 And accordingly, as soon as the hen was bound, Catharine, 
 as she had said, severed the head at a single blow ; but in the 
 last agony the beak opened three times, and then closed for- 
 ever. 
 
 " Do you see," said Catharine, terrified, " instead of three 
 cries, three sighs ? Always three ! they will all three die. 
 All these spirits before they depart count and call three. Let 
 us now see the prognostications in the head." 
 
 She severed the bloodless comb from the head, carefully 
 opened the skull, and laying bare the lobes of the brain 
 endeavored to trace a letter formed in the bloody sinuosities 
 made by the division of the central pulp. 
 
 " Always so ! " cried she, clasping her hands ; " and this 
 time clearer than ever ; see here ! " 
 
 Rene approached. 
 
 " What is the letter ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " An H," replied Rene. 
 
 " How many times repeated ? " 
 
 Rene counted. 
 
 " Four," said he. 
 
 " Ay, ay ! I see it ! that is to say, HENRY IV. Oh," she 
 cried, flinging the knife from her, " I am accursed in my 
 posterity ! " 
 
 She was terrible, that woman, pale as a corpse, lighted by 
 the dismal taper, and clasping her bloody hands. 
 
 " He will reign ! " she exclaimed with a sigh of despair ; 
 " he will reign ! " 
 
 " He will reign ! " repeated Rene, plunged in meditation. 
 
 Nevertheless, the gloomy expression of Catharine's face soon 
 disappeared under the light of a thought which unfolded in 
 the depths of her mind. 
 
 "Rene," said she, stretching out her hand toward the per- 
 fumer without lifting her head from her breast, " Rene, is 
 there not a terrible history of a doctor at Perugia, who killed 
 at once, by the aid of a pomade, 1 his daughter and his 
 daughter's lover?" 
 
 1 The original has a I' aide d'une promenade.
 
 THE BLACK HENS. 207 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " And this lover was " 
 
 " Was King Ladislas, madame." 
 
 " Ah, yes ! " murmured she ; " have you any of the details 
 of this story ? " 
 
 " I have an old book which mentions it," replied Rene. 
 
 " Well, let us go into the other room, and you can show it 
 me." 
 
 They left the cell, the door of which Rene closed after him. 
 
 " Has your majesty any other orders to give me concerning 
 the sacrifices ? " 
 
 "No, Rene, I am for the present sufficiently convinced. 
 We will wait till we can secure the head of some criminal, and 
 on the day of the execution you must arrange with the hang- 
 man." 
 
 Rene bowed in token of obedience, then holding his candle 
 up he let the light fall on the shelves where his books stood, 
 climbed on a chair, took one down, and handed it to the queen. 
 
 Catharine opened it. 
 
 " What is this ? " she asked ; < On the Method of Raising 
 and Training Tercels, Falcons, and Gerfalcons to be Coura- 
 geous, Valiant, and always ready for Flight.' " 
 
 " Ah ! pardon me, madame, I made a mistake. That is a 
 treatise on venery written by a scientific man of Lucca for the 
 famous Castruccio Castracani. It stood next the other and 
 was bound exactly like it. I took down the wrong one. How- 
 ever, it is a very precious volume ; there are only three copies 
 extant one belongs to the library at Venice, the other was 
 bought by your grandfather Lorenzo and was offered by Pietro 
 de Medicis to King Charles VIII., when he visited Florence, 
 and the third you have in your hands." 
 
 " I venerate it," said Catharine, " because of its rarity, but 
 as I do not need it, I return it to you." 
 
 And she held out her right hand to Rene to receive the book 
 which she wished, while with her left hand she returned to 
 him the one which she had first taken. 
 
 This time Rene was not mistaken ; it was the volume she 
 wished. He stepped down, turned the leaves for a moment, 
 and gave it to her open. 
 
 Catharine went and sat down at a table. Rene placed the 
 magic taper near her and by the light of its bluish flame she 
 read a few lines in an undertone :
 
 208 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Good ! " said she, shutting the book ; " that is all I wanted 
 to know." 
 
 She rose from her seat, leaving the book on the table, but 
 bearing away the idea which had germinated in her mind and 
 would ripen there. 
 
 _ Rene waited respectfully, taper in hand, until the queen, 
 who seemed about to retire, should give him fresh orders or 
 ask fresh questions. 
 
 Catharine, with her head bent and her finger on her mouth, 
 walked up and down several times without speaking. 
 
 Then suddenly stopping before Rene, and fixing on him her 
 eyes, round and piercing like a hawk's : 
 
 " Confess you have made for her some love-philter," said she. 
 
 " For whom ? " asked Rene, starting. 
 
 La Sauve." 
 
 " I, madame ? " said Rene ; " never ! " 
 
 " Never ? " 
 
 " I swear it on my soul." 
 
 " There must be some magic in it, however, for he is desper- 
 ately in love with her, though he is not famous for his con- 
 stancy." 
 
 " Who, madame ? " 
 
 " He, Henry, the accursed, he who is to succeed my three 
 sons, he who shall one day be called Henry IV., and is yet 
 the son of Jeanne d'Albret." 
 
 And Catharine accompanied these words with a sigh which 
 made Rene shudder, for he thought of the famous gloves he 
 had prepared by Catharine's order for the Queen of Navarre. 
 
 " So he still runs after her, does he ? " said Rene. 
 
 " He does," replied the queen. 
 
 " I thought that the King of Navarre was quite in love with 
 his wife now." 
 
 " A farce, Re'ne', a farce ! I know not why, but every one is 
 seeking to deceive me. My daughter Marguerite is leagued 
 against me ; perhaps she, too, is looking forward to the death 
 of her brothers ; perhaps she, too, hopes to be Queen of 
 France." 
 
 "Perhaps so," re-echoed Rene", falling back into his own 
 reverie and echoing Catharine's terrible suspicion. 
 
 " Ha ! we shall see," said Catharine, going to the main 
 door, for she doubtless judged it useless to descend the secret 
 stair, now that she was sure that they were alone.
 
 THE BLACK HENS. 209 
 
 Rene preceded her, and in a few minutes they stood in the 
 perfumer's shop. 
 
 " You promised me some new kind of cosmetic for my hands 
 and lips, Rene ; the winter is at hand and you know how sen- 
 sitive my skin is to the cold." 
 
 " I have already provided for this, madame ; and I shall 
 bring you some to-morrow." 
 
 " You would not find me in before nine o'clock to-morrow 
 evening ; I shall be occupied with my devotions during the 
 day." 
 
 " I will be at the Louvre at nine o'clock, then, madame." 
 
 " Madame de Sauve has beautiful hands and beautiful lips," 
 said Catharine in a careless tone. " What pomade does she 
 use ? " 
 
 " For her hands ? " 
 
 " Yes, for her hands first." 
 
 " Heliotrope." 
 
 " What for her lips ? " 
 
 " She is going to try a new opiate of my invention. I was 
 going to bring your majesty a box of it at the same time." 
 
 Catharine mused an instant. 
 
 " She is certainly a very beautiful creature," said she, pur- 
 suing her secret thoughts ; " and the passion of the Bearnais 
 for her is not strange at all." 
 
 " And she is so devoted to your majesty," said Rene. " At 
 least I should think so." 
 
 Catharine smiled and shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " When a woman loves, is she faithful .to any one but her 
 lover ? You must have given her some philter, Rene." 
 
 " I swear I have not, madame." 
 
 " Well, well ; we '11 say no more about it. Show me this new 
 opiate you spoke of, that is to make her lips fresher and rosier 
 than ever." 
 
 Rene approached a shelf and showed Catharine six small 
 boxes of the same shape, i.e., round silver boxes ranged side 
 by side. 
 
 " This is the only philter she ever asked me for," observed 
 Rene ; " it is true, as your majesty says, I composed it 
 expressly for her, for her lips are so tender that the sun and 
 wind affect them equally." 
 
 Catharine opened one of the boxes ; it contained a most fas- 
 cinating carmine paste.
 
 210 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Give me some paste for my hands, Rene," said she ; " I 
 will take it away with me." 
 
 Rene took the taper, and went to seek, in a private com- 
 partment, what the queen asked for. As he turned, he fancied 
 that he saw the queen quickly conceal a box under her mantle ; 
 he was, however, too familiar with these little thefts of the 
 queen mother to have the rudeness to seem to perceive the 
 movement ; so wrapping the cosmetic she demanded in a paper 
 bag, ornamented with fleurs-de-lis : 
 
 " Here it is, madame," he said. 
 
 " Thanks, Rene," returned the queen ; then, after a moment's 
 silence : " Do not give Madame de Sauve that paste for a week 
 or ten days ; I wish to make the first trial of it myself." 
 
 And she prepared to go. 
 
 " Your majesty, do you desire me to accompany you ? " 
 asked Rene. 
 
 " Only to the end of the bridge," replied Catharine ; " my 
 gentlemen and my litter wait for me there." 
 
 They left the house, and at the end of the Rue de la Baril- 
 lerie four gentlemen on horseback and a plain litter were wait- 
 ing. 
 
 On his return Rene's first care was to count his boxes of 
 opiates. One was wanting. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 MADAME DE SAUVE'S APARTMENT. 
 
 CATHARINE was not deceived in her suspicions. Henry had 
 resumed his former habits and went every evening to Madame 
 de Sauve's. At first he accomplished this with the greatest 
 secrecy ; but gradually he grew negligent and ceased to take any 
 precautions, so that Catharine had no trouble in finding out 
 that while Marguerite was still nominally Queen of Navarre, 
 Madame de Sauve was the real queen. 
 
 At the beginning of this story we said a word or two about 
 Madame de Sauve's apartment ; but the door opened by Dariole 
 to the King of Navarre closed hermetically behind him, so that 
 these rooms, the scene of the Bearnais's mysterious amours, 
 are totally unknown to us. The quarters, like those furnished
 
 MADAME DE SAUVE' S APARTMENT. 211 
 
 by princes for their dependents in the palaces occupied by 
 them in order to have them within reach, were smaller and 
 less convenient than what she could have found in the city 
 itself. As the reader already knows, they were situated on 
 the second floor of the palace, almost immediately above those 
 occupied by Henry himself. The door opened into a corridor, 
 the end of which was lighted by an arched window with small 
 leaded panes, so that even in the loveliest days of the year only 
 a dubious light filtered through. During the winter, after three 
 o'clock in the afternoon, it was necessary to light a lamp, but as 
 this contained no more oil than in summer, it went out by ten 
 o'clock, and thus, as soon as the winter days arrived, gave the 
 two lovers the greatest security. 
 
 A small antechamber, carpeted with yellow flowered damask ; 
 a reception-room with hangings of blue velvet ; a sleeping- 
 room, the bed adorned with twisted columns and rose-satin 
 curtains, enshrining a ruelle ornamented with a looking-glass 
 set in silver, and two paintings representing the loves of Venus 
 and Adonis, such was the residence, or as one would say now- 
 adays the nest, of the lovely lady-in-waiting to Queen Catha- 
 rine de Medicis. 
 
 If one had looked sharply one would have found, oppo- 
 site a toilet-table provided with every accessory, a small door 
 in a dark corner of this room opening into a sort of oratory 
 where, raised on two steps, stood a priedieu. In this 
 little chapel on the wall hung three or four paintings, to the 
 highest degree spiritual, as if to serve as a corrective to 
 the two mythological pictures which we mentioned. Among 
 these paintings were hung on gilded nails weapons such as 
 women carried. 
 
 That evening, which was the one following the scenes which 
 we have described as taking place at Maitre Rene's, Madame 
 de Sauve, seated in her bedroom on a couch, was telling Henry 
 about her fears and her love, and was giving him as a proof 
 of her love the devotion which she had shown on the famous 
 night following Saint Bartholomew's, the night which, it will 
 be remembered, Henry spent in his wife's quarters. 
 
 Henry on his side was expressing his gratitude to her. 
 Madame de Sauve was charming that evening in her simple 
 batiste wrapper ; and Henry was very grateful. 
 
 At the same time, as Henry was really in love, he was 
 dreamy. Madame de Sauve, who had come actually to love
 
 212 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 instead of pretending to love as Catharine had commanded, 
 kept gazing at Henry to see if his eyes were in accord with 
 his words. 
 
 " Conie, now, Henry," she was saying, " be honest ; that night 
 which you spent in the boudoir of her majesty the Queen of 
 Navarre, with Monsieur de la Mole at your feet, did n't you feel 
 sorry that that worthy gentleman was between you and the 
 queen's bedroom ? " 
 
 " Certainly I did, sweetheart," said Henry, " for the only 
 way that I could reach this room where I am so comfortable, 
 where at this instant I am so happy, was for me to pass 
 through the queen's room." 
 
 Madame de Sauve smiled. 
 
 " And you have not been there since ? " 
 
 " Only as I have told you." 
 
 " You will never go to her without informing me ? " 
 
 " Never." 
 
 " Would you swear to it ? " 
 
 " Certainly I would, if I were still a Huguenot, but " 
 
 " But what ? " 
 
 " But the Catholic religion, the dogmas of which I am now 
 learning, teach me that one must never take an oath." 
 
 " Gascon ! " exclaimed Madame de Sauve, shaking her head. 
 
 " But now it is my turn, Charlotte," said Henry. " If I ask 
 you some questions, will you answer ? " 
 
 " Certainly I will," replied the young woman, " I have noth- 
 ing to hide from you." 
 
 " Now look here, Charlotte," said the king, " explain to me 
 just for once how it came about that after the desperate resist- 
 ance which you made to me before my marriage, you became 
 less cruel to me who am an awkward Bearnais, an absurd pro- 
 vincial, a prince too poverty-stricken, indeed, to keep the 
 jewels of his crown polished." 
 
 " Henry," said Charlotte, " you are asking the explanation 
 of the enigma which the philosophers of all countries have 
 been trying to determine for the past three thousand years ! 
 Henry, never ask a woman why she loves you ; be satisfied 
 with asking, ' Do you love me ? ' ' 
 
 " Do you love me, Charlotte ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " I love you," replied Madame de Sauve, with a fascinating 
 smile, dropping her pretty hand into her lover's. 
 
 Henry retained the hand.
 
 MADAME DE SAUVE' S APARTMENT. 213 
 
 " But," he went on to say, following out his thought, " sup- 
 posing I have guessed the word which the philosophers have 
 been vainly trying to find for three thousand years at least 
 as far as you are concerned, Charlotte ? " 
 
 Madame de Sauve blushed. 
 
 " You love me," pursued Henry, " consequently I have noth- 
 ing else to ask you and I consider myself the happiest man in 
 the world. But you know happiness is always accompanied by 
 some lack. Adam, in the midst of Eden, was not perfectly 
 happy, and he bit into that miserable apple which imposed 
 upon us all that love for novelty that makes every one spend 
 his life in the search for something unknown. Tell me, my 
 darling, in order to help me to find mine, did n't Queen Catha- 
 rine at first bid you love me ? " 
 
 " Henry," exclaimed Madame de Sauve, " speak lower when 
 you speak of the queen mother ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Henry, with a spontaneity and boldness 
 which deceived Madame de Sauve herself, " it was a good 
 thing formerly to distrust her, kind mother that she is, but 
 then we were not on good terms ; but now that I am her 
 daughter's husband " 
 
 " Madame Marguerite's husband ! " exclaimed Charlotte, 
 flushing with jealousy. 
 
 " Speak low in your turn," said Henry ; " now that I ani her 
 daughter's husband we are the best friends in the world. 
 What was it they wanted ? For me to become a Catholic, so 
 it seems. Well, grace has touched me, and by the intercession 
 of Saint Bartholomew I have become one. We live together 
 like brethren in a happy family like good Christians." 
 
 " And Queen Marguerite ? " 
 
 " Queen Marguerite ? " repeated Henry ; " oh, well, she is the 
 link uniting us." 
 
 " But, Henry, you said that the Queen of Navarre, as a 
 reward for the devotion I showed her, had been generous to 
 me. If what you say is true, if this generosity, for which I 
 have cherished deep gratitude toward her, is genuine, she is a 
 connecting link easy to break. So you cannot trust to this sup- 
 port, for you have not made your pretended intimacy impose 
 on any one." 
 
 " Still I do rest on it, and for three months it has been the 
 bolster on which I have slept."
 
 214 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS, 
 
 " Then, Henry ! " cried Madame de Sauve, " you have de- 
 ceived me, and Madame Marguerite is really your wife." 
 
 Henry smiled. 
 
 " There, Henry," said Madame de Sauve, " you have given 
 me one of those exasperating smiles which make me feel the 
 cruel desire to scratch your eyes out, king though you are." 
 
 " Then," said Henry, " I seem to be imposing now by means 
 of this pretended friendship, since there are moments when, 
 king though I am, you desire to scratch out my eyes, because 
 you believe that it exists ! " 
 
 "Henry ! Henry !" said Madame de Sauve, " I believe that 
 God himself does not know what your thoughts are." 
 
 " My sweetheart," said Henry, " I think that Catharine first 
 told you to love me, next, that your heart told you the same 
 thing, and that when those two voices are speaking to you, you 
 hear only your heart's. Now here I am. I love you and love 
 you with my whole heart, and that is the very reason why if 
 ever I should have secrets I should not confide them to you, 
 for fear of compromising you, of course, for the queen's 
 friendship is changeable, it is a mother-in-law's." 
 
 This was not what Charlotte expected ; it seemed to her 
 that the thickening veil between her and her lover every time 
 she tried to sound the depths of his bottomless heart was assum- 
 ing the consistency of a wall, and was separating them from 
 each other. So she felt the tears springing to her eyes as he 
 made this answer, and as it struck ten o'clock just at that 
 moment : 
 
 " Sire," said Charlotte, " it is my bed-time ; my duties call 
 me very early to-morrow morning to the queen mother." 
 
 " So you drive me away to-night, do you, sweetheart ? " 
 
 " Henry, I am sad. As I am sad, you would find me tedious 
 and you would not like me any more. You see that it is better 
 for you to withdraw." 
 
 " Very good," said Henry, " I will withdraw if you insist 
 upon it, only, venire saint gris ! you must at least grant me 
 the favor of staying for your toilet." 
 
 " But Queen Marguerite, sire ! won't you keep her waiting if 
 you remain ? " 
 
 " Charlotte," replied Henry, gravely, " it was agreed between 
 us that we should never mention the Queen of Navarre, but it 
 seems to me that this evening we have talked about nothing 
 but her."
 
 MADAME DE SAUVE' S APARTMENT. 215 
 
 Madame de Sauve sighed ; then she went and sat down 
 before her toilet-table. Henry took a chair, pulled it along 
 toward the one that served as his mistress's seat, and setting 
 one knee on it while he leaned on the back of the other, he 
 said : 
 
 "Come, my good little Charlotte, let me see you make 
 yourself beautiful, and beautiful for me whatever you said. 
 Heavens ! What things ! What scent-bottles, what powders, 
 what phials, what perfumery boxes ! " 
 
 " It seems a good deal," said Charlotte, with a sigh, " and 
 yet it is too little, since with it all I have not as yet found the 
 means of reigning exclusively over your majesty's heart." 
 
 " There ! " exclaimed Henry ; " let us not fall back on poli- 
 tics ! What is that little fine delicate brush ? Should it not 
 be for painting the eyebrows of my Olympian Jupiter ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire," replied Madame de Sauve, " and you have 
 guessed at the first shot ! " 
 
 " And that pretty little ivory rake ? " 
 
 " 'T is for parting the hair ! " 
 
 " And that charming little silver box with a chased cover ? " 
 
 " Oh, that is something Rene sent, sire ; 't is the famous 
 opiate which he has been promising me so long to make still 
 sweeter the lips which your majesty has been good enough 
 sometimes to find rather sweet." 
 
 And Henry, as if to test what the charming woman said, 
 touched his lips to the ones which she was looking at so atten- 
 tively in the mirror. Now that they were returning to the 
 field of coquetry, the cloud began to lift from the baroness's 
 brow. She took up the box which had thus been explained, 
 and was just going to show Henry how the vermilion salve was 
 used, when a sharp rap at the antechamber door startled the 
 two lovers. 
 
 " Some one is knocking, madame," said Dariole, thrusting 
 her head through the-opening of the portiere. 
 
 " Go and find out who it is, and come back,'' said Madame 
 de Sauve. Henry and Charlotte looked at each other anxiously, 
 and Henry was beginning to think of retiring to the oratory, 
 in which he had already more than once taken refuge, when 
 Dariole reappeared. 
 
 " Madame," said she, " it is Maitre Rene, the perfumer." 
 
 At this name Henry frowned, and involuntarily bit his 
 lips.
 
 216 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Do you want me to refuse Mm admission ? " asked Char- 
 lotte. 
 
 " No ! " said Henry ; " Maitre Rene never does anything 
 without having previously thought about it. If he comes to 
 you, it is because he has a reason for coming." 
 
 " In that case, do you wish to hide ? " 
 
 " I shall be careful not to," said Henry, " for Maitre Rene 
 knows everything ; therefore Maitre Rene knows that I am 
 here." 
 
 " But has not your majesty some reason for thinking his 
 presence painful to you ? " 
 
 " I ! " said Henry, making an effort, which in spite of his 
 will-power he could not wholly dissimulate. " I ! none at all ! 
 we are rather cool to each other, it is true ; but since the night 
 of Saint Bartholomew we have been reconciled." 
 
 " Let him enter ! " said Madame de Sauve to Dariole. 
 
 A moment later Rene appeared, and took in the whole room 
 at a glance. 
 
 Madame de Sauve was still before her toilet-table. 
 
 Henry had resumed his place on the couch. 
 
 Charlotte was in the light, and Henry in the shadow. 
 
 " Madame," said Rene, with respectful familiarity, " I have 
 come to offer my apologies." 
 
 " For what, Rene ? " asked Madame de Sauve, with that 
 condescension which pretty women always use towards the 
 world of tradespeople who surround them, and whose duty it 
 is to make them more beautiful. 
 
 " Because long ago I promised to work for these pretty lips, 
 and because " 
 
 " Because you did not keep your promise until to-day ; is that 
 it ? " asked Charlotte. 
 
 Until to-day ? " repeated Rene". 
 
 " Yes ; it was only to-day, in fact, this evening, that I re- 
 ceived the box you sent me." 
 
 " Ah ! indeed ! " said Rene, looking strangely at the small 
 opiate box on Madame de Sauve's table, which was precisely 
 like those he had in his shop. " I thought so ! " he murmured. 
 " And you have used it ? " 
 
 "No, not yet. I was just about to try it as you entered." 
 Rene's face assumed a dreamy expression which did not 
 escape Henry. Indeed, very few things escaped him.
 
 MADAME DE SAUVE'S APARTMENT. 217 
 
 " Well, Rene, what are you going to do now ? " asked the 
 king. 
 
 " I ? Nothing, sire," said the perfumer, " I am humbly wait- 
 ing until your majesty speaks to me, before taking leave of 
 Madame la Baronne." 
 
 " Come, now ! " said Henry, smiling. " Do you need my word 
 to know that it is a pleasure to me to see you ? " 
 
 Rene glanced around him, made a tour of the room as if 
 to sound the doors and the curtains with his eye and ear, 
 then he stopped and standing so that he could embrace at a 
 glance both Madame de Sauve and Henry : 
 
 " I do not know it," said he, thanks to that admirable 
 instinct which like a sixth sense guided him during the first 
 part of his life in the midst of impending dangers. Henry 
 felt that at that moment something strangely resembling a 
 struggle was passing through the mind of the perfumer, and 
 turned towards him, still in the shadow, while the Florentine's 
 face was in the light. 
 
 " You here at this hour, Rene ? " said he. 
 
 " Am I unfortunate enough to be in your majesty's way ? " 
 asked the perfumer, stepping back. 
 
 "No, but I want to know one thing." 
 
 " What, sire ? " 
 
 " Did you think you would find me here ? " 
 
 " I was sure of it." 
 
 " You wanted me, then ? " 
 
 " I am glad to have found you, at least." 
 
 " Have you something to say to me ? " persisted Henry. 
 
 " Perhaps, sire ! " replied Rene. 
 
 Charlotte blushed, for she feared that the revelation which 
 the perfumer seemed anxious to make might have something 
 to do with her conduct towards Henry. Therefore she acted 
 as though, having been wholly engrossed with her toilet, she 
 had heard nothing, and interrupted the conversation. 
 
 " Ah ! really, Rene," said she, opening the opiate box, " you 
 are a delightful man. This cake is a marvellous color, and 
 since you are here I am going to honor you by experimenting 
 with your new production." 
 
 She took the box in one hand, and with the other touched 
 the tip of her finger to the rose paste, which she was about to 
 raise to her lips. 
 
 Rene gave a start.
 
 218 MARGUERITE DE VALO1S. 
 
 The baroness smilingly lifted the opiate to her mouth. 
 
 Rene turned pale. 
 
 Still in the shadow, but with fixed and glowing eyes, Henry 
 lost neither the action of the one nor the shudder of the other. 
 
 Charlotte's hand had but a short distance to go before it 
 would touch her lips when Rene seized her arm, just as Henry 
 rose to do so. 
 
 Henry fell back noiselessly 011 the couch. 
 
 " One moment, madame," said Rene, with a constrained 
 smile, " you must not use this opiate without special direc- 
 tions." 
 
 " Who will give me these directions ? " 
 
 i/' 
 
 "When?" 
 
 " As soon as I have finished saying what I have to say to 
 his Majesty the King of Navarre." 
 
 Charlotte opened her eyes wide, understanding nothing of 
 the mysterious language about her, and sat with the opiate pot 
 in one hand, gazing at the tip of her finger, red with the 
 rouge. 
 
 Henry rose, and moved by a thought which, like all those of 
 the young king, had two sides, one which seemed superficial, 
 the other which was deep, he took Charlotte's hand and red as 
 it was, made as though to rai^e it to his lips. 
 
 " One moment," said Rene, quickly, " one moment ! Be kind 
 enough, madame, to rinse your lovely hands with this soap 
 from Naples which I neglected to send you at the same time 
 as the rouge, and which I have the honor of bringing you now." 
 
 Drawing from its silver wrapping a cake of green soap, he 
 put it in a vermilion basin, poured some water over it, and, 
 with one knee on the floor, offered it to Madame de Sauve. 
 
 " Why, really, Maitre Rene 1 , I no longer recognize you," said 
 Henry, " you are so gallant that you far outstrip every court 
 fop." 
 
 " Oh, what a delicious perfume ! " cried Charlotte, rubbing 
 her beautiful hands with the pearly foam made by the scented 
 cake. 
 
 Re'ne performed his office of courtier to the end. He offered 
 a napkin of fine Frisian linen to Madame de Sauve, who dried 
 her hands on it. 
 
 " Now," said the Florentine to Henry. " Let your mind be 
 at rest, monseigneur."
 
 "SIRE, YOU SHALL BE KING." 219 
 
 Charlotte gave her hand to Henry, who kissed it, and while 
 she half turned on her chair to listen to what Rene was about 
 to say, the King of Navarre returned to his couch, more con- 
 vinced than ever that something unusual was passing through 
 the mind of the perfumer. 
 
 " Well ? " asked Charlotte. The Florentine apparently 
 made an effort to collect all his strength, and then turned 
 towards Henry. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 " SIRE, YOU SHALL BE KING." 
 
 " SIRE," said Rene to Henry, " I have come to speak of 
 something which has been on my mind for some time." 
 
 " Perfumery ? " said Henry, smiling. 
 
 "Well, yes, sire, perfumery," replied Rene, with a singu- 
 lar nod of acquiescence. 
 
 " Speak, I am listening to you. This is a subject which has 
 always interested me deeply." 
 
 Rene* looked at Henry to try, in spite of his words, to read 
 the impenetrable thought ; but seeing that it was perfectly 
 impossible, he continued : 
 
 " One of my friends, sire, has just arrived from Florence. 
 This friend is greatly interested in astrology." 
 
 " Yes," interrupted Henry, " I know that it is a passion 
 with Florentines." 
 
 " In company with the foremost students of the world he 
 has read the horoscopes of the chief gentlemen of Europe." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " And as the house of Bourbon is at the head of the highest, 
 descended as it is from the Count of Clermont, the fifth son of 
 Saint Louis, your majesty must know that your horoscope has 
 not been overlooked." 
 
 Henry listened still more attentively. 
 
 " Do you remember this horosope ? " said the King of 
 Navarre, with a smile which he strove to render indifferent. 
 
 " Oh ! " replied Rene, shaking his head, " your horoscope is 
 not one to be forgotten." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Henry, ironically.
 
 220 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, sire ; according to this horoscope your majesty is to 
 have a most brilliant destiny." 
 
 The young prince gave a lightning glance which was almost 
 at once lost under cover of indifference. 
 
 " Every Italian oracle is apt to flatter," said Henry ; " but 
 he who flatters lies. Are there not those who have predicted 
 that I would command armies ? I ! " He burst out laughing. 
 But an observer less occupied with himself than Rene would 
 have noticed and realized the effort of this laugh. 
 
 " Sire," said Rene, coldly, " the horoscope tells better than 
 that." 
 
 " Does it foretell that at the head of one of these armies I 
 shall win battles ? " 
 
 " Better than that, sire." 
 
 "Well," said Henry; "you will see that I shall be con- 
 queror ! " 
 
 " Sire, you shall be king." 
 
 " Well ! Venire saint gris ! " exclaimed Henry, repressing 
 a violent beating of his heart ; " am I not that already ? " 
 
 " Sire, my friend knows what he promises ; not only will 
 you be king, but you will reign." 
 
 " In that case," said Henry, in the same mocking tone, 
 "your friend must have ten crowns of gold, must he not, 
 Rene ? for such a prophecy is very ambitious, especially in 
 times like these. Well, Rene, as I am not rich, I will give 
 your friend five now and five more when the prophecy is ful- 
 filled." 
 
 " Sire," said Madame de Sauve, " do not forget that you are 
 already pledged to Dariole, and do not " overburden yourself 
 with promises." 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, " I hope when this time comes that 
 I shall be treated as a king, and that they will be satisfied if I 
 keep half of my promises." 
 
 " Sire," said Rene, " I will continue." 
 
 " Oh, that is not all, then ? " said Henry. " Well, if I am 
 emperor, I will give twice as much." 
 
 " Sire, my friend has returned from Florence with the horo- 
 scope, which he renewed in Paris, and which always gives the 
 same result ; and he told me a secret." 
 
 " A secret of interest to his majesty ? " asked Charlotte, 
 quickly. 
 
 " I think so," said the Florentine.
 
 "SIRE, YOU SHALL BE KING" 221 
 
 " He is searching for words," thought Henry, without in any- 
 way coming to Rene's rescue. " Apparently the thing is 
 difficult to tell." 
 
 " Speak, then, " went on the Baroness de Sauve ; " what is it 
 about ? " 
 
 " It is about all the rumors of poisoning," said the Floren- 
 tine, weighing each of his words separately, " it is about all the 
 rumors of poisoning which for some time have been circulated 
 around court." A slight movement of the nostrils of the King 
 of Navarre was the only indication of his increased attention 
 at the sudden turn in the conversation. 
 
 " And your friend the Florentine, " said Henry, " knows 
 something about this poisoning?" 
 
 " Yes, sire. " 
 
 " How can you tell me a secret which is not yours, Rene, 
 especially when the secret is such an important one ? " said 
 Henry, in the most natural tone he could assume. 
 
 " This friend has some advice to ask of your majesty." 
 
 "Of me?" 
 
 " What is there surprising in that, sire ? Remember the old 
 soldier of Actiuin who, having a law-suit on hand, asked advice 
 of Augustus." 
 
 "Augustus was a lawyer, Rene, and I am not. " 
 
 " Sire, when my friend confided this secret to me, your 
 majesty still belonged to the Calvinist party, of which you 
 were the chief head, and of which Monsieur de Conde was the 
 second." 
 
 " Well ? " said Henry. 
 
 " This friend hoped that you would use your all-powerful 
 influence over Monsieur de Conde and beg him not to be 
 hostile to him." 
 
 " Explain this to me, Rene, if you wish me to understand it," 
 said Henry, without betraying the least change in his face or 
 voice. 
 
 " Sire, your majesty will understand at the first word. This 
 friend knows all the particulars of the attempt to poison Mon- 
 seigneur de Conde." 
 
 " There has been an attempt to poison the Prince de 
 Conde ? " exclaimed Henry with a well-assumed astonishment. 
 " Ah, indeed, and when was this ? " 
 
 Rene looked fixedly at the king, and replied merely by 
 these words :
 
 222 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " A week ago, your majesty." 
 
 " Some enemy ? " asked the king. 
 
 " Yes," replied Rene, " an enemy whom your majesty knows 
 and who knows your majesty." 
 
 " As a matter of fact," said Henry, " I think I have heard 
 this mentioned, but I am ignorant of the details which your 
 friend has to reveal. Tell them to me." 
 
 " Well, a perfumed apple was offered to the Prince of 
 Conde. Fortunately, however, when it was brought to him 
 his physician was with him. He took it from the hands of 
 the messenger and smelled it to test its odor and soundness. 
 Two days later a gangrene swelling of the face, an extravasa- 
 tion of the blood, a running sore which ate away his face, were 
 the price of his devotion or the result of his imprudence." 
 
 " Unfortunately," replied Henry, " being half Catholic al- 
 ready, I have lost all influence over Monsieur de Conde. Your 
 friend was wrong, therefore, in addressing himself to me." 
 
 " It was not only in regard to the Prince de Conde that your 
 majesty could be of use to my friend, but in regard to the Prince 
 de Porcian also, the brother of the one who^was poisoned." 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Charlotte, " do you know, Rene, that 
 your stories partake of the gruesome ? You plead at a poor 
 time. It is late, your conversation is death-like. Really, your 
 perfumes are worth more." Charlotte again extended her 
 hand towards the opiate box. 
 
 " Madame," said Rene, " before testing that, as you are about 
 tp do, hear what cruel results wicked men can draw from it." 
 
 " Really, Rene," said the baroness, " you are funereal this 
 evening." 
 
 Henry frowned, but he understood that Rene wished to 
 reach a goal which he did not yet see, and he resolved to push 
 towards this end the conversation which awakened in him 
 such painful memories. 
 
 " And," he continued, " you knew the details of the poison- 
 ing of the Prince de Porcian ? " 
 
 " Yes," said he. " It is known that every night he left a 
 lamp burning near his bed ; the oil was poisoned and he was 
 "asphyxiated." 
 
 Henry clinched his fingers, which were damp with perspi- 
 ration. 
 
 " So," he murmured, " he whom you call your friend knows 
 not only the details of the poisoning, but the author of it ? "
 
 " SIRE, YOU SHALL BE KING'' 223 
 
 " Yes, and it is for this reason that he wished to ask you 
 if you would use over the Prince of Porcian the remains of 
 that influence and have the murderer pardoned for the death 
 of his brother." 
 
 " Unfortunately," replied Henry, " still being half Hugue- 
 not, I have no influence over Monsieur le Prince de Porcian ; 
 your friend therefore would have done wrong in speaking to 
 me." 
 
 "But what do you think of the intentions of Monsieur le 
 Prince de Conde and of Monsieur de Porcian ? " 
 
 " How should I know their intentions, Rene ? God, whom 
 I may know, has not given me the privilege of reading their 
 hearts." 
 
 " Your majesty must ask yourself," said the Florentine 
 calmly. " Is there not in the life of your majesty some event 
 so gloomy that it can serve as a test of clemency, so painful 
 that it is a touchstone for generosity ? " 
 
 These words were uttered in a tone which made Charlotte 
 herself tremble. It was an allusion so direct, so pointed, that 
 the young woman turned aside to hide her blush, and to avoid 
 meeting Henry's eyes. Henry made a supreme effort over 
 himself ; his forehead, which during the words of the Floren- 
 tine wore threatening lines, unbent, and he changed the digni- 
 fied, filial grief which tightened his heart into vague meditation. 
 
 " In my life," said he, " a gloomy circumstance no, Rene, 
 no ; I remember in my youth only folly and carelessness 
 mingled with more or less cruel necessity imposed on every 
 one by the demands of nature and the proofs of God." 
 
 Rene in turn became constrained as he glanced from Henry 
 to Charlotte, as though to rouse the one and hold back the 
 other ; for Charlotte had retiirned to her toilet to hide the 
 anxiety caused by their conversation, and had again extended 
 her hand towards the opiate box. 
 
 " But, sire, if you were the brother of the Prince of Porcian 
 or the son of the Prince of Conde", and if they had poisoned 
 your brother or assassinated your father " Charlotte uttered 
 a slight cry and raised the opiate to her lips. Rene saw the 
 gesture, but this time he stopped her neither by word nor 
 gesture ; he merely exclaimed : 
 
 " In Heaven's name, sire, answer ! Sire, if you were in their 
 place what would you do ? " 
 
 Henry recovered himself. With trembling hand he wiped
 
 224 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 his forehead, on which stood drops of cold perspiration, and 
 rising to his full height, replied in the midst of the silence 
 which until then had held Rene and Charlotte : 
 
 " If I were in their place, and if I were sure of being king, 
 that is, sure of representing God on earth, I would act like 
 God, I should pardon." 
 
 " Madame," cried Rene, snatching the opiate from the hands 
 of Madame de Sauve, " madame, give me back this box ; my 
 messenger boy, I see, has made a mistake in it. To-morrow I 
 will send you another." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 
 
 THE following day there was to be a hunt in the forest of 
 Saint Germain. 
 
 Henry had ordered a small Bearnais horse to be made ready 
 for him ; that is, to be saddled and bridled at eight o'clock in 
 the morning. He had intended giving this horse to Madame 
 de Sauve, but he wanted to try it first. At a quarter before 
 eight the horse was ready. On the stroke of eight Henry 
 came down to the court-yard. The horse, proud and fiery in 
 spite of its small size, pricked up its ears and pawed the 
 ground. The weather was cold and a light frost covered the 
 pavement. Henry started to cross the court-yard to the stables 
 where the horse and the groom were waiting, when a Swiss 
 soldier whom he passed standing sentinel at the gate presented 
 arms and said : 
 
 "God keep his Majesty the King of Navarre." 
 
 At this wish and especially at the tone in which it was 
 uttered the Bearnais started. 
 
 He turned and stepped back. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " he murmured. 
 
 " Yes, sire, De Mouy." 
 
 " What are you doing here ? " 
 
 " Looking for you." 
 
 " Why are you looking for me ? " 
 
 " I must speak to your majesty." 
 
 " Unfortunately," said the king, approaching him, " do you 
 not know you risk your head ? "
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 225 
 
 " I know it." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well, I am here." 
 
 Henry turned slightly pale, for he knew that he shared the 
 danger run by this rash young man. He looked anxiously about 
 him, and stepped back a second time, no less quickly than he had 
 done at first. He had seen the Due d'Alenc,on at a window. 
 
 At once changing his manner Henry took the musket from 
 the hands of De Mouy, standing, as we have said, sentinel, and 
 while apparently measuring it : 
 
 " De Mouy," said he, " it is certainly not without some very 
 strong motive that you have come to beard the lion in his den 
 in this way ? " 
 
 " No, sire, I have waited for you a week ; only yesterday I 
 heard that your majesty was to try a horse this morning, and 
 I took my position at the gate of the Louvre." 
 
 " But how in this uniform ? " 
 
 "The captain of the company is a Protestant and is one of 
 my friends." 
 
 " Here is your musket ; return to your duty of sentinel. 
 We are watched. As I come back I will try to say a word 
 to you, but if I do not speak, do not stop me. Adieu." 
 
 De Mouy resumed his measured walk, and Henry advanced 
 towards the house. 
 
 "What is that pretty little animal ? " asked the Due d'Alen- 
 qon from his window. 
 
 " A horse I am going to try this morning," replied Henry. 
 
 " But that is not a horse for a man." 
 
 " Therefore it is intended for a beautiful woman." 
 
 " Take care, Henry ; you are going to be indiscreet, for we 
 shall see this beautiful woman at the hunt ; and if I do not 
 know whose knight you are, I shall at least know whose equerry 
 you are." 
 
 " No, my lord, you will not know," said Henry, with his 
 feigned good-humor, " for this beautiful woman cannot go out 
 this morning ; she is indisposed." 
 
 He sprang into the saddle. 
 
 " Ah, bah ! " cried d'Alengon, laughing ; " poor Madame de 
 Sauve." 
 
 " Francois ! Francois ! it is you who are indiscreet." 
 
 " What is the matter with the beautiful Charlotte ? " went 
 on the Due d'Alen^on.
 
 226 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 11 Why," replied Henry, spurring his horse to a gallop, and 
 making him describe a graceful curve ; " why, I have no idea, 
 a heaviness in the head, according to what Dariole tells me. 
 A torpor of the whole body ; in short, general debility." 
 
 " And will this prevent you from joining us ? " asked the 
 duke. 
 
 " I ? Why should it ? " asked Henry. " You know that I 
 dote on a hunt, and that nothing could make me miss one." 
 
 " But you will miss this one, Henry," said the duke, after 
 he had turned and spoken for an instant with some one un- 
 noticed by Henry, who addressed Franqois from the rear of 
 the room, " for his Majesty tells me that the hunt cannot take 
 place." 
 
 " Bah ! " said Henry, in the most disappointed tone imagin- 
 able. " Why not ? " 
 
 " Very important letters from Monsieur de Nevers, it seems. 
 There is a council among the King, the queen mother, and my 
 brother the Due d'Anjou." 
 
 "Ah! ah!" said Henry to himself, "could any news have 
 come from Poland ? " 
 
 Then aloud : 
 
 " In that case," he continued, " it is useless for me to run 
 any further risk on this frost. Good-by, brother ! " 
 
 Pulling up his horse in front of De Mouy : 
 
 " My friend," said he, " call one of your comrades to finish 
 your sentinel duty for you. Help the groom ungirth my 
 horse. Put the saddle over your head and carry it to the 
 saddler's ; there is some embroidery to be done on it, which 
 there was not time to finish for to-day. You Avill bring an 
 answer to my apartments." 
 
 De Mouy hastened to obey, for the Due d'Alenqon had dis- 
 appeared from his window, and it was evident that he suspected 
 something. 
 
 In fact, scarcely had De Mouy disappeared through the gate 
 before the Due d'Alengon came in sight. A real Swiss was in 
 De Mouy's place. D'Alengon looked carefully at the new 
 sentinel ; then turning to Henry : 
 
 " This is not the man you were talking with just now, is it, 
 brother?" 
 
 " The other is a young man who belongs to my household 
 and whom I had enter the Swiss guards. I have just given 
 him a commission and he has gone to carry it out."
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 227 
 
 " Ah ! " said the duke, as if this reply sufficed. " And how 
 is Marguerite ? " 
 
 " I am going to ask her, brother." 
 
 " Have you not seen her since yesterday ? " 
 
 "No. I went to her about eleven o'clock last night, but 
 Gillonne told me that she was tired and had gone to sleep." 
 
 " You will not find her in her room. She has gone out." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Henry. "Very likely. She was to go to the 
 Convent de I'Annonciade." 
 
 There was no way of carrying the conversation further, as 
 Henry had seemingly made up his mind simply to answer. 
 The two brothers-in-law therefore departed, the Due d'Alen- 
 qon to go for news, he said, the King of Navarre to return to 
 his room. 
 
 Henry had been there scarcely five minutes when he heard 
 a knock at the door. 
 
 " Who is it ? " he asked. 
 
 " Sire," replied a voice which Henry recognized as that of 
 De Mouy, " it is the answer from the saddler." 
 
 Henry, visibly moved, bade the young man enter and closed 
 the door behind him. 
 
 " Is it you, De Mouy ? " said he ; "I hoped that you would 
 reflect." 
 
 " Sire," replied De Mouy, " I have reflected for three 
 months ; that is long enough. Now it is time to act." Henry 
 made a gesture of impatience. 
 
 " Fear nothing, sire, we are alone, and I will make haste, 
 for time is precious. Your majesty can tell in a word all that 
 the events of the year have lost to the cause of religion. Let 
 us be clear, brief, and frank." 
 
 " I am listening, my good De Mouy," replied Henry, seeing 
 that it was impossible for him to elude the explanation. 
 
 " Is it true that your majesty has abjured the Protestant 
 religion ? " 
 
 " It is true," said Henry. 
 
 " Yes, but is it with your lips or at heart ? " 
 
 " One is always grateful to God when he saves our life," 
 replied Henry, turning the question as he had a habit of doing 
 in such cases, " and God has evidently saved me from this 
 cruel danger." 
 
 " Sire," resumed De Mouy, " let us admit one thing." 
 
 " What ? "
 
 228 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " That your abjuring is not a matter of conviction, but of 
 calculation. You have abjured so that the King would let you 
 live, and not because God has saved your life." 
 
 " Whatever the cause of my conversion, De Mouy," replied 
 Henry, " I am none the less a Catholic." 
 
 " Yes, but shall you always be one ? The first chance you 
 have for resuming your freedom of life and of conscience, will 
 you not resume it ? Well ! this opportunity has presented 
 itself. La Eochelle has revolted, Roussillon and Beam are 
 merely waiting for one word before acting. In. Guyenne 
 every one cries for war. Merely tell me if you were forced into 
 taking this step, and I will answer for the future." 
 
 " A gentleman of my birth is not forced, my dear De Mouy. 
 That which I have done, I have done voluntarily. " 
 
 " But, sire," said the young man, his heart oppressed with 
 this resistance which he had not expected, " you do not re- 
 member that in acting thus you abandon and betray us." 
 
 Henry was unmoved. 
 
 " Yes," went on De Mouy, " yes, you betray us, sire, for 
 several of us, at the risk of our lives, have come to save your 
 honor and your liberty ; we are prepared to offer you a throne, 
 sire ; do you realize this ? not only liberty, but power ; a 
 throne of your own choice, for in two months you could choose 
 between Navarre and France." 
 
 " De Mouy," said Henry, covering his eyes, which in spite 
 of himself had emitted a flash at the above suggestion, " De 
 Moiiy, I am safe, I am a Catholic, I am the husband of 
 Marguerite, I am the brother of King Charles, I am the son- 
 in-law of my good mother Catharine. De Mouy, in assuming 
 these various positions, I have calculated their opportunities 
 and also their obligations." 
 
 " But, sire," said De Mouy, " what must one believe ? I am 
 told that your marriage is not contracted, that at heart you 
 are free, that the hatred of Catharine " 
 
 " Lies, lies," interrupted the Bearnais hastily. " Yes, you 
 have been shamefully deceived, my friend ; this dear Marguerite 
 is indeed my wife, Catharine is really my mother, and King 
 Charles IX. is the lord and master of my life and of my heart." 
 
 De Mouy shuddered, and an almost scornful smile passed 
 over his lips. 
 
 " In that case, sire," said he dropping his arms dejectedly, 
 and trying to fathom that soul filled with shadows, " this is
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 229 
 
 the answer I am to take back to my brothers, I shall tell 
 them that the King of Navarre extends his hand and opens his 
 heart to those who have cut our throats ; I shall tell them that 
 he has become the flatterer of the queen mother and the friend 
 of Maurevel." 
 
 " My dear De Mouy," said Henry, " the King is coming out 
 of the council chamber, and I must go and find out from him 
 the reasons for our having had to give up so important a thing 
 as a hunt. Adieu ; imitate me, my friend, give up politics, 
 return to the King and attend mass." 
 
 Henry led or rather pushed into the antechamber the young 
 man, whose amazement was beginning to change into fury. 
 
 Scarcely was the door closed before, unable any longer to 
 resist the longing to avenge himself on something in defence 
 of some one, De Mouy twisted his hat between his hands, threw 
 it upon the floor, and stamping on it as a bull would stamp on 
 the cloak of the matador : 
 
 " By Heaven ! " he cried, " he is a wretched prince, and I 
 have half a mind to kill myself here in order to stain him for- 
 ever with my blood." 
 
 " Hush, Monsieur de Mouy ! " said a voice through a half- 
 open door ; " hush ! some one besides myself might hear you." 
 
 De Mouy turned quickly and perceived the Due d'Alenqon 
 enveloped in a cloak, advancing into the corridor with pale 
 face, to make sure that he and De Mouy were entirely 
 alone. 
 
 " Monsieur le Due d'Alenqon," cried De Mouy, " I am lost ! " 
 
 " On the contrary," murmured the prince, " perhaps you 
 have found what you are looking for, and the proof of this is 
 that I do not want you to kill yourself here as you had an idea 
 of doing just now. Believe me, your blood can in all proba- 
 bility be put to better use than to redden the threshold of the 
 King of Navarre." 
 
 At these words the duke threw back the door which he had 
 been holding half open. 
 
 " This chamber belongs to two of my gentlemen," said the 
 duke. " No one will interrupt us here. We can, therefore, 
 talk freely. Come in, monsieur." 
 
 " I, here, monseigiieur ! " cried the conspirator in amaze- 
 ment. He entered the room, the door of which the Due 
 d'Alencon closed behind him no less quickly than the King of 
 Navarre had done.
 
 230 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 De Mouy entered, furious, exasperated, cursing. But by 
 degrees the cold and steady glance of the young Due Franqois 
 had the same effect on the Huguenot captain as does the 
 enchanted lake which dissipates drunkenness. 
 
 " Monseigneur," said he, " if I understand correctly, your 
 highness wishes to speak to me." 
 
 " Yes, Monsieur de Mouy," replied Francois. " In spite of 
 your disguise I thought I recognized you, and when you 
 presented arms to my brother Henry, I recognized you 
 perfectly. Well, De Mouy, so you are not pleased with the 
 King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Monseigneur ! " 
 
 " Come, come ! tell me frankly, unless you distrust me ; 
 perhaps I am one of your friends. " 
 
 " You, monseigneur ? " 
 
 " Yes, I ; so speak." 
 
 " I do not know what to say to your highness, monseigneur. 
 The matter I had to discuss with the King of Navarre con- 
 cerned interests which your highness would not comprehend. 
 Moreover," added De Mouy with a manner which he strove to 
 render indifferent, " they were mere trifles." 
 
 " Trifles ? " said the duke. 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur." 
 
 " Trifles, for which you felt you would risk your life by 
 coining back to the Louvre, where you know your head is 
 worth its weight in gold. We are not ignorant of the fact 
 that you, as well as the King of Navarre and the Prince 
 de Conde", are one of the leaders of the Huguenots." 
 
 " If you think that, monseigneur, act towards me as the brother 
 of King Charles and the son of Queen Catharine should act." 
 
 " Why should you wish me to act in that way, when I have 
 told you that I am a friend of yours ? Tell me the truth." 
 
 " Monseigneur," said De Mouy, " I swear to you " 
 
 " Do not swear, monseigneur ; the reformed church forbids 
 the taking of oaths, and especially of false oaths." 
 
 De Mouy frowned. 
 
 " I tell you I know all," continued the duke. 
 
 De Mouy was still silent. 
 
 " You doubt it ? " said the prince with affected persistence. 
 " Well, my dear De Mouy, we shall have to be convinced. 
 Come, now, you shall judge if I am wrong. Did you or 
 did you not propose to my brother-in-law Henry, in his room
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 231 
 
 just now," the duke pointed to the chamber of the Bearnais, 
 " your aid and that of your followers to reinstate him in his 
 kingdom of Navarre ? " 
 
 De Mouy looked at the duke with a startled gaze. 
 
 " A proposition which he refused with terror." 
 
 De Mouy was still amazed. 
 
 " Did you then invoke your old friendship, the remembrance 
 of a common religion ? Did you even hold out to the King of 
 Navarre a very brilliant hope, a hope so brilliant that he was 
 dazzled by it the hope of winning the crown of France ? 
 Come, tell me ; am I well informed ? Is that what you came 
 to propose to the Bearnais ? " 
 
 " Monseigneur ! " cried De Mouy, " this is so true, that I 
 now wonder if I should not tell your royal highness that you 
 have lied ! to arouse in this chamber a combat without mercy, 
 and thus to make sure of the extinction of this terrible secret 
 by the death of both of us." 
 
 " Gently, my brave De Mouy, gently ! " said the Due d'Alen- 
 <jon without changing countenance, or without taking the 
 slightest notice of this terrible threat. 
 
 " The secret will die better with us if we both live than if 
 one of us were to die. Listen to me, and stop pulling at the 
 handle of your sword. For the third time I .say that you are 
 with a friend. Now tell me, did not the King of Navarre re- 
 fuse everything you offered him ? " 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur, and I admit it, because my avowal can 
 compromise only myself." 
 
 " On leaving his room did you not stamp on your hat, and cry 
 out that he was a cowardly prince, and unworthy of being your 
 leader ? " 
 
 " That is true, monseigneur, I said that." 
 
 " Ah ! you did ? you admit it at last ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " And this is still your opinion ? " 
 
 " More than ever, monseigneur." 
 
 " Well, am I, Monsieur de Mouy, I, the third son of Henry 
 II., I, a son of France, am I a good enough gentleman to 
 command your soldiers ? Come, now ; do you think me loyal 
 enough for you to trust my word ? " 
 
 " You, monseigneur ! you, the leader of the Huguenots ! " 
 
 " Why not ? This is an epoch of conversions, you know. 
 Henry has turned Catholic ; I can turn Protestant."
 
 232 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, no doubt, monseigneur ; so I am waiting for you to 
 explain to me " 
 
 " Nothing is easier ; and in two words I can tell you the 
 policy of every one. My brother Charles kills the Huguenots 
 in order to reign more freely. My brother of Anjou lets them 
 be killed because he is to succeed my brother Charles, and be- 
 cause, as you know, my brother Charles is often ill. But with 
 me it is entirely different. I shall never reign at least in 
 France as long as I have two elder brothers. The hatred of 
 my mother and of my two brothers more than the law of nature 
 keeps me from the throne. I have no claim to any family 
 affection, any glory, or any kingdom. Yet I have a heart as 
 great as my elder brother's. Well, De Mouy, I want to look 
 about and with my sword cut a kingdom out of this France 
 they cover with blood Now this is what I want, De Mouy, 
 listen : I want to be King of Navarre, not by birth but by 
 election. And note well that you have no objection to this 
 system. I am not a usurper, since my brother refuses your 
 offers, and buries himself in his torpor, and pretends aloud 
 that this kingdom of Navarre is only a myth. With Henry of 
 Beam you have nothing. With me, you have a sword and a 
 name, Francois d'Alenqon, son of France, protector of all 
 his companions or all his accomplices, as you are pleased to 
 call them. Well, what do you say to this offer, Monsieur de 
 Mouy ? " 
 
 "I say that it dazzles me, monseigneur." 
 
 " De Mouy, De Mouy, we shall have many obstacles to over- 
 come. Do not, therefore, from the first be so exacting and so 
 obstinate towards the son of a king and the brother of a king 
 who comes to you." 
 
 "Monseigneur, the matter would be already settled if my 
 opinion were the only one to be considered, but we have a 
 council, and brilliant as the offer may be, perhaps even on that 
 very account the leaders of the party will not consent to the 
 plan unconditionally." 
 
 " That is another thing, and your answer comes from an 
 honest heart and a prudent mind. From the way I have just 
 acted, De Mouy, you must have recognized my honesty. Treat 
 me, therefore, on your part as a man who is esteemed, not as a 
 man who is nattered. De Mouy, have I any chance ? " 
 
 " On my word, monseigneur, since your highness wants
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 233 
 
 me to give my opinion, your highness has every chance, since 
 the King of Navarre has refused the offer I have just made 
 him. But I tell you again, monseigneur, I shall have to con- 
 fer with our leaders." 
 
 " Do so, monsieur," replied D'Alenqon. " But when shall I 
 have an answer ? " 
 
 De Mouy looked at the prince in silence. Then apparently 
 coming to a decision : 
 
 " Monseigneur," said he, " give me your hand. I must have 
 the hand of a son of France touch mine to make sure that I 
 shall not be betrayed." 
 
 The duke not only extended his hand towards De Mouy, but 
 grasped De Mouy's and pressed it. 
 
 " Now, monseigneur, I am satisfied," said the young Hugue- 
 not. " If we were betrayed I should say that you had nothing 
 to do with it; otherwise, monseigneur, however slightly you 
 might be concerned in the treason, you would be dishonored." 
 
 " Why do you say that to me, De Mouy, before telling me 
 that you will bring me the answer from your leaders ? " 
 
 " Because, monseigneur, asking me when you would have 
 your answer was the same as asking me where are the leaders, 
 and because if I said to you, ' This evening,' you would know 
 that the chiefs were hiding in Paris." As he uttered these 
 words, with a gesture of mistrust, De Mouy fixed his piercing 
 glance on the false vacillating eyes of the young man. 
 
 " Well, well," said the duke, " you still have doubts, Mon- 
 sieur de Mouy. But I cannot expect entire confidence from 
 you at first. You will understand me better later. We shall 
 be bound by common interests which will rid you of all suspi- 
 cion. You say this evening, then, Monsieur de Mouy ? " 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur, for time presses. Until this evening. 
 But where shall I see you, if you please ? " 
 
 " At the Louvre, here in this room ; does that suit you ? " 
 
 " Is this occupied ? " said De Mouy, glancing at the two beds 
 opposite each other. 
 
 " By two of my gentlemen, yes." 
 
 " Monseigneur, it seems to me imprudent to return to the 
 Louvre." 
 
 " Why so ? " 
 
 " Because if you have recognized me, others also may have 
 as good eyes as your highness, and may recognize me. How-
 
 234 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 ever, I will return to the Louvre if you will grant me what I 
 am about to ask of you." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 " A passport." 
 
 "A passport from me found on you would ruin me and 
 would not save you. I can do nothing for you unless in the 
 eyes of the world we are strangers to each other ; the slightest 
 relation between us, noticed by my mother or my brother, 
 would cost me my life. You were therefore protected by my 
 interest for myself from the moment I compromised myself 
 with the others, as I am now compromising myself with you. 
 Free in my sphere of action, strong if I am unknown, so long 
 as I myself remain impenetrable, I will guarantee you every- 
 thing. Do not forget this. Make a fresh appeal to your 
 courage, therefore. Try on my word of honor what you tried 
 without the word of honor of my brother. Come this evening 
 to the Louvre." 
 
 " But how do you wish me to come ? I can not venture in 
 these rooms in my present uniform it is for the vestibules 
 and the courts. My own is still more dangerous, since every- 
 one knows me here, and since it in no way disguises me." 
 
 " Therefore I will look wait I think that yes, here 
 it is." 
 
 The duke had looked around him, and his eyes stopped at 
 La Mole's clothes, thrown temporarily on the bed ; that is, on 
 the magnificent cherry-colored cloak embroidered in gold, of 
 which we have already spoken ; on a cap ornamented with a 
 white plume surrounded by a rope of gold and silver marguer- 
 ites, and finally on a pearl-gray satin and gold doublet. 
 
 " Do you see this cloak, this plume, and this doublet ? " said 
 the duke ; " they belong to Monsieur de la Mole, one of my 
 gentlemen, a fop of the highest type. The cloak was the rage 
 at court, and when he wore it, Monsieur de la Mole was rec- 
 ognized a hundred feet away. I will give you the address of the 
 tailor who made it for him. By paying him double what it is 
 worth, you will have one exactly like it by this evening. You 
 will remember the name of Monsieur de la Mole, will you not ? " 
 
 Scarcely had the Due d'AlenQon finished making the sug- 
 gestion, when a step was heard approaching in the corridor, 
 and a key was turned in the lock. 
 
 " Who is that ? " cried the duke, rushing to the door and 
 drawing the bolt.
 
 A NEW CONVERT. 235 
 
 " By Heaven ! " replied a voice from outside ; " I find that a 
 strange question. Who are you yourself ? This is pleasant ! 
 I return to my own room, and am asked who I am ! " 
 
 " Is it you, Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Yes, it is I, without a doubt. But who are you ? " 
 
 While La Mole was expressing his surprise at finding his 
 room occupied, and while he was trying to discover its new 
 occupant, the Due d'Alenqon turned quickly, one hand on the 
 lock, the other on the key. 
 
 " Do you know Monsieur de la Mole ? " he asked of De Mouy. 
 
 " No, monseigneur." 
 
 " Does he know you ? " 
 
 I think not." 
 
 " In that case it will be all right. Appear to be looking 
 out of the window." 
 
 De Mouy obeyed in silence, for La Mole was beginning to 
 grow impatient, and was knocking on the door with all his 
 might. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon threw a last glance towards De Mouy, 
 and seeing that his back was turned, he opened the door. 
 
 "Monseigneur le Due!" cried La Mole, stepping back in 
 surprise. " Oh, pardon, pardon, monseigneur ! " 
 
 " It is nothing, monsieur ; I needed your room to receive a 
 visitor." 
 
 " Certainly, monseigneur, certainly. But allow me, I beg 
 you, to take my cloak and hat from the bed, for I lost both 
 to-night on the quay of the Greve, where I was attacked by 
 robbers." 
 
 " In fact, monsieur," said the prince, smiling, himself 
 handing to La Mole the articles asked for, " you are very 
 poorly accommodated here. You have had an encounter with 
 some very obstinate fellows, apparently ! " 
 
 The duke handed to La Mole the cloak and the hat. The 
 young man bowed and withdrew to the antechamber to change 
 his clothes, paying no attention to what the duke was doing 
 in his room ; for it was an ordinary occurrence at the Louvre 
 for the rooms of the gentlemen to be used as reception-rooms 
 by the prince to whom the latter were attached. 
 
 De Mouy then approached the duke, and both listened for 
 La Mole to finish and go out ; but when the latter had changed 
 his clothes, he himself saved them all further trouble by draw- 
 ing near to the door.
 
 236 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Pardon me, monseigneur," said he, " but did your high- 
 ness meet the Count de Coconnas on your way ? " 
 
 " No, count, and yet he was at service this morning." 
 
 " In that case they will assassinate me," said La Mole to 
 himself as he went away. 
 
 The duke heard the noise of his retreating steps; then 
 opening the door and drawing De Mouy after him : 
 
 " Watch him going away," said he, " and try to copy his 
 inimitable walk." 
 
 " I will do my best," replied De Mouy. " Unfortunately I 
 am not a lady's man, but a soldier." 
 
 "At all events I shall expect you in this corridor before 
 midnight. If the chamber of my gentlemen is free, I will 
 receive you there ; if not, we will find another." 
 
 " Yes, monseigneur." 
 
 " Until this evening then, before midnight." 
 
 " Until this evening, before midnight." 
 
 " Ah ! by the way, De Mouy, swing your right arm a good 
 deal as you walk. This is a peculiar trick of Monsieur de la 
 Mole's." 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERC12E. 
 
 LA MOLE hurriedly left the Louvre, and set out to search 
 Paris for poor Coconnas. 
 
 His first move was to repair to the Rue de PArbre Sec and 
 to enter Maitre La Huriere's, for La Mole remembered that he 
 had often repeated to the Piedmontese a certain Latin motto 
 which was meant to prove that Love, Bacchus, and Ceres are 
 gods absolutely necessary to us, and he hoped that Coconnas, 
 to follow up the Roman aphorism, had gone to the Belle Etoilv 
 after a night which must have been as full for his friend as it 
 had been for himself. 
 
 La Mole found nothing at La Huriere's except the reminder 
 of the assumed obligation. A breakfast which was offered 
 with good grace was eagerly accepted by our gentleman, in 
 spite of his anxiety. His stomach calmed in default of his 
 mind, La Mole resumed his walk, ascending the bank of the 
 Seine like a husband searching for his drowned wife. On reach-
 
 >,; 
 
 'MONSIEUR DE LA MOLE !" EXCLAIMED A SWEET VOICE FROM THE LITTER
 
 RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE. 237 
 
 ing the quay of the Greve, he recognized the place where, as he 
 had said to Monsieur d'Alengon, he had been stopped during 
 his nocturnal tramp three or four hours before. This was no 
 unusual thing in Paris, older by a hundred years than that in 
 which Boileau was awakened at the sound of a ball piercing his 
 window shutter. A bit of the plume from his hat remained 
 on the battle-field. The sentiment of possession is innate in 
 man. La Mole had ten plumes each more beautiful than the 
 last, and yet he stopped to pick up that one, or, rather, the sole 
 fragment of what remained of it, and was contemplating it 
 with a pitiful air when he heard the sound of heavy steps 
 approaching, and rough voices ordering him to stand aside. 
 La Mole raised his head and perceived a litter preceded by 
 two pages and accompanied by an outrider. La Mole thought 
 he recognized the litter, and quickly stepped aside. 
 
 The young man was not mistaken. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ! " exclaimed a sweet voice from the 
 litter, while a hand as white and as smooth as satin drew back 
 the curtains. 
 
 " Yes, madame, in person," replied La Mole bowing. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole with a plume in his hand," con- 
 tinued the lady in the litter. " Are you in love, my dear 
 monsieur, and are you recovering lost traces ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame," replied La Mole, " I am in love, and very 
 much so. But just now these are my own traces that I have 
 found, although they are not those for which I am searching. 
 But will your majesty permit me to inquire after your 
 health ? " 
 
 "It is excellent, monsieur; it seems to me that I have 
 never been better. This probably comes from the fact of my 
 having spent the night in retreat." 
 
 " Ah ! in retreat ! " said La Mole, looking at Marguerite 
 strangely. 
 
 " Well, yes ; what is there surprising in that ? " 
 
 " May I, without indiscretion, ask you in what convent ? " 
 
 " Certainly, monsieur, I make no mystery of it ; in the con- 
 vent of the Annonciade. But what are you doing here with 
 this startled air ? " 
 
 "Madame, I too passed the night in retreat, and in the 
 vicinity of the same convent. This morning I am looking for 
 my friend who has disappeared, and in seeking him I came 
 upon this plume."
 
 238 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Whom does it belong to ? Really, you frighten me about 
 him ; the place is a bad one." 
 
 " Your majesty may be reassured ; the plume belongs to me. 
 I lost it here about half-past five, as I was escaping from the 
 hands of four bandits who tried with all their might to murder 
 me, or at least I think they did." 
 
 Marguerite repressed a quick gesture of terror. 
 
 " Oh ! tell me about it ! " said she. 
 
 " Nothing is easier, madame. It was, as I have had the 
 honor to tell your majesty, about five o'clock in the morning." 
 
 " And you were already out at five o'clock in the morn- 
 ing ? " interrupted Marguerite. 
 
 " Your majesty will excuse me," said La Mole, " I had not 
 yet returned." 
 
 " Ah ! Monsieur de la Mole ! you returned at five o'clock 
 in the morning ! " said Marguerite with a smile which was 
 fatal for every one, and which La Mole was unfortunate 
 enough to find adorable ; " you returned so late, you merited 
 this punishment! " 
 
 " Therefore I do not complain, madame," said La Mole, bow- 
 ing respectfully, " and I should have been cut to pieces had I 
 not considered myself a hundred times more fortunate than I 
 deserve to be. But I was returning late, or early, as your 
 majesty pleases, from that fortunate house in which I had 
 spent the night in retreat, when four cut- throats rushed from 
 the Rue de la Mortellerie and pursued me with indescribably 
 long knives. It is grotesque, is it not, madame ? but it is 
 true I had to run away, for I had forgotten my sword." 
 
 " Oh ! I understand," said Marguerite, with an admirably 
 naive manner, " and you have come back to find your sword ? " 
 
 La Mole looked at Marguerite as though a suspicion flashed 
 through his mind. 
 
 " Madame, I would return to some place and very willingly 
 too, since my sword is an excellent blade, but I do not know 
 where the house is." 
 
 " What, monsieur ? " exclaimed Marguerite. " You do not 
 know where the house is in which you passed the night ? " 
 
 " No, madame, and may Satan exterminate me if I have 
 any idea ! " 
 
 " Well this is strange ! your story, then, is a romance ? " 
 
 " A true romance, as you say, madame." 
 
 " Tell it to me."
 
 RUE T1ZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE. 239 
 
 " It is somewhat long." 
 
 " Never mind, I have time." 
 
 " And, above all, it is improbable." 
 
 " Never mind, no one could be more credulous than I." 
 
 " Does your majesty command me ? " 
 
 " Why, yes ; if necessary." 
 
 " In that case I obey. Last evening, having left two 
 idorable women with whom we had spent the evening on the 
 Saint Michel bridge, we took supper at Maitre La Huriere's." 
 
 ' " In the first place," said Marguerite, perfectly naturally, 
 '' who is Maitre La Huriere ? " 
 
 " Maitre La Huriere, madame," said La Mole, again glanc- 
 ing at Marguerite with the suspicion he had already x felt, 
 '< Maitre La Huriere is the host of the inn of the Belle Etoile 
 in the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec." 
 
 " Yes, I can see it from here. You were supping, then, at 
 Maitre La Huriere's with your friend Coconnas, no doubt ? " 
 
 "Yes, madame, with my friend Coconnas, when a man en- 
 tered and handed us each a note." 
 
 " Were they alike ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " Exactly alike. They contained only a single line : 
 
 " ( You are awaited in the Rue Saint Antoine, opposite the 
 Rue Saint Jouy. ' ' 
 
 " And had the note no signature ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 "No; only three words three charming words which 
 three times promised the same thing, that is to say, a three- 
 fold happiness." 
 
 " And what were these three words ? " 
 
 " Eros, Cupido, Amor" 
 
 " In short, three sweet words ; and did they fulfil what they 
 promised ? " 
 
 " Oh ! more, madame, a hundred times more ! " cried 
 La Mole with enthusiasm. 
 
 " Continue. I am curious to know who was waiting for you 
 in the Rue Saint Antoine, opposite the Rue de Jouy." 
 
 " Two duennas, each with a handkerchief in her hand. 
 They said we must let them bandage our eyes. Your majesty 
 may imagine that it was not a difficult thing to have done. We 
 bravely extended our necks. My guide turned me to the left, my 
 friend's guide turned him to the right, and we were separated." 
 " And then ? " continued Marguerite, who seemed deter- 
 mined to carry out the investigation to the end.
 
 240 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " I do not know," said La Mole, " where his guide led my 
 friend. To hell, perhaps. As to myself, all I know is that 
 mine led me to a place I consider paradise." 
 
 " And whence, no doubt, your too great curiosity drove 
 you ? " 
 
 " Exactly, madame ; you have the gift of divination. I 
 waited, impatiently, for daylight, that I might see where I 
 was, when at half-past four the same duenna returned, again 
 bandaged my eyes, made me promise not to try to raise my 
 bandage, led me outside, accompanied me for a hundred feet, 
 made me again swear not to remove my bandage until I had 
 counted fifty more. I counted fifty, and found myself in the 
 Rue Saint Antoine, opposite the Rue de Jouy." 
 
 And then " 
 
 "Then, madame, I returned so happy that I paid no atten- 
 tion to the four wretches, from whose clutches I had such 
 difficulty in escaping. Now, madame," continued La Mole, 
 " in finding a piece of my plume here, my heart trembled with 
 joy, and I picked it up, promising myself to keep it as a 
 souvenir of this glad night. But in the midst of my happi- 
 ness, one thing troubles me ; that is, what may have become 
 of my companion." 
 
 " Has he not returned to the Louvre ? " 
 
 " Alas ! no, madame ! I have searched everywhere, in the 
 atoile d'Or, on the tennis courts, and in many other respect- 
 able places ; but no Annibal, and no Coconnas " 
 
 As La Mole uttered these words he accompanied them with 
 a gesture of hopelessness, extended his arms and opened his 
 cloak, underneath which at various points his doublet was seen, 
 the lining of which showed through the rents like so many 
 elegant slashes. 
 
 " Why, you were riddled through and through ! " exclaimed 
 Marguerite. 
 
 " Riddled is the word ! " said La Mole, who was not sorry 
 to turn to his account the danger he had run. " See, madame, 
 see ! " 
 
 " Why did you not change your doublet at the Louvre, since 
 you returned there ? " asked the queen. 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " because some one was in my room." 
 
 " Some one in your room ? " said Marguerite, whose eyes ex- 
 pressed the greatest astonishment ; " who was in your room ? " 
 
 " His higlmess."
 
 RUE T1ZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE. 241 
 
 " Hush ! " interrupted Marguerite. 
 
 The young man obeyed. 
 
 " Qui ad lecticam meam stant ? " she asked La Mole. 
 " Duo pueri et unus eques." 
 
 " Optime, barbari ! " said she. " Die, Moles, quern inveneris 
 in biculo tuo ? " 
 
 (l Franciscum ducem." 
 
 " Agentem ? " 
 
 " Nescio quid" 
 
 " Quocum ? " 
 
 " Cum iynoto." ' 
 
 " That is strange," said Marguerite. " So you were unable 
 to find Coconnas ? " she continued, without evidently thinking 
 of what she was saying. 
 
 " So, madame, as I have had the honor of telling you, I am 
 really dying of anxiety." 
 
 " Well," said Marguerite, sighing, " I do not wish to detain 
 you longer in your search for him ; I do not know why I 
 think so, but he will find himself ! Never mind, however, go, 
 in spite of this." 
 
 The queen laid a finger on her lips. But as beautiful Mar- 
 guerite had confided no secret, had made no avowal to La 
 Mole, the young man understood that this charming gesture, 
 meaning only to impose silence on him, must have another 
 significance. 
 
 The procession resumed its march, and La Mole, intent on 
 following out his investigation, continued to ascend the quay 
 as far as the Rue Long Pont which led him to the Rue Saint 
 Antoine. 
 
 Opposite the Rue Jouy he stopped. It was there that the 
 previous evening the two duennas had bandaged his eyes and 
 those of Coconnas. He had turned to the left, then he had 
 counted twenty steps. He repeated this and found himself 
 opposite a house, or rather a wall, behind which rose a house ; 
 in this wall was a door with a shed over it ornamented with 
 large nails and loop-holes. 
 
 " Who are standing by nay litter? " 
 
 1 Two pages and an outrider." 
 
 'Good! They are barbarians! Tell me, La Mole, whom did yon find in your room ?" 
 
 'Duke Francois." 
 
 ' Doing what?" 
 
 'I do not know." 
 
 ' Wilh whom? " 
 
 ' With a stranger."
 
 242 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The house was in the Rue Cloche Percee, a small narrow street 
 beginning in the Rue Saint Antoine and ending in the Rue 
 Roi de Sicile. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried La Mole, " it was here I would swear 
 to it in extending my hand, as I came out, I felt the nails 
 in the door, then I descended two steps. The man who ran 
 by crying ' Help ! ' who was killed in the Rue Roi de Sicile, 
 passed just as I reached the first. Let us see, now." 
 
 La Mole went to the door and knocked. The door opened 
 and a mustached janitor appeared. 
 
 " Was ist das ? " (Who is that ?) asked the janitor. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said La Mole, " we are Swiss, apparently. " My 
 friend," he continued, assuming the most charming manner, 
 " I want my sword which I left in this house in which 1 
 spent the night." 
 
 "Ich verstehe nicht" (I do not understand,) replied the 
 janitor. 
 
 " My sword," went on La Mole. 
 
 " Ich verstehe nicht," repeated the janitor. 
 
 " which I left my sword which I left " 
 
 " Ich verstehe nicht" 
 
 " in this house, in which I spent the night." 
 
 " Gehe zum Teufel ! " (Go to the devil ! ) And he slammed 
 the door in La Mole's face. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried La Mole, " if I had this sword I have 
 just asked for, I would gladly put it through that fellow's 
 body. But I have not, and this must wait for another day." 
 
 Thereupon La Mole continued his way to the Rue Roi de 
 Sicile, took about fifty steps to the right, then to the left 
 again, and came to the Rue Tizon, a little street running 
 parallel with the Rue Cloche Percee, and like it in every way. 
 More than this, scarcely had he gone thirty steps before he 
 came upon the door with the large nails, with its shed and 
 loop-holes, the two steps and the Avail. One would have said 
 that the Rue Cloche Percee had returned to see him pass by. 
 
 La Mole then reflected that he might have mistaken his 
 right for his left, and he knocked at this door, to make the 
 same demand he had made at the other. But this time he 
 knocked in vain. The door was not opened. 
 
 Two or three times La Mole made the same trip, which 
 naturally led him to the idea that the house had two entrances, 
 one on the Rue Cloche Percee, the other on the Rue Tizon.
 
 RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERC&E. 243 
 
 But this conclusion, logical as it was, did not bring him back 
 his sword, and did not tell him where his friend was. For an 
 instant he conceived the idea of buying another sword and 
 cutting to pieces the wretched janitor who so persistently refused 
 to speak anything but German, but he thought this porter 
 belonged to Marguerite, and that if Marguerite had chosen thus, 
 it was because she had her reasons, and that it might be dis- 
 agreeable for her to be deprived of him. 
 
 Now La Mole would not have done anything disagreeable to 
 Marguerite for anything in the world. 
 
 Fearing to yield to this temptation he returned about two 
 o'clock in the afternoon to the Louvre. 
 
 As his room was not occupied this time he could enter it. 
 The matter was urgent enough as far as his doublet was con- 
 cerned, which, as the queen had already remarked to him, was 
 considerably torn. 
 
 He therefore at once approached his bed to substitute the 
 beautiful pearl-gray doublet for the one he wore, when to his 
 great surprise the first thing he perceived near the pearl-gray 
 doublet was the famous sword which he had left in the Rue 
 Cloche Percee. 
 
 La Mole took it and turned it over and over. 
 
 It was really his. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said he, " is there some magic under all this ? " 
 Then with a sigh, " Ah! if poor Coconnas could be found like 
 my sword ! " 
 
 Two or three hours after La Mole had ceased his circular 
 tramp around the small double house, the door on the Rue 
 Tizon had opened. It was about five o'clock in the evening, 
 consequently night had closed in. 
 
 A woman wrapped in a long cloak trimmed with fur, accom- 
 panied by an attendant, came out of the door which was held 
 open by a duenna of forty, and hurrying rapidly along to the 
 Rue Roi de Sicile, knocked at a small door of the Hotel 
 Argenson, which opened for her ; she then left by the main 
 entrance of the same hotel which opened on to the Vieille 
 Rue du Temple, went toward a small postern in the Hotel de 
 Guise, unlocked it with a key which she carried in her pocket, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Half an hour later a young man with bandaged eyes left 
 by the same door of the small house, guided by a woman who 
 led him to the corner of the Rue Geoffrey Lasnier and La
 
 244 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 Mortellerie. There she asked, him to count fifty steps and 
 then remove his bandage. 
 
 The young man carefully obeyed the order, and when he 
 had counted fifty, removed the handkerchief from his eyes. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried he, .looking around. " I'll be hanged 
 if I know where I am ! Six o'clock ! " he cried, as the clock 
 of Notre-Dame struck, " and poor La Mole, what can have be- 
 come of him ? Let us run to the Louvre, perhaps they may 
 have news of him there." 
 
 Coconnas hurriedly descended the Rue La Mortellerie, and 
 reached the gates of the Louvre in less time than it would 
 have taken an ordinary horse. As he went he jostled and 
 knocked down the moving hedge of brave bourgeois who were 
 walking peacefully about the shops of the Place de Baudoyer, 
 and entered the palace. 
 
 There he questioned the Swiss and the sentinel. The 
 former thought they had seen Monsieur de la Mole enter that 
 morning, but had not seen him go out. 
 
 The sentinel had been there only an hour and a half and 
 had seen nothing. 
 
 He ran to his room and hastily threw open the door ; but he 
 found only the torn doublet of La Mole on the bed, which in- 
 creased his fears still more. 
 
 Then he thought^ of La Huriere and hastened to the worthy 
 inn of the Belle Etoile. La Huriere had seen La Mole ; La 
 Mole had breakfasted there. Coconnas was thus wholly re- 
 assured, and as he was very hungry he ordered supper. 
 
 Conconnas was in the two moods necessary for a good 
 supper his mind was relieved and his stomach was empty ; 
 therefore he supped so well that the meal lasted till eight 
 o'clock. Then strengthened by two bottles of light wine from 
 Anjou, of which he was very fond and which he tossed off 
 with a sensual enjoyment shown by winks of his eyes and 
 repeated smacking of his lips, he set out again in his search 
 for La Mole, accompanying it through the crowd by kicks and 
 knocks of his feet in proportion to the increasing friendship 
 inspired in him by the comfort which always follows a good 
 meal. 
 
 That lasted one hour, during which time Coconnas searched 
 every street in the vicinity of the Quay of the Greve, the Port 
 au Charbon, the Rue Saint Antoine, and the Rues Tizon and 
 Cloche Perce*e, to which he thought his friend might have re-
 
 RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE. 245 
 
 turned. Finally he bethought himself that there was a place 
 through which he had to pass, the gate of the Louvre, and he 
 resolved to wait at this gate until his return. 
 
 He was not more than a hundred steps from the Louvre, and 
 had just put on her feet a woman whose husband he had 
 already 'overturned on the Place Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois, 
 when in the distance he perceived before him in the doubtful 
 light of a great lantern near the drawbridge of the Louvre the 
 cherry-colored velvet cloak and the white plume of his friend, 
 who like a shadow was disappearing under the gate and re- 
 turning the sentinel's greeting. 
 
 The famous cherry-colored cloak was so well known to 
 every one that he could not be mistaken in it. 
 
 " Well ! by Heaven ! " cried Coconnas ; " it is really he this 
 time, and he is returning. Well ! well ! La Mole, my friend ! 
 Plague it ! Yet I have a good voice. How does it happen 
 that he does not hear me ? Fortunately I have as good legs 
 as I have voice, so I will join him." 
 
 In this hope Coconnas set cut as fast as he could, and 
 reached the Louvre in an instant, but, fast as he was, just as 
 he stepped into the court the red cloak, which seemed in haste 
 also, disappeared in the vestibule. 
 
 " Hi there ! La Mole ! " cried Coconnas, still hastening. 
 " Wait for me. It is I, Coconnas. What in the devil are you 
 hurrying so for ? Are you running away ? " 
 
 In fact the red cloak, as though it had wings, scaled the 
 stairs rather than mounted them. 
 
 " Ah ! you will not hear me ! " cried Coconnas. " I ain 
 angry with you ! Are you sorry ? Well, the devil ! I can run 
 no further." It was from the foot of the staircase that Cocon- 
 nas hurled this final apostrophe to the fugitive whom he gave 
 up following with his feet, but whom he still followed with his 
 eyes through the screw of the stairway, and who had reached 
 Marguerite's chamber. Suddenly a woman came out of this 
 room and took the arm of the man Coconnas was following. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said Coconnas, " that looked very much like 
 Queen Marguerite. He was expected. In that case it is dif- 
 ferent. I understand why he did not answer me." 
 
 Crouching down by the banister he looked through the 
 opening of the stairway. Then after a few words in a low 
 voice he saw the red cloak follow the queen to her apartments. 
 
 " Good ! good ! " said Coconuas, " that is it. I was not uiis-
 
 246 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 taken. There are moments when the presence of our best 
 friend is necessary to us, and dear La Mole has one of those 
 moments." 
 
 And Coconnas ascending the stairs softly sat down on a 
 velvet bench which ornamented the landing place, and said to 
 himself : 
 
 " Very well, instead of joining him I will wait yes ; but," 
 he added, " I think as he is with the Queen of Navarre I may 
 have to wait long it is cold, by Heaven ! Well ! well ! I can 
 wait just as well in my room. He will have to come there 
 sometime." 
 
 Scarcely had he finished speaking, and started to carry out 
 his resolution, when a quick light step sounded above him, 
 accompanied by a snatch of song so familiar that Coconnas at 
 once turned his head in the direction of the step and the song. 
 It was La Mole descending from the upper story, where his 
 room was. When he perceived Coconnas, he began to descend 
 the stairs four steps at a time, and this done he threw himself 
 into his arms. 
 
 " Oh, Heavens ! is it you ? " said Coconnas. " How the devil 
 did you get out ? " 
 
 " By the Rue Cloche Percee, by Heavens ! " 
 
 " No, I do not mean that house." 
 
 What then ? " 
 
 " The queen's apartment." 
 
 " The queen's apartment ? " 
 
 " The Queen of Navarre." 
 
 " I have not been there." 
 
 " Come now ! " 
 
 " My dear Annibal," said La Mole, " you are out of your 
 head. I have come from my room where I have been waiting 
 for you for two hours." 
 
 " You have come from your room ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Was it not you I followed from the Place du Louvre ? " 
 
 " When ? " 
 
 "Just now." 
 
 "No." 
 
 " It was not you who disappeared under the gate ten minutes 
 ago ? " 
 
 "No."
 
 RUE TIZON AND THE RUE CLOCHE PERCEE. 247 
 
 " It was not you who just ascended the stairs as if you were 
 pursued by a legion of devils ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas, " the wine of the Belle Etoile 
 is not poor enough to have so completely turned my head. I 
 tell you that I have just seen your cherry-colored cloak and 
 your white plume under the gate of the Louvre, that I fol- 
 lowed both to the foot of the stairway, and that your cloak, 
 your plume, everything, to your swinging arm, was expected 
 here by a lady whom I greatly suspect to be the Queen of 
 Navarre, and who led you through that door, which, unless I 
 am mistaken, is that of the beautiful Marguerite." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried La Mole, growing pale, " could there 
 be treason ? " 
 
 " Very good ! " said Coconnas, " swear as much as you please, 
 but do not tell me I am mistaken." 
 
 La Mole hesitated an instant, pressing his head between his 
 hands, deterred by respect and jealousy. His jealousy con- 
 quered him, however, and he hastened to the door, at which he 
 knocked with all his might. This caused a somewhat unusual 
 hubbub considering the dignity of the place in which it 
 occurred. 
 
 " We shall be arrested," said Coconnas, " but no matter, it 
 is very funny. Tell me, La Mole, are there ghosts in the 
 Louvre ? " 
 
 " I know nothing about it," said the young man as pale as 
 the plume which shaded his brow ; " but I have always wanted 
 to see one, and as the opportunity presents itself I shall do my 
 best to come face to face with this one." 
 
 " I shall not prevent you," said Coconnas, " only knock a 
 little less fiercely if you do not wish to frighten it away." 
 
 La Mole, exasperated as he was, felt the justice of the 
 remark, and began to knock more gently.
 
 248 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK. 
 
 COCONNAS was not mistaken. The lady who had stopped 
 the cavalier of the cherry-colored cloak was indeed the Queen 
 of Navarre. As to the cavalier, our reader has already guessed, 
 I presume, that he was no other than brave De Mouy. Upon 
 recognizing the Queen of Navarre the young Huguenot realized 
 that there was some mistake ; but he dared not speak, fearing 
 a cry from Marguerite would betray him. He preferred to let 
 himself be led to her apartments, and when once there to 
 say to his beautiful guide: 
 
 " Silence for silence, madame." 
 
 Marguerite had gently pressed the arm of him whom in the 
 semi -darkness she had mistaken for La Mole, and leaning tow- 
 ard him whispered in Latin : 
 
 " Sola sum ; introito, carissime." 1 
 
 De Mouy without answering let her lead him along; but 
 scarcely was the door closed behind him and he found himself 
 in the antechamber, which was better lighted than the stair- 
 way, before Marguerite saw that he was not La Mole. 
 
 Thereupon the cry which the cautious Huguenot had feared 
 escaped Marguerite; but fortunately there was no further 
 danger from it. 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy ! " cried she, stepping back. 
 
 " In person, madame, and I beg your majesty to leave me 
 free to continue my way without mentioning my presence in 
 the Louvre to any one." 
 
 " Oh ! Monsieur de Mouy ! " reiterated Marguerite, " I was 
 mistaken, then ! " 
 
 " Yes," said De Mouy, " I understand. Your majesty mis- 
 took me for the King of Navarre. I am the same height, I 
 wear the same white plume, and many, no doubt in order to 
 flatter me, say I have the same gait." 
 
 Marguerite looked closely at De Mouy. 
 
 " Do you understand Latin, Monsieur de Mouy ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " I used to know it," replied the young man, " but I have 
 forgotten it." 
 
 i " I am alone ; enter, my dear."
 
 THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK. 249 
 
 Marguerite smiled. 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy," said she, " you may rely on my dis- 
 cretion. But as I think I know the name of the one you are 
 seeking in the Louvre, I will offer my services to guide you 
 directly to him." 
 
 " Excuse me, madame," said De Mouy, " I think you are mis- 
 taken, and that you are completely ignorant of" 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Marguerite, " are you not looking for 
 the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Alas, madame," said De Mouy, " I regret to have to beg 
 you especially to conceal my presence in the Louvre from your 
 husband, his majesty the king." 
 
 " Listen, Monsieur de Mouy," said Marguerite in surprise, 
 " I have considered you until now one of the strongest leaders 
 of the Huguenot party, and one of the most faithful partisans 
 of the king my husband. Am I mistaken ? " 
 
 " No, madame, for this very morning I was all that you say." 
 
 " And what has changed you since this morning ? " 
 
 " Madame," said De Mouy, bowing, " kindly excuse me from 
 answering, and do me the favor to accept my homage." 
 
 De Mouy, respectful but firm, started towards the door. 
 
 Marguerite stopped him. 
 
 " But, monsieur," said she, " if I were to ask you for a word 
 of explanation, my word is good, it seems to me ? " 
 
 " Madame," replied De Mouy, " I am obliged to keep silent, 
 and this duty must be very imperative for me not to have 
 answered your majesty." 
 
 " But, monsieur " 
 
 " Your majesty may ruin me, madame, but you cannot ask 
 me to betray my new friends." 
 
 " But the old ones, monsieur, have they too not some 
 rights ? " 
 
 " Those who have remained true, yes ; those who not only 
 have abandoned us, but themselves as well, no." 
 
 Marguerite, thoughtful and anxious, would no doubt have 
 answered by a new question, had not Gillonne suddenly entered 
 the apartment. 
 
 " The King of Navarre ! " she cried. 
 
 " How is he coming ? " 
 
 " By the secret corridor." 
 
 " Take monsieur out by the other." 
 
 " Impossible, madame. Listen."
 
 250 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Some one is knocking ? " 
 
 " Yes, at the door to which you wish me to take monsieur." 
 
 Who is knocking ? " 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " Go and see, and come back and tell me." 
 
 " Madame," said De Mouy, " might I venture to remark to 
 your majesty that if the King of Navarre sees me at this hour 
 and in this costume in the Louvre, I am lost ? " 
 
 Marguerite seized De Mouy and pushed him towards the 
 famous cabinet. 
 
 " Step in here, monsieur," said she ; " you will be as safe 
 and as well protected as if you were in your own house ; I give 
 you my word of honor." 
 
 De Mouy entered hastily. Scarcely was the door closed when 
 Henry appeared. 
 
 This time Marguerite had no anxiety to hide she was 
 merely gloomy, and love was far from her thoughts. 
 
 As to Henry, he entered with that mistrust which in the 
 most dangerous moments caused him to notice the smallest 
 details ; whatever the circumstances, Henry was an acute 
 observer. Therefore he at once saw the cloud on Marguerite's 
 brow. 
 
 " You are busy, madame ? " said he. 
 
 " I ? Why, yes, sire, I was dreaming." 
 
 " You do well, madame. Dreaming is becoming to you. I 
 too was dreaming ; but contrary to you who seek solitude, I 
 have come on purpose to share my dreams with you." Mar- 
 guerite gave the king a gesture of welcome, and indicating an 
 armchair to him, seated herself on a chair of sculptured ebony, 
 as delicate and as strong as steel. There was an instant's 
 silence ; then Henry broke it. 
 
 " I remembered, madame," said he, " that my dreams as to 
 the future corresponded with yours in so far as although sepa- 
 rated as husband and wife, nevertheless we both desire to 
 unite our fortune." 
 
 " That is true, sire." 
 
 " I think I understood you to say also that in all the p^ns 
 I might make toward our mutual rising, I would find in you 
 not only a faithful but an active ally." 
 
 " Yes, sire, and I ask only one thing, that in beginning the 
 work as soon as possible, you will give me the opportunity to 
 begin also."
 
 THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK. 251 
 
 " I am glad to find you of this mind, madame, and I trust 
 that you have not for one instant doubted that I would lose 
 sight of the plan I resolved to carry out the very day when, 
 thanks to your brave intervention, I was almost sure of being 
 safe." 
 
 " Monsieur, I think that your carelessness is nothing but a 
 mask, and I have faith not only in the predictions by the 
 astrologers, but in your good genius as well." 
 
 " What should you say, madame, if someone were to upset 
 our plans and threaten to reduce us to an ordinary position ? " 
 
 " I should say that I was ready to fight with you, either 
 openly or in secret, against this someone, whoever he might 
 be." 
 
 " Madame," continued Henry, " it is possible for you, is it 
 not, to gain immediate admission into the room of your brother, 
 Monsieur d'Aleuqon ? You are in his confidence and he is 
 very friendly to you ; might I venture to beg you to find out if 
 he is at present holding a secret conference with someone ? " 
 
 Marguerite gave a start. 
 
 " With whom, monsieur ? " she asked. 
 
 " With De Mouy." 
 
 " Why ? " asked Marguerite, repressing her emotion. 
 
 " Because if such is the case, madame, farewell to all our 
 projects, or to all mine, at least." 
 
 " Sire, speak softly," said Marguerite, making a sign with 
 her eyes and lips, and pointing to the cabinet. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said Henry, " still someone ? Indeed, that 
 cabinet is so often occupied that it makes your room uninhab- 
 itable." 
 
 Marguerite smiled. 
 
 " Is it still Monsieur de la Mole ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " No, sire, it is Monsieur de Mouy." 
 
 " He ? " cried Henry with surprise mingled with joy. " He 
 is not with the Due d'Alenqon, then ? Oh ! have him come in, 
 that I may talk to him." 
 
 Marguerite stepped to the cabinet, opened it, and taking De 
 Mouy by the hand led him without preamble to the King of 
 Navarre. 
 
 " Ah ! madame," said the young Huguenot, in a tone of 
 reproach more sad than bitter, "you have betrayed me in spite 
 of your promise ; that is wrong. What should you do if I were 
 to avenge myself by saying "
 
 252 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " You will not avenge yourself, De Mouy," interrupted 
 Henry, pressing the young man's hand, " or at least you will 
 listen to me first. Madame," continued Henry, turning to the 
 queen, " be kind enough, I beg you, to see that no one over- 
 hears us." 
 
 Scarcely had Henry uttered these words when Gillonne 
 entered, frightened, and whispered a few words to Marguerite, 
 which caused the latter to spring from her seat. While she 
 hastened to the antechamber with Gillonne, Henry, without 
 troubling himself as to why she had left the room, examined 
 the bed, the side of it, as well as the draperies, and sounded 
 the wall with his fingers. As to Monsieur de Mouy, fright- 
 ened at all these preparations, he first of all made sure that his 
 sword was out of its sheath. 
 
 Leaving her sleeping-room, Marguerite hastened to the 
 antechamber and came face to face with La Mole, who in spite 
 of all the protests of Gillonne had forced his way into Mar- 
 guerite's room. 
 
 Coconnas was behind him, ready to urge him forward or 
 sustain a retreat. 
 
 " Ah ! it is you, Monsieur la Mole ! " cried the queen ; 
 " but what is the matter, and why are you so pale and trem- 
 bling ? " 
 
 "Madame," said Gillonne, "Monsieur de la Mole knocked 
 at the door so that, in spite of your majesty's orders, I was 
 forced to open it." 
 
 " What is the meaning of this ? " said the queen, severely ; 
 " is this true, Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Madame, I wanted to warn your majesty that a stranger, 
 a robber perhaps, had gained admittance to your rooms with 
 my cloak and my hat." 
 
 " You are mad, monsieur," said Marguerite, " for I see your 
 cloak on your shoulders, and, God forgive me, I think I see 
 your hat on your head, even though you are speaking to a 
 queen." 
 
 " Oh ! pardon me, madame, pardon me ! " cried La Mole, 
 quickly uncovering ; " but God is my witness, it is not my re- 
 spect which is lacking." 
 
 " No, it is your trust, is it not ? " said the queen. 
 
 " What can you expect ? " cried La Mole, " when a man is 
 in your majesty's rooms ; when he gains admittance by assum- 
 ing my clothes, and perhaps my name, who knows "
 
 THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK. 253 
 
 " A man ! " cried Marguerite, softly pressing her poor lover's 
 arm ; " a man ! You are modest, Monsieur de la Mole. Look 
 through the opening of the portiere and you will see two men." 
 
 Marguerite drew back the velvet portiere embroidered in 
 gold, and La Mole saw Henry talking with the man in the 
 cherry-colored cloak. Coconnas, as though he himself were 
 concerned, looked also, saw, and recognized De Mouy. Both 
 men stood amazed. 
 
 " Now that you are reassured, or at least now that I hope 
 you are," said Marguerite, " take your stand outside my door, 
 and for your life, my dear La Mole, let no one enter. If any 
 one even approaches the stairs, warn me." La Mole, weak and 
 obedient as a child, withdrew, glancing at Coconnas, who 
 looked at him. Both found themselves outside without having 
 thoroughly recovered from their astonishment. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " cried Coconnas. 
 
 " Henry ! " murmured La Mole. 
 
 " De Mouy with your cherry-colored cloak, your white plume, 
 and your swinging arm." 
 
 " Ah ! " went on La Mole, " the moment it is not a question 
 of love, it is a question of plot." 
 
 " By Heaven ! here we are in the midst of politics," said 
 Coconnas grumbling. " Fortunately I do not see Madame de 
 Nevers mixed up in it." 
 
 Marguerite returned and sat down by the two speakers. 
 She had been gone only a moment, but had made the most of 
 her time. Gillonne, on guard in the secret passage, and the 
 two gentlemen on duty at the main entrance, assured perfect 
 safety for her. 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, " do you think it would be possible 
 for us to be overheard in any way ? " 
 
 " Monsieur," said Marguerite, " the walls of this room are 
 wadded, and a double wainscoting deadens all sound." 
 
 " I depend on you," replied Henry smiling. Then turning 
 to De Mouy : 
 
 " Now," said the king, in a low tone, as if in spite of the 
 assurance of Marguerite his fears were not wholly overcome, 
 " what are you here for ? " 
 
 " Here ? " said De Mouy. 
 
 " Yes, here, in this room," repeated Henry. 
 
 " He had nothing to do here," said Marguerite ; " I induced 
 him to come."
 
 254 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " You ? " 
 
 " I guessed everything." 
 
 " You see, De Mouy, we can discover what is going on." 
 
 " This morning," continued Marguerite, " Monsieur de 
 Mouy was with Due Franqois in the apartment of two of 
 his gentlemen." 
 
 " You see, De Mouy," repeated Henry, " we know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " That is true," said De Mouy. 
 
 " I was sure," said Henry, " that Monsieur d'Alengon had 
 taken possession of you." 
 
 " That is your fault, sire. Why did you so persistently 
 refuse what I offered you ? " 
 
 " You refused ! " exclaimed Marguerite. " The refusal I 
 feared, then, was real ? " 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, shaking his head, " and you, my 
 brave De Mouy, really, you make me laugh with your exclama- 
 tions. What ! a man enters my chamber, speaks to me of a 
 throne, of a revolt, of a revolution, to me, Henry, a prince 
 tolerated provided that I eat humble pie, a Huguenot spared 
 on condition that I play the Catholic ; and I am expected to 
 accept, when these propositions are made in a room without 
 padding or double wainscoting ! Venire saint gris ! You are 
 either children or fools ! " 
 
 " But, sire, could not your majesty have left me some hope, 
 if not by word, at least by a gesture or sign ? " 
 
 " What did my brother-in-law say to you, De Mouy ? " asked 
 Henry. 
 
 " Oh, sire, that is not my secret." 
 
 " Well, my God ! " continued Henry, with a certain impa- 
 tience at having to deal with a man who so poorly understood 
 his words. " I do not ask what you proposed to him, I ask 
 you merely if he listened to you, if he heard you." 
 
 " He listened, sire, and he heard." 
 
 " He listened and he heard ! You admit it yourself, De 
 
 I Mouy, tactless conspirator that you are ! Had I said one word 
 
 I you would have been lost, for I did not know, I merely sus- 
 
 ! pected that he was there, or if not he, someone else, the Due 
 
 d'Anjou, Charles IX., or the queen mother, for instance. Yoxi do 
 
 ^not know the walls of the Louvre, DeMouy; it was for them 
 
 that the proverb was made which says that walls have ears ; 
 
 and knowing these walls you expected me to speak ! Well, well,
 
 THE CHERRY-COLORED CLOAK. 255 
 
 De Mouy, you pay a small compliment to the common sense of 
 the King of Navarre, and I am surprised that not esteeming 
 him more highly you should have offered him a crown." 
 
 " But, sire," said De Mouy, " could you not even while refus- 
 ing this crown have given me some sign ? In that case I should 
 not have considered everything hopeless and lost." 
 
 " Well ! Venire saint gris ! " exclaimed Henry, " if one can 
 hear cannot one see also ? and is not one lost by a sign as much 
 as by a word ? See, De Mouy," continued the king, looking 
 around him, " at the present moment, so near to you that my 
 words do not reach beyond the circle of our three chairs, I still 
 fear I may be overheard when I say : De Mouy, repeat your 
 proposal to me." 
 
 " But, sire," cried De Mouy in despair, " I am now engaged 
 with Monsieur d'Alenqon." 
 
 Marguerite angrily clasped and unclasped her beautiful 
 hands. 
 
 " Then it is too late ? " said she. 
 
 " On the contrary," murmured Henry, " know that even in 
 this, God's hand is visible. Continue your arrangement, De 
 Mouy, for in Due Francois lies our safety. Do you suppose 
 that the King of Navarre would guarantee your heads ? On 
 the contrary, wretched man, I should have you all killed to 
 the last one, and on the least suspicion. But with a son of 
 France it is different. Secure proofs, De Mouy, ask for 
 guarantees ; but, stupid that you are, you will be deeply in- 
 volved, and one word will suffice for you." 
 
 " Oh, sire, it was my despair at your having left us, believe 
 me, which threw me into the arms of the duke ; it was also 
 the fear of being betrayed, for he kept our secret." 
 
 " Keep his, now, De Mouy ; it rests with you. What does 
 he wish ? To leave court ? Furnish him with means to 
 escape. Work for him, De Mouy, as if you were working for 
 me, turn the shield so that he may parry every blow they aim 
 at us. When it is time to flee, we will both flee. When it is 
 time to fight and reign, I will reign alone." 
 
 " Do not trust the duke," said Marguerite, " he is gloomy 
 and acute, without hatred as without love ; ever ready to 
 treat his friends like enemies and his enemies like friends." 
 
 " And he is expecting you now, De Mouy ? " said Henry. 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 "Where?"
 
 256 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " In the apartment belonging to his two gentlemen." 
 
 " At what time ? " 
 
 " Before midnight." 
 
 " It is not yet eleven o'clock," said Henry, " so you have 
 lost no time ; now you may go, De Mouy." 
 
 " We have your word, monsieur ? " said Marguerite. 
 
 " Come now, madame ! " said Henry, with the confidence he 
 knew so well how to use with certain people and on certain 
 occasions, " with Monsieur de Mouy, such things are not even 
 asked for." 
 
 " You are right, sire," replied the young man ; " but I need 
 your word, for I shall have to tell the leaders that I have it. 
 You are not a Catholic, are you ? " 
 
 Henry shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " You do not renounce the kingdom of Navarre ? " 
 
 " I renounce no kingdom, De Mouy, I merely reserve for 
 myself the choice of the best ; that is, the one which shall best 
 suit me and you." 
 
 " And if in the meantime your majesty should be arrested, 
 you would promise to reveal nothing even should they torture 
 your royal majesty ? " 
 
 " De Mouy, I swear that, before God." 
 
 " One further word, sire. How am I to see you in future ? " 
 
 " After to-morrow you shall have a key to my room. You 
 will come there, De Mouy, as often as it may be necessary and 
 when you please. It is for the Due d'Alenqon to answer for 
 your presence in the Louvre. In the meantime, use the small 
 stairway. I will show you the way. The queen will have the 
 cherry -colored cloak like yours come here the one who was 
 in the antechamber just now. No one must notice any differ- 
 ence between you, or know that there are two of you, De Mouy. 
 Do you not agree with me ? And you, madame ? " Henry 
 looked at Marguerite and uttered the last words with a smile. 
 
 " Yes," said she, without moving a feature ; " for this Mon- 
 sieur de la Mole belongs to my brother, the duke." 
 
 " Well, madame, try to win him over to our side," said 
 Henry, in perfect seriousness. " Spare neither gold nor prom- 
 ises ; I will put all my treasures at his disposal." 
 
 " In that case," said Marguerite, with one of the smiles which 
 belong only to the women of Boccaccio, " since this is your 
 wish, I will do my best to second it." 
 
 " Very good, madame ; and you, De Mouy, return to the 
 duke, and make sure of him."
 
 MARGARITA. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 MARGARITA. 
 
 DURING the conversation which we have just related, La 
 Mole and Coconnas mounted guard. La Mole somewhat 
 chagrined, Cocounas somewhat anxious. La Mole had had time 
 to reflect, and in this he had been greatly aided by Coconnas. 
 
 " What do you think of all this, my friend ? " La Mole had 
 asked of Coconnas. 
 
 " I think," the Piedmontese had replied, " that there is some 
 court intrigue connected with it." 
 
 " And such being the case, are you disposed to play a part 
 in it ? " 
 
 " My dear fellow," replied Coconnas, " listen well to what I 
 am going to say to you and try and profit by it. In all these 
 princely dealings, in all royal affairs, we can and should be 
 nothing but shadows. Where the King of Navarre leaves a 
 bit of his plume and the Due d'Alengon a piece of his cloak, 
 we leave our lives. The queen has a fancy for you, and you 
 for her. Nothing is better. Lose your head in love, my dear 
 fellow, but not in politics." 
 
 That was wise council. Therefore it was heard by La Mole 
 with the melancholy of a man who feels that, placed between 
 reason and madness, it is madness he will follow. 
 
 " I have not a fancy for the queen, Annibal, I love her ; 
 and fortunately or unfortunately I love her with all my heart. 
 This is madness, you will say. Well, I admit that I am mad. 
 But you are wise, Cocounas, you ought not to suffer for my 
 foolishness and my misfortune. Go back to our master and 
 do not compromise yourself." 
 
 Coconnas pondered an instant. Then raising his head : 
 
 " My dear fellow," he replied, " all that you tell me is per- 
 fectly reasonable ; you are in love act, therefore, like a lover. 
 I am ambitious, and being so, I think life is worth more to me 
 than a woman's kiss. When I risk my life, I make my own 
 conditions. Try, so far as you are concerned, my poor Medor, 
 to make yours." 
 
 Whereupon Coconnas extended his hand to La Mole and 
 withdrew, having exchanged a final glance and a final smile 
 with his friend.
 
 258 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 About ten minutes after he left his post, the door opened, 
 and Marguerite, peering out cautiously, took La Mole by the 
 hand and, without uttering a word, drew him from the corridor 
 into the furthest corner of her room. She closed the door 
 behind her with a care which indicated the importance of the 
 conversation she was about to have. 
 
 Once in her room she stopped, seated herself on her ebony 
 chair, and drawing La Mole to her, she clasped her hands over 
 both of his. 
 
 " Now that we are alone," said she, " let us talk seriously, 
 my very dear friend." 
 
 " Seriously, madame," said La Mole. 
 
 " Or lovingly. Does that please you better ? But there can 
 be serious things in love, and especially in the love of a queen." 
 
 " Then let us talk of serious things ; but on condition 
 that your majesty will not be vexed at the lighter things I 
 have to say to you." 
 
 " I shall be vexed only at one thing, La Mole, and that is if 
 you address me as ' madame ' or 'your majesty.' For you, my 
 beloved, I am just Marguerite." 
 
 " Yes, Marguerite ! Yes, Margarita ! Yes, my pearl ! " 
 cried the young man, devouring the queen with his eyes. 
 
 " Yes, that is right," said Marguerite. "So you are jealous, 
 my fine gentleman ? " 
 
 " Oh ! unreasonably." 
 
 Still ? " 
 
 "Madly, Marguerite." 
 
 " Jealous of whom ? Come ! " 
 
 " Of everyone." 
 
 " But really ? " 
 
 " Of the king first." 
 
 " I should think after what you had seen and heard you 
 might be easy on that point." 
 
 " Of this Monsieur de Mouy, whom I saw this morning for 
 the first time, and whom this evening I find so far advanced 
 in his intimacy with you." 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Who gave you such ideas about Monsieur de Mouy ? " 
 
 " Listen ! I recognized him from his figure, from the color 
 of his hair, from a natural feeling of hatred. He is the one 
 who was with Monsieur d'AlenQon this morning."
 
 MARGARITA. 259 
 
 " Well, what connection has that with me ? " 
 " Monsieur d'AlenQon is your brother. It is said that you 
 are very fond of him. You may have confided to him a vague 
 feeling of your heart, and, according to the custom at court, he 
 has aided your wish by admitting Monsieur de Mouy to your 
 apartment. Now, what I do not understand is how I was for- 
 tunate enough to find the king here at the same time. But 
 in any case, madame, be frank with me. In default of other 
 sentiment, a love like mine has the right to demand frankness 
 in return. See, I prostrate myself at your feet. If what you 
 have felt for me is but a passing fancy, I will give you back 
 your trust, your promise, your love ; I will give back to Mon- 
 sieur d'Alenqon his kind favors and my post of gentleman, 
 and I will go and seek death at the siege of La Rochelle, if 
 love does not kill me before I have gone as far as that." 
 
 Marguerite listened smilingly to these charming words, 
 watching La Mole's graceful gestures, then leaning her beauti- 
 ful dreamy head on her feverish hand : 
 " You love me ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, madame ! more than life, more than safety, more than 
 all ; but you, you you do not love me." 
 " Poor fool ! " she murmured. 
 
 " Ah, yes, madame," cried La Mole, still at her feet, " I 
 have told you I was that." 
 
 " The chief thought of your life, then, is your love, dear La 
 Mole ! " 
 
 " It is the only thought, madame, the sole thought." 
 " Well, be it so ; I will make of all the rest only an acces- 
 sory to this love. You love me ; do you wish to remain near 
 me?" 
 
 " My one prayer is that God will never take me from you." 
 " Well, you shall not leave me. I need you, La Mole." 
 " You need me ? Does the sun need the glow-worm ? " 
 " If I will tell you that I love you, would you be wholly de- 
 voted to me ? " 
 
 " Ah ! am I not that already, madame, and more than 
 wholly ? " 
 
 " Yes, but, God forgive me, you still doubt ! " 
 
 " Oh ! I am wrong, I am ungrateful, or, rather, as I have told 
 
 you and repeated to you, I am a fool. But why was Monsieur 
 
 de Mouy with you this evening ? why did I see him this 
 
 morning with Monsieur le Due d'Alenc,on ? Why that cherry-
 
 260 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 colored cloak, that white plume, that affected imitation of my 
 gait ? Ah ! madame, it is not you whom I suspect, but 
 your brother." 
 
 " Wretched man ! " said Marguerite, " wretched man to sup- 
 pose that Due FranQois would push complacency so far as to 
 introduce a wooer to his sister's room ! Mad enough to be 
 jealous, and yet not to have guessed ! Do you know, La Mole, 
 that the Due d'Alenqon would run you through with his own 
 sword if he knew that you were here, this evening, at my feet, 
 and that instead of sending you away I were saying to you : 
 ' Stay here where you are, La Mole ; for I love you, my fine 
 gentleman, do you hear ? I love you ! ' Ah, yes ! he would 
 certainly kill you." 
 
 " Great God ! " cried La Mole, starting back and looking at 
 Marguerite in terror, " is it possible ? " 
 
 " Everything is possible, my friend, in these times and at 
 this court. Now, one word ; it was not for me that Monsieur 
 de Mouy, in your cloak, his face hidden under your hat, came 
 to the Louvre. It was for Monsieur d'AlenQon. But I, think- 
 ing it was you, brought him here. He knows our secret, La 
 Mole, and must be carefully managed." 
 
 " I should prefer to kill him," said La Mole; " that is shorter 
 and surer." 
 
 " And I, my brave gentleman," said the queen, " I prefer 
 him to live, and for you to know everything, for not only is 
 his life useful to us, but it is necessary. Listen and weigh 
 your words well before you answer. Do you love me enough, 
 La Mole, to be glad if I were really to become a queen ; that 
 is, queen of a real kingdom ? " 
 
 " Alas, madame, I love you enough to wish what you wish, 
 even should this desire ruin my whole life ! " 
 
 " Well, do you want to aid me to realize this desire, which 
 would make you still happier ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I should lose you, madame," cried La Mole hiding his 
 head in his hands. 
 
 " No, on the contrary. Instead of being the first of my ser- 
 vants, you would become the first of my subjects, that is all." 
 
 ''Oh! no interest no ambition, madame do not sully 
 the feeling I have for you the devotion, nothing but 
 devotion ! " 
 
 " Noble nature ! " said Marguerite ; " well, yes, I accept your 
 devotion, and I shall find out how to reward it."
 
 MARGARITA. 261 
 
 She extended both her hands, and La Mole covered them 
 with kisses. 
 
 " Well ! " said she. 
 
 " Well, yes ! " replied La Mole, " yes, Marguerite, I am 
 beginning to comprehend this vague project already talked of 
 by us Huguenots before the massacre of Saint Bartholomew, 
 the scheme for the execution of which I, like many another 
 worthier than myself, was sent to Paris. You covet this 
 actual kingdom of Navarre which is to take the place of an 
 imaginary kingdom. King Henry drives you to it ; De Mouy 
 conspires with you, does he not? But the Due d'Alenqon, 
 what is he doing in it all ? Where is there a throne for him ? 
 I do not see. Now, is the Due d'Alenqon sufficiently your 
 friend to aid you in all this without asking anything in ex- 
 change for the danger he runs ? " 
 
 " The duke, my friend, is conspiring on his own account. 
 Let us leave him to his illusions. His life answers for ours." 
 
 " But I, who belong to him, can I betray him ? " 
 
 " Betray him ! In what are you betraying him ? What has 
 he confided to you ? Is it not he who has betrayed you by giv- 
 ing your cloak and hat to De Motiy as a means of gaining him 
 admittance to his apartments ? You belong to him, you say ! 
 Were you not mine, my gentleman, before you were his ? Has 
 he given you a greater proof of friendship than the proof of 
 love you have from me ? " 
 
 La Mole arose, pale and completely overcome. 
 
 " Oh ! " he murmured, " Coconnas was right, intrigue is 
 enveloping me in its folds. It will suffocate me." 
 
 " Well ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " Well," said La Mole, " this is my answer : it is said, and 
 I heard it at the other end of France, where your illustrious 
 name and your universal reputation for beauty touched my 
 heart like a vague desire for the unknown, it is said that 
 sometimes you love, but that your love is always fatal to those 
 you love, so that death, jealous, no doubt, almost always re- 
 moves your lovers." 
 
 "La Mole!" 
 
 " Do not interrupt me, oh, my well-loved Margarita, for they 
 add that you preserve the hearts of these faithful friends in 
 gold boxes, 1 and that occasionally you bestow a melancholy 
 
 1 She was in the habit of carrying a large farthingale, containing pockets, in each of 
 which ohe put a gold box in which was the heart of one of her dead lovers ; for she was
 
 262 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 thought, a pious glance on the sad remains. You sigh, my 
 queen, your eyes droop ; it is true. Well ! make me the clear- 
 est and the happiest of your favorites. You have pierced the 
 hearts of others, and you keep their hearts. You do more 
 with me, you expose my head. Well, Marguerite, swear to 
 me before the image of the God who has saved my life in this 
 very place, swear to me, that if I die for you, as a sad pre- 
 sentiment tells me I shall do, swear to me that you will keep 
 my head, which the hangman will separate from my body ; 
 and that you will sometimes press your lips to it. Swear, 
 Marguerite, and the promise of such reward bestowed by my 
 queen will make me silent, and, if necessary, a traitor and a 
 coward ; this is being wholly devoted, as your lover and your 
 accomplice should be." 
 
 " Oh ! what ghastly foolishness, dear heart ! " said Marguerite. 
 " Oh ! fatal thought, sweet love." 
 
 " Swear " 
 
 " Swear ? " 
 
 " Yes, on this silver chest with its cross. Swear." 
 
 " Well ! " said Marguerite, " if and God forbid ! your 
 gloomy presentiment is realized, my fine gentleman, on this 
 cross I swear to you that you shall be near me, living or 
 dead, so long as I live ; and if I am unable to rescue you 
 from the peril which comes to you through me, through me 
 alone, I will at least give to your poor soul the consolation 
 for which you ask, and which you will so well have deserved." 
 
 " One word more, Marguerite. I can die now. I shall not 
 mind death ; but I can live, too, for we may succeed. The 
 King of Navarre, king, you may be queen, in which case he 
 will take you away. This vow of separation between you will 
 some day be broken, and will do away with ours. Now, Mar- 
 guerite, my well-beloved Marguerite, with a word you have 
 taken away my every fear of death ; now with a word keep up 
 my courage concerning life." 
 
 " Oh, fear nothing, I am yours, body and soul ! " cried Mar- 
 guerite, again raising her hand to the cross on the little chest. 
 " If I leave, you follow, and if the king refuses to take you, 
 then I shall not go." 
 
 " But you dare not resist ! " 
 
 careful as they died to have their hearts embalmed. This farthingale huni; every night 
 from a hook which was secured by a padlock behind the headboard of her bed. (Talle- 
 maut Des ULMUJE, Hitory of Marguerite of Valois.)
 
 THE HAND OF GOD. 263 
 
 " My well-beloved Hyacinthe," said Marguerite, " you do not 
 know Henry. At present he is thinking of only one thing, 
 that is, of being king. For this he would sacrifice everything 
 he owns, and, still more, what he does not own. Now, adieu ! " 
 
 " Madame," said La Mole, smiling, " are you going to send 
 me away ? " 
 
 " It is late," said Marguerite. 
 
 " No doubt ; but where would you have me go ? Monsieur 
 de Mouy is in my room with Monsieur le Due d'Alenqon." 
 
 " Ah ! yes," said Marguerite, with a beautiful smile. " Be- 
 sides, I have still some things to tell you about this con- 
 spiracy." 
 
 From that night La Mole was no longer an ordinary favorite. 
 He well might carry his head high, for which, living or dead, 
 so sweet a future was in store. 
 
 And yet at times his weary brow was bent, his cheek grew 
 pale, and deep thoughts ploughed their furrows on the fore- 
 head of the young man, once so light-hearted, now so happy ! 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE HAND OF GOD. 
 
 ON leaving Madame de Sauve Henry had said to her : 
 
 " Go to bed, Charlotte. Pretend that you are very ill, and 
 on no account see any one all day to-morrow." 
 
 Charlotte obeyed without questioning the reason for this 
 suggestion from the king. She was beginning to be accus- 
 tomed to his eccentricities, as we should call them to-day, or 
 to his whims as they were then called. Moreover, she knew 
 that deep in his heart Henry hid secrets which he told to no 
 one, in his mind plans which he feared to reveal even in his 
 dreams ; so that she carried out all his wishes, knowing that 
 his most peculiar ideas had an object. 
 
 Whereupon that evening she complained to Dariole of great 
 heaviness in her head, accompanied by dizziness. These were 
 the symptoms which Henry had suggested to her to feign. 
 
 The following day she pretended that she wanted to rise, 
 but scarcely had she put her foot on the floor when she said 
 she felt a general debility, and went back to bed.
 
 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 This indisposition, which Henry had already announced to 
 the Due d'Alengon, was the first news brought to Catharine 
 when she calmly asked why La Sauve was not present as usual 
 at her levee. 
 
 " She is ill ! " replied Madame de Lorraine, who was there. 
 
 " 111 ! " repeated Catharine, without a muscle of her face 
 betraying the interest she took in the answer. " Some idle 
 fatigue, perhaps." 
 
 " No, madame," replied the princess. " She complains of a 
 severe headache and of weakness which prevents her from 
 walking." Catharine did not answer. But, to hide her joy, 
 she turned to the window, and perceiving Henry, who was 
 crossing the court after his conversation with De Mouy, she 
 rose the better to see him. Driven by that conscience which, 
 although invisible, always throbs in the deepest recesses of 
 hearts most hardened to crime : 
 
 " Does not my son Henry seem paler than usual this morn- 
 ing ? " she asked her captain of the guards. 
 
 There was nothing in the question. Henry was greatly 
 troubled mentally ; but physically he was very strong. 
 
 By degrees those usually present at the queen's levee with- 
 drew. Three or four intimate ones remained longer than the 
 others, but Catharine impatiently dismissed them, saying that 
 she wished to be alone. When the last courtier had gone 
 Catharine closed the door and going to a secret closet hid- 
 den in one of the panels of her room she slid back a door in a 
 groove of wood and took out a book, the worn leaves of which 
 showed frequent use. Placing the volume on a table, she 
 opened it to a book-mark, then resting her elbow on the table 
 and her head on one hand : 
 
 " That is it," murmured she, reading, " ' headache, general 
 weakness, pain in the eyes, swelling of the palate.' As yet 
 they have mentioned only the pains in the head and weakness. 
 But the other symptoms will not be slow in forthcoming." 
 
 She continued : 
 
 " ' Then the inflammation reaches the throat, extends to the 
 stomach, surrounds the heart like a circle of fire, and causes 
 the brain to burst like a thunderclap,' " she read on to herself. 
 Then in a low voice : 
 
 " For the fever, six hours ; for the general inflammation, 
 twelve hours ; for the gangrene, twelve hours ; for the suffering, 
 six hours 5 in all thirty-six hours. Now, suppose that the
 
 . THE HAND OF GOD, 265 
 
 absorption is slow, and that instead of thirty-six hours we have 
 forty, even forty-eight, yes, forty-eight hours should suffice. 
 But Henry, how is it that he is still up ? Because he is a man, 
 because he has a strong constitution, because perhaps he drank 
 after he kissed her, and wiped his lips after drinking." 
 
 Catharine awaited the dinner hour with impatience. 
 
 Henry dined every day at the king's table. He came, he in 
 turn complained of pain in his head ; he ate nothing, and with- 
 drew immediately after the meal, saying that having been 
 awake a part of the previous night, he felt a pressing need of 
 sleep. 
 
 Catharine listened as his uncertain steps died away. Then 
 she had him followed. She was told that the King of Navarre 
 had gone to Madame de Sauve's apartments. 
 
 " Henry," said she to herself, " will this evening complete 
 the work of death which some unfortunate chance has left half 
 finished." 
 
 The King of Navarre had indeed gone to Madame de Sauve's 
 room, but it was to tell her to continue playing her role. 
 
 The whole of the following morning Henry did not leave 
 his chamber ; nor did he appear at dinner. Madame de Sauve, 
 they said, was growing worse and worse, and the report of 
 Henry's illness, spread abroad by Catharine herself, sped like 
 one of those presentiments which hover in the air, but which 
 no one can explain. 
 
 Catharine was delighted. The previous morning she had 
 sent Ambroise Pare to help one of her favorite servants, who 
 was ill at Saint Germain, so it had to be one of her own men 
 who was called in to see Madame de Sauve and Henry. This 
 man would say only what she wished him to say. If, contrary 
 to all expectation, some other doctor had been summoned, and 
 if some whisper concerning poison had frightened the court, in 
 which so many such reports had already been circulated, she 
 counted greatly on the rumor to arouse the jealousy of Mar- 
 guerite regarding the various loves of her husband. We re- 
 member she had spoken strongly of this jealousy which had 
 been apparent on various occasions ; among others, on the haw- 
 thorn walk, where, in the presence of several persons, she had 
 said to her daughter': 
 
 " So you are very jealous, Marguerite ? " Therefore, with 
 unruffled features she waited for the door to open, when some 
 pale, startled servant would enter, crying :
 
 266 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Your majesty, the King of Navarre has been hurt, and 
 Madame de Sauve is dead ! " Four o'clock in the afternoon 
 struck. Catharine finished her luncheon in the aviary, where 
 she was crumbling some bread for her rare birds which she 
 herself had raised. Although her face was calm and even 
 gloomy, as usual, her heart throbbed violently at the slightest 
 sound. Suddenly the door opened. 
 
 " Madame," said the captain of the guards, " the King of 
 Navarre is " 
 
 " 111 ? " hastily interrupted Catharine. 
 
 " No, madame, thank God ! His majesty seems to be 
 wonderfully well." 
 
 " What is it, then ? " 
 
 " The King of Navarre is here." 
 
 " What does he want ? " 
 
 " He is bringing your majesty a rare kind of monkey." 
 
 Just then Henry entered holding in his hand a basket, in 
 which was a little monkey he was petting. 
 
 He entered smiling and seemed wholly absorbed in the dear 
 little animal he brought ; but occupied as he appeared to be, 
 he did not fail to give his usual first glance around. This 
 was sufficient for him under trying circumstances. As to 
 Catharine, she was very pale, of a pallor which deepened as 
 she saw that the cheeks of the young man were flushed with 
 the glow of health. 
 
 The queen mother was amazed at this turn of affairs. She 
 accepted Henry's gift mechanically, appeared agitated, com- 
 plimented him on looking so well, and added : 
 
 " I am all the more pleased to see you looking so, because I 
 heard that you were ill, and because, if I remember rightly, 
 you yourself complained of not feeling well, in my presence. 
 But I understand now," she added, trying to smile, " it was an 
 excuse so that you might be free." 
 
 "No, I have really been very ill, madame," said Henry, 
 " but a specific used in our mountains, and which comes from 
 my mother, has cured my indisposition." 
 
 " Ah ! you will give me the recipe, will you not, Henry ? " 
 said Catharine, really smiling this time, but with an irony she 
 could not disguise. 
 
 " Some counter-poison," she murmured. " We must look into 
 this ; but no, seeing Madame de Sauve ill, it will be suspected. 
 Indeed, I believe that the hand of God is over this man."
 
 THE HAND OF GOD. 267 
 
 Catharine waited impatiently for the night. Madame de 
 Sauve did not appear. At play she inquired for her, but was 
 told that she was suffering more and more. 
 
 All the evening she was restless, and everyone anxiously 
 wondered what were the thoughts which could move this face 
 usually so calm. 
 
 At length everyone retired. Catharine had herself un- 
 dressed and put to bed by her ladies-in-waiting. Then when 
 everyone had gone to sleep in the Louvre, she rose, slipped on 
 a long black dressing-gown, took a lamp, chose from her keys 
 the one which unlocked the door of Madame de Sauve's apart- 
 ments, and ascended the stairs to see her maid-of -honor. 
 
 Had Henry foreseen this visit ? Was he busy in his own 
 rooms ? Was he hiding somewhere ? However this may have 
 been, the young woman was alone. Catharine opened the door 
 cautiously, crossed the antechamber, entered the reception-room, 
 set her lamp on a table, for a night lamp was burning near the 
 sick woman, and glided like a shadow into the sleeping-room. 
 Dariole in a deep armchair was sleeping near the bed of her 
 mistress. 
 
 This bed was entirely shut in by curtains. 
 
 The respiration of the young woman was so light that for an 
 instant Catharine thought she was not breathing at all. 
 
 At length she heard a slight sigh, and with an evil joy she 
 raised the curtain in order to see for herself the effect of the 
 terrible poison. She trembled in advance at the sight of 
 the livid pallor or the devouring purple of the mortal fever 
 she hoped for. But instead of this, calm, with eyes hidden 
 under their white lids, her mouth rosy and half open, her moist 
 cheek pressed gently against one of her gracefully rounded arms, 
 while the other arm, fresh and pearly, was thrown across the 
 crimson damask which served as counterpane, the beautiful 
 young woman lay sleeping with a smile still on her lips. No 
 doubt some sweet dream brought the smile to her lips, and to 
 her cheek the flush of health which nothing could disturb. 
 Catharine could not refrain from uttering a cry of surprise 
 which roused Dariole for a moment. The queen mother 
 hastily stepped behind the ciirtains of the bed. 
 
 Dariole opened her eyes, but overcome with sleep, without 
 even wondering in her drowsy mind why she had wakened, the 
 young girl dropped her heavy lids and slept again. 
 
 Then Catharine came from behind the curtain, and glancing
 
 268 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 at the other objects in the room, saw on a table a bottle of Spanish 
 wine, some fruit, pastry, and two glasses. Henry must have had 
 supper with the baroness, who apparently was as well as him- 
 self. Walking on tiptoe, Catharine took up the small silver 
 box that was partly empty. It was the same or very similar 
 to the one she had sent to Charlotte. She removed from it a 
 piece as large as a pearl on the point of a gold needle, returned 
 to her room, and gave it to the little ape which Henry had 
 brought her that evening. Attracted by the aromatic odor the 
 animal devoured it eagerly, and turning around in his basket, 
 went to sleep. Catharine waited a cfuarter of an hour. 
 
 "With half of what he has just eaten," said she, " my dog 
 Brutus died, swelling up instantly. Some one has played me a 
 trick. Is it Rene ? Impossible. Then it is Henry. 
 fatality ! It is very evident that since he is to reign he cannot 
 die. But perhaps the poison was not strong enough. We 
 shall see by trying steel." 
 
 And Catharine went to bed revolving in her mind a fresh 
 idea which no doubt was perfected the following day ; for she 
 called her captain of the guards to her, gave him a letter, 
 ordered him to take it to its address and to deliver it only into 
 the hands of the one for whom it was intended. It was 
 addressed to the Sire de Louviers de Maurevel, Captain of the 
 King's Petard Makers, Rue de la Cerisaie, near the Arsenal. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE LETTER FROM ROME. 
 
 SEVERAL days elapsed after the events we have just de- 
 scribed, when one morning a litter escorted by several gentle- 
 men wearing the colors of Monsieur de Guise entered the 
 Louvre, and word was brought to the Queen of Navarre that 
 Madame la Duchesse de Nevers begged the honor of an audience. 
 Marguerite was receiving a call from Madame de Sauve. It 
 was the first time the beautiful baroness had been out since 
 her pretended illness. She knew that the queen had expressed 
 to her husband great anxiety on account of her indisposition, 
 which for almost a week had been court gossip, and she had 
 come to thank her.
 
 THE LETTER FROM ROME. 269 
 
 Marguerite congratulated her on her convalescence and on 
 her good fortune at having recovered so quickly from the 
 strange malady, the seriousness of which as a daughter of 
 France she could not fail to appreciate. 
 
 " I trust you will attend the hunt, already once postponed," 
 said Marguerite. " It is planned positively for to-morrow. 
 For winter, the weather is very mild. The sun has softened 
 the earth, and the hunters all say that the day will be fine." 
 
 " But, madaine," said the baroness, " I do not know if I shall 
 be strong enough." 
 
 " Bah ! " exclaimed Marguerite, " make an effort ; moreover, 
 since I am one of the hunters, I have told the King to reserve 
 a small Bearnese horse which I was to ride, but which will 
 carry you perfectly. Have you not already heard of it ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame, but I did not know that it was meant for 
 your majesty. Had I known that I should not have accepted 
 it." 
 
 " From a feeling of pride, baroness ? " 
 
 "No, madame, from a feeling of humility, on the contrary." 
 
 " Then you will come ? " 
 
 "Your majesty overwhelms me with honor. I will come, 
 since you command me." 
 
 At that moment Madame la Duchesse de Nevers was an- 
 nounced. At this name Marguerite gave a cry of such delight 
 that the baroness understood that the two women wanted to 
 talk together. She rose to leave. 
 
 " Until to-morrow, then," said Marguerite. 
 
 " Until to-morrow, madame." 
 
 " By the way," continued Marguerite holding the baroness 
 by the hand, " you know that in public I hate you, for I am 
 horribly jealous of you." 
 
 " But in private ? " asked Madame de Sauve. 
 
 " Oh ! in private, not only do I forgive you, but more than 
 that, I thank you." 
 
 " Then your majesty will permit me " 
 
 Marguerite held out her hand, the baroness kissed it respect- 
 fully, made a low courtesy and went out. 
 
 While Madame de Sauve ascended her stairway, bounding 
 like a deer whose tether has been broken, Madame de Nevers 
 was exchanging a few formal words with the queen, which 
 gave time to the gentlemen who had accompanied her to 
 retire.
 
 270 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Gillonne," cried Marguerite when the door was closed 
 behind the last, " Gillonne, see that no one interrupts us." 
 
 " Yes," said the duchess, " for we have matters of grave 
 importance to discuss." 
 
 Taking a chair she seated herself without ceremony in the 
 best place near the fire and in the sunlight, sure that no one 
 would interrupt the pleasant intimacy between herself and the 
 Queen of Navarre. 
 
 " Well," said Marguerite, with a smile, " what about our fa- 
 mous slaughterer ? " 
 
 " My dear queen," said the duchess, " he is a mythological 
 creature, upon my word. He is incomparable, so far as his 
 mind is concerned, and never dries up. He makes witty 
 remarks that would make a saint in her shrine die of laughing. 
 In other respects he is the maddest heathen who ever walked 
 in the skin of a Catholic ! I dote on him ! And you, what are 
 you doing with your Apollo ? " 
 
 " Alas ! " said Marguerite with a sigh. 
 
 " Oh, how that ' alas ! ' frightens me, dear queen ! Is the 
 gentle La Mole too respectful or too sentimental ? In that, 
 I am forced to admit he would be exactly the opposite of his 
 friend Coconnas." 
 
 "Oh, no, he has his moments," said Marguerite, "but this 
 ' alas ! ' concerned only myself." 
 
 " What does it mean, then ? " 
 
 " It means, dear duchess, that I am terribly afraid I am 
 actually in love." 
 
 Really ? " 
 
 " On my honor ! " 
 
 " Oh ! so much the better ! What a merry life we can 
 lead ! " cried Henriette. " To love a little is my dream ; to 
 love much, is yours. It is so sweet, dear and learned queen, 
 to rest the mind by the heart, is it not ? and to have the smile 
 after the delirium. Ah, Marguerite, I have a feeling that we 
 are going to have a glorious year ! " 
 
 "Do you think so ? " said the queen. " I, on the contrary, 
 do not know how that may be ; I see things through a veil. 
 All these politics occupy me so much. By the way, do you 
 know if your Annibal is as devoted to my brother as he 
 seems to be ? Find out for me. I must know." 
 
 " He, devoted to anybody or anything ! It is easy to see 
 that you do not know him as I do. If he ever is devoted to
 
 THE LETTER FROM ROME, 271 
 
 anything it will be his ambition, and that is all. If your 
 brother is a man to make great promises to him, well, he 
 will be devoted to your brother ; but let your brother, son of 
 France that he is, be careful not to break the promises he 
 makes him. If he does, my faith, look out for your brother ! " 
 
 "Keally?" 
 
 " It is just as I say. Truly, Marguerite, there are times 
 when this tiger whom I have tamed frightens me. The other 
 day I said to him, ( Annibal, be careful, do not deceive me, 
 for if you do ! ' I said it, however, with my emerald eyes 
 which prompted Ronsard's lines : 
 
 1 " * La Duchesse de Nevers, 
 
 Aux yeux verts, 
 Qui, sous leur paupiere blonde 
 Lancent sur nous plus d* eclairs 
 Que ne font vingt Jupiters 
 
 Dans les airs 
 
 Lorsque la tempete gronde.' " 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well, I supposed he would answer me : ' I deceive you ! I ! 
 never ! etc., etc.' But do you know what he did answer ? " 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, judge of the man ! < And you/ he replied, ' if you 
 deceive me, you take care too, for, princess that you are ' 
 and as he said this he threatened me not only with 
 his eyes, but with his slender pointed finger, with its nail cut 
 like a steel lance, which he held before my nose. At that 
 moment, my poor queen, I confess he looked so fierce that I 
 trembled, and yet you know I am no coward." 
 " He threatened you, Henriette, he dared ? " 
 " Well, I had threatened him ! For that matter he was 
 right. So you see he is devoted up to a certain point, or 
 rather to a very uncertain point." 
 
 " In that case we shall see," said Marguerite thoughtfully ; 
 " I will speak to La Mole. Have you nothing else to tell 
 me?" 
 
 1 Fair duchess, your dear eyes 
 
 Are emerald skies, 
 Half hid 'neath cloud-lids white, 
 Whence fiercer lightning flies, 
 Launched lorth for our surprise, 
 
 Than could arise 
 From twenty Jovcs in furious might.
 
 272 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Yes ; something most interesting for which I came. But, 
 the idea, you have told me more interesting things still. I 
 have received news." 
 
 " From Rome ? " 
 
 " Yes, through a courier from my husband." 
 
 " Ah ! the Poland affair ? " 
 
 "It is progressing beaiitifully, and probably in a day or 
 two you will be rid of your brother of Anjou." 
 
 " So the pope has ratified his election ? " 
 
 " Yes, my dear." 
 
 " And you never told me ! " cried Marguerite. " Well, 
 quick, quick, the details." 
 
 " Oh, mercy, I have none except those I have given you. 
 But wait, I will give you the letter from Monsieur de Nevers. 
 Here it is. Oh, no, those are some verses from Annibal, atro- 
 cious ones too, my poor Marguerite. He can not write any 
 other kind. But wait, here it is. No, it isn't, that is a note 
 of my own which I brought for you to have La Mole give him. 
 Ah ! at last, here it is." And Madame de Nevers handed the 
 letter to the queen. 
 
 Marguerite opened it hastily and read it ; but it told noth. 
 ing more than she had already learned from her friend. 
 
 " How did you receive this ? " continued the queen. 
 
 " From a courier of my husband, who had orders to stop at 
 the Hotel de Guise before going to the Louvre, and to deliver 
 this letter to me before delivering that of the King. I knew 
 the importance my queen would attach to this news, and I had 
 written to Monsieur de Nevers to act thus. He obeyed, you 
 see ; he is not like that monster of a Coconnas. Now there is 
 no one in the whole of Paris, except the King, you, and I, who 
 knows this news ; except the man who followed our courier " 
 
 "Whatman?" 
 
 " Oh ! the horrid business ! Imagine how tired, worn out, 
 and dusty the wretched messenger was when he arrived ! He 
 rode seven days, day and night, without stopping an instant." 
 
 " But the man you spoke of just now ? " 
 
 " Wait a minute. Constantly followed by a wild-looking 
 fellow who had relays like himself and who rode as far as he 
 did for the four hundred leagues, the poor courier constantly 
 expected to be shot in his back. Both reached the Saint 
 Marcel gate at the same time, both galloped down the Rue 
 Mouffetard, both crossed the city. But at the end of the
 
 THE LETTER FROM ROME. 273 
 
 bridge of Notre-Darne our courier turned to the right, while 
 the other took the road to the left by the Place du Chatelet, 
 and sped along the quays by the side of the Louvre, like an 
 arrow from a bow." 
 
 " Thanks, ray good Henriette, thanks ! " cried Marguerite. 
 " You are right ; that is very interesting news. By whom was 
 the other courier sent ? I must know. So leave me until this 
 evening. Rue Tizon, is it not ? and the hunt to-morrow. Do 
 take a frisky horse, so that he will run away, and we can be 
 by ourselves. I will tell you this evening what is necessary 
 for you to try and find out from your Coconnas." 
 
 " You will not forget my letter ? " said the duchess of 
 Nevers smiling. 
 
 " No, no, do not worry ; he shall have it, and at once." 
 
 Madame de Nevers left, and Marguerite immediately sent for 
 Henry, who came to her quickly. She gave him the letter 
 from the Due de Nevers. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 Then Marguerite told him about the second courier. 
 
 " Yes," said Henry ; "I saw him enter the Louvre." 
 
 " Perhaps he was for the queen mother." 
 
 " No, I am sure of that, for I ventured to take my stand in 
 the corridor, and I saw no one pass." 
 
 " Then," said Marguerite, looking at her husband, " he must 
 be" 
 
 " For your brother D'Alenqon, must he not ? " said Henry. 
 
 " Yes ; but how can we be sure ? " 
 
 " Could not one of his two gentlemen be sent for ? " said 
 Henry, carelessly, " and through him " 
 
 " You are right," said Marguerite, put at her ease at her 
 husband's suggestion. " I will send for Monsieur de la Mole. 
 Gillonne! Gillonne!" 
 
 The young girl appeared. 
 
 "I must speak at once with Monsieur de la Mole," said the 
 queen. " Try to find him and bring him here." 
 
 Gillonne disappeared. Henry seated himself before a table 
 on which was a German book containing engravings by Albert 
 Durer, which he began to examine with such close attention 
 that when La Mole entered he did not seem to hear him, and 
 did not even raise his head. 
 
 On his side, the young man, seeing the king with Mar- 
 guerite, stopped on the threshold, silent from surprise and 
 pale from anxiety.
 
 274 MARGUERITE DE VALOfS. 
 
 Marguerite went to him. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole," said she, " can you tell me who is 
 on guard to-day at Monsieur d'Alen^on's ? " 
 
 " Coconnas, madame," said La Mole. 
 
 " Try to find out for me from him if he admitted to his 
 master's room a man covered with mud, who apparently had 
 a long or hasty ride." 
 
 " Ah, madame, I fear he will not tell me ; for several days 
 he has been very taciturn." 
 
 " Indeed ! But by giving him this note, it seems to me that 
 he will owe you something in exchange." 
 
 " From the duchess ! Oh, with this note I will try." 
 
 " Add," said Marguerite, lowering her voice, " that this note 
 will serve him as a means of gaining entrance this evening to 
 the house you know about." 
 
 " And I, madame," said La Mole, in a low tone, " what shall 
 be mine ? " 
 
 " Give your name. That will be enough." 
 
 " Give me the note, madame," said La Mole, with throbbing 
 heart, " I will bring back the answer." 
 
 He withdrew. 
 
 " We shall know to-morrow if the duke has been informed 
 of the Poland affair," said Marguerite calmly, turning to her 
 husband. 
 
 "That Monsieur de la Mole is really a fine servant," said 
 the Bearnais, with his peculiar smile, " and, by Heaven ! I 
 will make his fortune ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 
 
 WHEN on the following day a beautiful sun, red but 
 rayless, as is apt to be the case on privileged days of 
 winter, rose behind the hills of Paris, everything had already 
 been awake for two hours in the court of the Louvre. A 
 magnificent Barbary horse, nervous and spirited, with limbs 
 like those of a stag, on which the veins crossed one another 
 like network, pawed the ground, pricked up his ears and 
 snorted, while waiting for Charles IX. He was less impa-
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 275 
 
 tient, however, than his master who, detained by Catharine, 
 had been stopped by her in the hall. She had said she wished 
 to speak to him on a matter of importance. Both were in the 
 corridor with the glass windows. Catharine was cold, pale, 
 and quiet as usual. Charles IX. fretted, bit his nails, and 
 whipped his two favorite dogs. The latter were covered with 
 cuirasses of mail, so that the snout of the wild boar should 
 not harm them, and that they might be able to encounter the 
 terrible animal with impunity. A small scutcheon with the 
 arms of France had been stitched on their breasts similar to 
 those on the breasts of the pages, who, more than once, had 
 envied the privileges of these happy favorites. 
 
 " Pay attention, Charles," said Catharine, " no one but you 
 and I knows as yet of the expected arrival of these Polonais. 
 But, God forgive me, the King of Navarre acts as if he knew. 
 In spite of his abjuration, which I always mistrust, he is in 
 communication with the Huguenots. Have you noticed how 
 often he has gone out the past few days ? He has money, 
 too, he who has never had any. He buys horses, arms, and on 
 rainy days he practises fencing from morning until night." 
 
 " Well, my God, mother ! " exclaimed Charles IX., impa- 
 tiently, " do you think he intends to kill me, or my brother 
 D'Anjou ? In that case he will need a few more lessons, for 
 yesterday I counted eleven buttonholes with my foil on his 
 doublet, which, however, had only six. And as to my brother 
 D'Anjou, you know that he fences as well if not better than I 
 do ; at least so people say." 
 
 " Listen, Charles," continued Catharine, " and do not treat 
 lightly what your mother tells you. The ambassadors will 
 arrive ; well, you will see ! As soon as they are in Paris, 
 Henry will do all he can to gain their attention. He is insin- 
 uating, he is crafty ; without mentioning his wife who seconds 
 him, I know not why, and will chat with them, and talk Latin, 
 Greek, Hungarian, and I know not what, to them ! Oh, I tell 
 you, Charles, and you know that I am not mistaken, I tell 
 you that there is something on foot." 
 
 Just then the clock struck and Charles IX. stopped listening 
 to his mother to count the strokes. 
 
 " Good heavens ! seven o'clock ! " he exclaimed, " one hour 
 before we get off, that will make it eight ; one hour to reach 
 the meeting-place, and to start again we shall not be able to 
 begin hunting before nine o'clock. Really, mother, you make
 
 276 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 me lose a great deal of time ! Down, Risquetout ! great 
 Heavens ! down, I say, you brigand ! " 
 
 And a vigorous blow of the bloody whip on the mastiff's 
 back brought a howl of real pain from the poor beast, thor- 
 oughly astonished at receiving punishment in exchange for a 
 caress. 
 
 " Charles ! " said Catharine, " listen to me, in God's name, 
 and do not leave to chance your fortune and that of France ! 
 The hunt, the hunt, the hunt, you cry ; why, you will have time 
 enough to hunt when your work of king is settled." 
 
 " Come now, mother ! " exclaimed Charles, pale with impa- 
 tience, " explain quickly, for you bother me to death. Really, 
 there are days when I cannot comprehend you." 
 
 He stopped beating his whip against his boot. 
 
 Catharine thought that the time had come and that it should 
 not be passed by. 
 
 " My son," said she, " we have proof that De Mouy has re- 
 turned to Paris. Monsieur de Maurevel, whom you are well 
 acquainted with, has seen him. This can be only for the King 
 of Navarre. That is enough, I trust, for us to suspect him 
 more than ever." 
 
 " Come, there you go again after my poor Henriot ! You 
 want me to have him killed ; do you not ? " 
 
 " Oh, no." 
 
 " Exiled ? But why can you not see that if he were exiled 
 he would be much more dangerous than he will ever be here, 
 in the Louvre, under our eyes, where he can do nothing without 
 our knowing it at once ? " 
 
 " Therefore I do not wish him exiled." 
 
 " What do you want, then ? Tell me quickly ! " 
 
 " I want him to be held in safe keeping while these Polonais 
 are here ; in the Bastille, for instance." 
 
 " Ah ! my faith, no ! " cried Charles IX. " We are going to 
 hunt the boar this morning and Henry is one of my best men. 
 Without him the fun would be spoiled. By Heaven, mother ! 
 really, you do nothing but vex me." 
 
 " Why, my dear son, I did not say this morning. The am- 
 bassadors do not arrive until to-morrow or the day after. 
 Arrest him after your hunt, this evening to-night " 
 
 " That is a different matter. Well, we will talk about it 
 later and see. After the hunt I will not refuse. Adieu ! 
 Come here, Risquetout ! Is it your turn to sulk now ? "
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 277 
 
 " Charles," said Catharine, laying a detaining hand on his 
 arm at the risk of a fresh explosion which might result from 
 this new delay, " I think that the best thing to do is to sign 
 the order for arrest at once, even though it is not to be carried 
 out until this evening or to-night." 
 
 " Sign, write an order, look up a seal for the parchment 
 when they are waiting for me to go hunting, I, who never keep 
 anyone waiting ! The devil take the thought ! " 
 
 " Why, no, I love you too dearly to delay you. I arranged 
 everything beforehand ; step in here and see ! " 
 
 And Catharine, as agile as if she were only twenty years 
 old, pushed open a door of her cabinet, and pointed to an ink- 
 stand, pen, parchment, the seal, and a lighted candle. 
 
 The king took the parchment and read it through hastily. 
 
 " Order, etc., etc., to arrest and conduct to the Bastille our 
 brother Henry of Navarre." 
 
 " Good, that is done ! " he exclaimed, signing hurriedly. 
 " Adieu, mother." 
 
 He hastened from the room, followed by his dogs, greatly 
 pleased to have gotten rid of Catharine so easily. 
 
 Charles IX. had been waited for with impatience, and as 
 his promptness in hunting matters was well known, every one 
 wondered at the delay. So when he finally appeared, the 
 hunters welcomed him by shouts of " Long live the King ! " 
 the outriders by a flourish of trumpets, the horses by neighing, 
 the dogs by barking. All this noise and hubbub brought a 
 flush to his pale cheeks, his heart swelled, and for a moment 
 Charles was young and happy. 
 
 The King scarcely took the time to salute the brilliant com- 
 pany gathered in the court-yard. He nodded to the Due 
 d'Alengon, waved his hand to his sister Marguerite, passed 
 Henry without apparently seeing him, and sprang upon the 
 fiery Barbary horse, which started off at once. But after cur- 
 vetting around three or four times, he realized what sort of a 
 rider he had to deal with and quieted down. The trumpets 
 again sounded, and the King left the Louvre followed by the 
 Due d'Alenqon, the King of Navarre, Marguerite, Madame de 
 Nevers, Madame de Sauve, Tavannes, and the principal 
 courtiers. 
 
 It goes without saying that La Mole and Coconnas were of 
 the number.
 
 278 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 As to the Due d'Anjou, lie had been at the siege of La 
 Rochelle for three months. 
 
 While waiting for the King, Henry had spoken to his wife, 
 who in returning his greeting had whispered, 
 
 " The courier from Rome was admitted by Monsieur de 
 Coconnas himself to the chamber of the Due d'Alen^on a 
 quarter of an hour before the messenger from the Due de 
 Nevers saw the King." 
 
 " Then he knows all," said Henry. 
 
 " He must know all," replied Marguerite ; " but keep your 
 eyes on him and see how, in spite of his usual dissimulation, 
 his eyes shine." 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! " murmured the Bearnais. " I should 
 think they would ; he hunts triple game to-day : France, 
 Poland, and Navarre, without counting the wild boar." 
 
 He bowed to his wife, returned to his place, and calling one 
 of his servants whose ancestors had been in the service of his 
 father for more than a century, and whom he employed as 
 ordinary messenger in his love affairs : 
 
 " Orthon," said he, " take this key to the cousin of Madame 
 de Sauve, who you know lives with his mistress at the corner 
 of the Rue des Quatre Fils. Say to him that his cousin desires 
 to speak to him this evening ; that he is to enter my room, 
 and, in case I am not there, to wait for me. If I am late, he 
 is to lie down on my bed." 
 
 " Is there an answer, sire ? " 
 
 " No, except to tell me if you find him. The key is for him 
 alone, you understand ? " 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 "Wait; do not start now, plague you! Before leaving 
 Paris I will call you to tighten my saddle-girths ; in that way 
 you will naturally have to lag behind, and you can carry out 
 your commission and join us at Bondy." 
 
 The servant made a sign of obedience and rode away. 
 
 They set out by the Rue Saint Honore, through the Rue 
 Saint Denis, and the Faubourg. At the Rue Saint Laurent 
 the saddle-girths of the King of Navarre became loose. Orthon 
 rode up to him, and everything happened as had been agreed 
 on between him and his master, who followed the royal pro- 
 cession along the Rue des Re'collets, where his faithful servant 
 sought the Rue du Temple. 
 
 When Henry overtook the King, Charles was engaged in
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 279 
 
 such an interesting conversation with the Due d' Alenqon, on the 
 subject of the weather, the age of the wild boar which was a 
 recluse, and as to where he had made his lair, that he did not 
 notice, or pretended he did not notice, that Henry had lagged 
 behind a moment. 
 
 In the meantime Marguerite had watched each countenance 
 from afar and thought she perceived a certain embarrass- 
 ment in the eyes of her brother every time she looked at him. 
 Madame de Nevers was abandoning herself to mad gayety, for 
 Coconnas, supremely happy that day, was making numberless 
 jokes near her to make the ladies laugh. 
 
 As to La Mole he had already twice found an opportunity 
 to kiss Marguerite's white scarf with gold fringe, without the 
 act, which was carried out with the skill usual to lovers, having 
 been seen by more than three or four. 
 
 About a quarter-past eight they reached Bondy. The first 
 thought of Charles IX. was to find out if the wild boar had 
 held out. 
 
 The boar was in his lair, and the outrider who had turned 
 him aside answered for him, A breakfast was ready. The 
 King drank a glass of Hungarian wine. Charles IX. invited 
 the ladies to take seats at table, and in his impatience to pass 
 away the time set out to visit the kennels and the roosts, giv- 
 ing orders not to unsaddle his horse, as he said he had never 
 had a better or a stronger mount. 
 
 While the King was taking this stroll, the Due de Guise 
 arrived. He was armed for war rather than for hunting, and 
 was accompanied by twenty or thirty gentlemen equipped in 
 like manner. He asked at once for the King, joined him, and 
 returned talking with him. 
 
 At exactly nine o'clock the King himself gave the signal to 
 start, and each one mounted and set out to the meet. During 
 the ride Henry found another opportunity to be near his 
 wife. 
 
 " Well," said he, " do you know anything new ? " 
 
 " No," replied Marguerite, " unless it is that my brother 
 Charles looks at you strangely." 
 
 " I have noticed it," said Henry. 
 
 " Have you taken precautions ? " 
 
 " I have on a coat of mail, and at my side a good Spanish 
 hunting knife, as sharp as a razor, and as pointed as a needle. 
 I could pierce pistols with it."
 
 280 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " In that case," said Marguerite, " God protect you ! " 
 The outrider in charge of the hunt made a sign. They had 
 reached the lair. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 MAURBVEL. 
 
 WHILE all this careless, light-hearted youth, apparently so 
 at least, was scattering like a gilded whirlwind along the road 
 to Bondy, Catharine, still rolling up the precious parchment to 
 which King Charles had just affixed his signature, admitted 
 into her room a man to whom, a few days before, her captain 
 of the guards had carried a letter, addressed to Rue de la 
 Cerisaie, near the Arsenal. 
 
 A broad silk band like a badge of mourning hid one of the 
 man's eyes, showing only the other eye, two prominent cheek- 
 bones, and the curve of a vulture's nose, while a grayish beard 
 covered the lower part of his face. He wore a long thick 
 cloak, beneath which one .might have imagined a whole arsenal. 
 Besides this, although it was not the custom of those called to 
 court, he wore at his side a long campaign sword, broad, and 
 with a double blade. One of his hands was hidden beneath 
 his cloak, and never left the handle of a long dagger. 
 
 " Ah ! you here, monsieur ? " said the queen seating her- 
 self ; " you know that I promised you after Saint Bartholomew, 
 when you rendered us such signal service, not to let you be 
 idle. The opportunity has arisen, or rather I have made it. 
 Thank me, therefore." 
 
 " Madame, I humbly thank your majesty," replied the man 
 with the black bandage, in a reserved voice at once low and 
 insolent. 
 
 " A fine opportunity ; you will not find another such in 
 your whole life. Make the most of it, therefore." 
 
 " I am waiting, madame, only after the preamble, I fear " 
 
 " That the commission may not be much ? Are not those 
 who wish to advance fond of such commissions ? The one of 
 which I speak would be envied by the Tavannes and even by 
 the De Guises." 
 
 " Ah ! madame," said the man, " believe me, I am at your 
 majesty's orders, whatever they may be."
 
 MAU REVEL. 281 
 
 " In that case, read," said Catharine. 
 
 She handed him the parchment. The man read it and 
 grew pale. 
 
 " What ! " he exclaimed, " an order to arrest the King of 
 Navarre ! " 
 
 " Well ! what is there strange in that ? " 
 
 " But a king, madame ! Keally, I think I fear I am not of 
 sufficiently high rank." 
 
 " My confidence makes you the first gentleman of my court, 
 Monsieur de Maurevel," said Catharine. 
 
 "1 thank your majesty," said the assassin so moved that he 
 seemed to hesitate. 
 
 " You will obey, then ? " 
 
 " If your majesty orders it, is it not my duty ? " 
 
 " Yes, I order it." 
 
 " Then I will obey." 
 
 " How shall you go to work ? " 
 
 " Why, madame, I do not know, I should greatly like to be 
 guided by your majesty." 
 
 " You fear noise ? " 
 
 I admit it." 
 
 " Take a dozen sure men, if necessary." 
 
 " I understand, of course, that your majesty will permit me 
 to do the best I can for myself, and I am grateful to you for 
 this ; but where shall I arrest the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Where would it best please you to arrest him ? " 
 
 " In some place in which I should be warranted in doing so, 
 if possible, even by his Majesty." 
 
 " Yes, I understand, in some royal palace ; what do you say 
 to the Louvre, for instance ? " 
 
 " Oh, if your majesty would permit it, that would be a great 
 favor." 
 
 " You will arrest him, then, in the Louvre." 
 
 " In what part ? " 
 
 "In his own room." 
 
 Maurevel bowed. 
 
 " When, madame ? " 
 
 " This evening, or rather to-night." 
 
 " Very well, madame. Now, will your majesty deign to 
 inform me on one point ? " 
 
 On what point ? " 
 
 " About the respect due to his position."
 
 282 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Eespect ! position ! " said Catharine, " why, then, you do 
 not know, monsieur, that the King of France owes respect to 
 no one in his kingdom, whoever he may be, recognizing no 
 position as equal to his own ? " 
 
 Maurevel bowed a second time. 
 
 " I insist on this point, however, madame, if your majesty 
 will allow me." 
 
 " I will, monsieur." 
 
 " If the king contests the authenticity of the order, which 
 is not probable, but " 
 
 " On the contrary, monsieur, he is sure to do so." 
 
 "He will contest it?" 
 
 " Without a doubt." 
 
 " And consequently he will refuse to obey it ? " 
 
 " I fear so." 
 
 " And he will resist ? " 
 
 Probably." 
 
 " Ah ! the devil ! " said Maurevel ; " and in that case " 
 
 " In what case ? " said Catharine, not moving her eyes from 
 him. 
 
 " Why, in case he resists, what is to be done ? " 
 
 " What do you do when you are given an order from the 
 King, that is, when you represent the King, and when there is 
 any resistance, Monsieur de Maurevel ? " 
 
 "Why, madame," said the sbirro, "when I am honored 
 with such an order, and when this order refers to a simple 
 gentleman, I kill him." 
 
 " I told you, monsieur," said Catharine, " and I scarcely 
 think that sufficient time has elapsed for you to have forgotten 
 it, that the King of France recognizes no position in his king- 
 dom, and that after him the greatest are simple gentlemen." 
 
 Maurevel grew pale, for he was beginning to comprehend. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " he cried, " kill the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Why, who is speaking of killing him ? Where is the 
 order to kill him ? The King wishes him taken to the Bastille, 
 and the order contains nothing more. If he lets himself be 
 arrested, very good ; but as he will not let himself be arrested, 
 as he will resist, as he will endeavor to kill you " 
 
 Maurevel grew paler. 
 
 " You will defend yourself," continued Catharine. " One 
 cannot ask a brave man like you to let himself be killed with- 
 out defending himself ; and in defending yourself, what can
 
 MAU REVEL. 283 
 
 you expect ? You must let come what may. You under- 
 stand me, do you not ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame ; and yet " 
 
 " Come, do you want me to write dead or alive after the 
 words order to arrest ? " 
 
 11 1 confess, madame, that that would do away with my 
 scruples." 
 
 " Well, it must be done, of course, since you do not think 
 the order can be carried out without it." 
 
 And Catharine shrugged her shoulders, unrolled the parch- 
 ment with one hand, and wrote with the other : " dead or alive." 
 
 " Now," said she, " do you consider the order all right ? " 
 
 " Yes, madarae," replied Maurevel ; " but I beg your maj- 
 esty to leave the carrying out of the entire affair to me." 
 
 " What have I said that will interfere with it ? " 
 
 " Your majesty told me to take a dozen men." 
 
 " Yes, to make sure " 
 
 " Well, I ask permission to take only six." 
 
 Why so ? " 
 
 "Because, madame, if anything happens to the prince, as it 
 probably will, it would be easy to excuse six men for having 
 been afraid of losing the prisoner, but no one would excuse a 
 dozen guards for not having let half of their number be killed 
 before laying hands on royalty." 
 
 " Fine royalty, in truth, which has no kingdom." 
 
 " Madame," said Maurevel, " it is not the kingdom which 
 makes the king : it is birth." 
 
 " Very well," said Catharine ; " do as you please. Only I 
 must warn you that I do not wish you to leave the Louvre." 
 
 " But, madame, to get my men together ? " 
 
 " Have you not a sort of sergeant whom you can charge with 
 this duty ? " 
 
 " I have my lackey, who not only is a faithful fellow, but 
 who has even occasionally aided me in this sort of thing." 
 
 " Send for him, and confer with him. You know the cham- 
 ber hung with the King's arms, do you not ? Well, your 
 breakfast shall be served there ; and from there you shall give 
 your orders. The place will aid you to collect your wits in case 
 they are scattered. Then when my son returns from the hunt, 
 you are to go into my oratory, and wait until the time comes." 
 
 " But how are we to get into the room ? Probably the king 
 suspects something, and he will shut himself up in it."
 
 284 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " I have a duplicate key to every door," said Catharine, 
 " and the bolts have been removed from Henry's room. 
 Adieu, Monsieur de Maurevel, for a while. I will have you 
 taken to the King's armory. Ah ! by the way ! remember that 
 the order of a King must be carried out before anything else. 
 No excuse is admissible ; a defeat, even a failure, would com- 
 promise the honor of the King. It is a serious matter." 
 
 And Catharine, without giving Maurevel time to answer, 
 called Monsieur de Nancey, the captain of the guards, and 
 ordered him to conduct Maurevel to the king's armory. 
 
 " My God ! " exclaimed Maurevel as he followed his guide, 
 " I have risen to the hierarchy of assassination ; from a simple 
 gentleman to a captain, from a captain to an admiral, from an 
 admiral to a king without a crown. Who knows if I shall not 
 some day be a king with a crown ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE HUNT. 
 
 THE outrider who had turned aside the boar and who had 
 told the King that the animal had not left the place was not 
 mistaken. Scarcely were the bloodhounds put on the trail 
 before it plunged into the thickets, and from a cluster of thorn 
 bushes drove out the boar which the outrider had recognized 
 by its track. It was a recluse ; that is, the strangest kind of 
 animal. 
 
 It started straight ahead and crossed the road fifty feet 
 from the King, followed only by the bloodhound which had 
 driven it back. The first relay of dogs was at once let loose, 
 twenty in number, which sprang after it. 
 
 Hunting was Charles' chief passion. Scarcely had the 
 animal crossed the road before he started after it, followed by 
 the Due d'Alenqon and Henry, to whom a sign had indicated 
 that he must not leave Charles. 
 
 The rest of the hunters followed the King. 
 
 At the time of which we are writing, the royal forests 
 were far from being what they are to-day, great parks inter- 
 sected by carriage roads. Then traffic was almost wanting. 
 Kings had not yet conceived the idea of being merchants, and
 
 THE HUNT. 285 
 
 of dividing their woods into fellings, copses, and forests. The 
 trees, planted, not by learned foresters, but by the hand of 
 God, who threw the grain to the will of the winds, were not 
 arranged in quincunxes, but grew as they pleased, as they do 
 to-day in any virginal forest of America. In short, a forest in 
 those days was a den of the wild boar, the stag, the wolf, and 
 robbers ; and a dozen paths starting from one point starred 
 that of Bondy, surrounded by a circular road as the circle of a 
 wheel surrounds its fellies. 
 
 To carry the comparison further, the nave would not be a 
 bad representation of the single point where the parties meet 
 in the centre of the wood, where the wandering hunters rally 
 to start out again towards the point where the lost animal 
 again appears. 
 
 At the end of a quarter of an hour there happened what 
 always happens in such cases. Insurmountable obstacles rose 
 in the path of the hunters, the cries of the dogs were lost in 
 the distance, and the King returned to the meeting-place curs- 
 ing and swearing as was his habit. 
 
 " Well, D' Alencon ! Well, Henriot ! " said he, " there you 
 are, by Heaven, as calm and unruffled as nuns following their 
 abbess. That is not hunting. Why, D'Alenqon, you look as 
 though you had just stepped out of a band-box, and you are so 
 saturated with perfumery that if you were to pass between the 
 boar and my dogs, you might put them off the scent. And 
 you, Henry, where is your spear, your musket ? Let us see ! " 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " of what use is a musket ? I know 
 that your Majesty likes to shoot the beast when the dogs have 
 caught it. As to a spear, I am clumsy enough with this 
 weapon, which is not much used among our mountains, where 
 we hunt the bear with a simple dagger." 
 
 " By Heavens, Henry, when you return to your Pyrenees 
 you will have to send me a whole cartload of bears. It must 
 be a pretty hunt that is carried on at such close quarters with 
 an animal which might strangle us. Listen, I think I hear 
 the dogs. No, I am mistaken." The King took his horn and 
 blew a blast ; several horns answered him. Suddenly an out- 
 rider appeared who blew another blast. 
 
 " The boar ! the boar ! " cried the King. 
 
 He galloped off, followed by the rest of the hunters who 
 had rallied round him. 
 
 The outrider was not mistaken. As the King advanced they
 
 286 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 began to hear the barking of the pack, which consisted of more 
 than sixty dogs, for one after another they had let loose all 
 the relays placed at the points the boar had already passed. 
 The King saw the boar again, and taking advantage of a clump 
 of high trees, he rushed after him, blowing his horn with all 
 his might. 
 
 For some time the princes followed him. But the King had 
 such a strong horse and was so carried away by his ardor, and 
 he, rode over such rough roads and through such thick under- 
 brush, that at first the ladies, then the Due de Guise and his 
 gentlemen, and finally the two princes, were forced to abandon 
 him. Tavannes held out for a time longer, but at length he too 
 gave up. 
 
 Except Charles and a few outriders who, excited over a 
 promised reward, would not leave the King, everyone had 
 gathered about the open space in the centre of the wood. The 
 two princes were together on a narrow path, the Due de Guise 
 and his gentlemen had halted a hundred feet from them. 
 Further on were the ladies. 
 
 " Does it not really seem," said the Due d'Alenqon to Henry, 
 indicating by a wink the Due de Guise, " that that man with 
 his escort sheathed in steel is the real king ? Poor princes 
 that we are, he does not even honor us by a glance." 
 
 " Why should he treat us better than we treat our own 
 relatives ? " replied Henry. " Why, brother, are not you and I 
 prisoners at the court of France, hostages from our party ? " 
 
 Due Franqois started at these words, and looked at Henry 
 as if to provoke further explanation ; but Henry had said more 
 than he usually did and was silent. 
 
 " What do you mean, Henry ? " asked the Due Franqois, 
 visibly annoyed that his brother-in-law by stopping had left 
 him to open the conversation. 
 
 " I say, brother," said Henry, " that all these men who are 
 so well armed, whose duty seems to be not to lose sight of us, 
 look exactly like guards preventing two people from running 
 away." 
 
 " Running away ? why ? how ? " asked D'Alenqon, admir- 
 ably successful in his pretended surprise and innocence. 
 
 "You have a magnificent mount, Francois," said Henry, 
 following out his thoughts, while apparently changing the 
 conversation. " I am sure he could make seven leagues in an 
 hour, and twenty between now and noon. It is a fine day.
 
 THE HUNT. 287 
 
 And one feels like saying good-by. See the beautiful cross- 
 road. Does it not tempt you, Franqois ? As to me, my spurs 
 burn me." 
 
 Francois did not reply. But he first turned red and then 
 white. Then he bent his head, as if listening for sounds from 
 the hunters. 
 
 " The news from Poland is having its effect," said Henry, 
 " and my dear brother-in-law has his plans. He would like me 
 to escape, but I shall not do so by myself." 
 
 Scarcely had this thought passed through his mind before 
 several new converts, who had come to court during the past 
 two or three months, galloped up and smiled pleasantly on 
 the two princes. The Due d'Alenqon, provoked by Henry's 
 remarks, had but one word to say, one gesture to make, and it 
 was evident that thirty or forty horsemen, who at that moment 
 gathered around them as though to oppose the troop belonging 
 to Monsieur de Guise, favored his flight ; but he turned aside 
 his head, and, raising his horn to his lips, he sounded the 
 rally. But the newcomers, as if they thought that the hesita- 
 tion on the part of the Due d'Alencon was due to the presence 
 of the followers of the De Guises, had by degrees glided among 
 them and the two princes, and had drawn themselves up in eche- 
 lons with a strategic skill which showed the usual military dis- 
 position. In fact, to reach the Due d'Alencon and the King of 
 Xavarre it would have been necessary to pass through this 
 company, while, as far as eye could reach, a perfectly free road 
 stretched out before the brothers. 
 
 Suddenly from among the trees, ten feet from the King 
 of Navarre, another gentleman appeared, as yet unperceived 
 by the two princes. Henry was trying to think who he was, 
 when the gentleman raised his hat and Henry recognized him 
 as the Vicomte de Turenne, one of the leaders of the Protes- 
 tant party, who was supposed to be in Poitou. 
 
 The vicomte even ventured to make a sign which clearly 
 meant, 
 
 " Will you come ? " 
 
 But having consulted the impassable face and dull eye of 
 the Due d'Alenqon, Henry turned -his head two or three times 
 over his shoulder as if something was the matter with his neck 
 or doublet. 
 
 This was a refusal. The vicomte understood it, put both 
 spurs to his horse and disappeared in the thicket. At that
 
 288 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 moment the pack was heard approaching, then they saw the 
 boar followed by the dogs cross the end of the path where they 
 were all gathered ; then Charles IX., like an infernal hunter, 
 hatless, the horn at his mouth blowing enough to burst his 
 lungs ; three or four outriders followed. Tavannes had dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 " The King ! " cried the Due d'Alenqon, and he rode after 
 him. 
 
 Reassured by the presence of his good friends, Henry signed 
 to them not to leave, and advanced towards the ladies. 
 
 " Well ! " said Marguerite, taking a few steps towards him. 
 
 " Well, madame," said Henry, " we are hunting the wild 
 boar." 
 
 " Is that all ? " 
 
 " Yes, the wind has changed since morning ; but I believe 
 you predicted this." 
 
 " These changes of the wind are bad for hunting, are they 
 not, monsieur ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes," said Henry ; " they sometimes upset all plans, which 
 have to be made over again.'' Just then the barking of the 
 dogs began to be heard as they rapidly approached, and a 
 sort of noisy dust warned the hunters to be on their guard. 
 Each one raised his head and listened. 
 
 Almost immediately the boar appeared again, but instead of 
 returning to the woods, he followed the road that led directly 
 to the open space where were the ladies, the gentlemen paying 
 court to them, and the hunters who had given up the chase. 
 
 Behind the animal came thirty or forty great dogs, panting ; 
 then, twenty feet behind them, King Charles without hat or 
 cloak, his clothes torn by the thorns, his face and hands covered 
 with blood. 
 
 One or two outriders were with him. 
 
 The King stopped blowing his horn only to urge on his dogs, 
 and stopped urging on his dogs only to return to his horn. 
 He saw no one. Had his horse stumbled, he might have cried 
 out as did Richard III. : " My kingdom for a horse ! " But 
 the horse seemed as eager as his master. His feet did not 
 touch the ground, and his nostrils breathed forth fire. Boar, 
 dogs, and King passed like a dream. 
 
 " Halloo ! halloo ! " cried the King as he went by, raising 
 the horn to his bloody lips. 
 
 A few feet behind him came the Due d'Alengon and two
 
 THE HUNT. 289 
 
 outriders. But the horses of the others had given out or else 
 they were lost. 
 
 Everyone started after the King, for it was evident that the 
 boar would soon be taken. 
 
 In fact, at the end of about ten minutes the animal left the 
 path it had been following, and sprang into the bushes ; but 
 reaching an open space, it ran to a rock and faced the dogs. 
 
 At the shouts from Charles, who had followed it, everyone 
 drew near. 
 
 They arrived at an interesting point in the chase. The 
 boar seemed determined to make a desperate defence. The 
 dogs, excited by a run of more than three hours, rushed on it 
 with a fury which increased the shouts and the oaths of the 
 King. 
 
 All the hunters formed a circle, the King somewhat in ad- 
 vance, behind him the Due d'Alenqon armed with a musket, 
 and Henry, who had nothing but his simple hunting knife. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon unfastened his musket and lighted the 
 match. Henry moved his knife in its sheath. 
 
 As to the Due de Guise, disdainful of all the details of 
 hunting, he stood somewhat apart from the others with his 
 gentlemen. The women, gathered together in a group, formed a 
 counterpart to that of the duke. 
 
 Everyone who was anything of a hunter stood with eyes 
 fixed on the animal in anxious expectation. 
 
 To one side an outrider was endeavoring to restrain the 
 King's two mastiffs, which, encased in their coats of mail, 
 were waiting to take the boar by the ears, howling and jump- 
 ing about in such a manner that every instant one might think 
 they would burst their chains. 
 
 The boar made a wonderful resistance. Attacked at once 
 by forty or more dogs, which enveloped it like a roaring tide, 
 which covered it by their motley carpet, which on all sides 
 was striving to reach its skin, wrinkled with bristles, at each 
 blow of its snout it hurled a dog ten feet in the air. The dogs 
 fell back, torn to pieces, and, with entrails dragging, at once 
 returned to the fray. Charles, with hair on end, bloodshot 
 eyes, and inflated nostrils, leaned over the neck of his dripping 
 horse shouting furious " halloos ! " 
 
 In less than ten minutes twenty dogs were out of the fight. 
 
 " The mastiffs ! " cried Charles ; "the mastiffs ! " 
 
 At this shout the outrider opened the carbine-swivels of the
 
 290 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 leashes, and the two bloodhounds rushed into the midst of the 
 carnage, overturning everything, scattering everything, making 
 a way with their coats of mail to the animal, which they seized 
 by the ear. 
 
 The boar, knowing that it was caught, clinched its teeth 
 both from rage and pain. 
 
 " Bravo, Duredent ! Bravo, Risquetout ! " cried Charles. 
 " Courage, dogs ! A spear ! a spear ! " 
 
 " Do you not want my musket ? " said the Due d'Alengon. 
 
 " No," cried the King, " no ; one cannot feel a bullet when 
 he shoots ; there is no fun in it ; but one can feel a spear. A 
 spear ! a spear ! " 
 
 They handed the King a hunting spear hardened by fire 
 and armed with a steel point. 
 
 " Take care, brother ! " cried Marguerite. 
 
 " Come ! come ! " cried the Duchesse de Nevers. " Do not 
 miss, sire. Give the beast a good stab ! " 
 
 " Be easy, duchess ! " said Charles. 
 
 Couching his lance, he darted at the boar which, held by the 
 two bloodhounds, could not escape the blow. But at sight of 
 the shining lance it turned to one side, and the weapon, 
 instead of sinking into its breast, glided over its shoulder and 
 blunted itself against the rock to which the animal had run. 
 
 " A thousand devils ! " cried the King. " I have missed him. 
 A spear ! a spear ! " 
 
 And bending back, as horsemen do when they are going to 
 take a fence, he hurled his useless lance from him. 
 
 An outrider advanced and offered him another. 
 
 But at that moment, as though it foresaw the fate which 
 awaited it, and which it wished to resist, by a violent effort the 
 boar snatched its torn ears from the teeth of the bloodhounds, 
 and with eyes bloody, protruding, hideous, its breath burning 
 like the heat from a furnace, with chattering teeth and lowered 
 head it sprang at the King's horse. Charles was too good a 
 hunter not to have foreseen this. He turned his horse, which 
 began to rear, but he had miscalculated the pressure, and the 
 horse, too tightly reined in, or perhaps giving way to his fright, 
 fell over backwards. The spectators gave a terrible cry : the 
 horse had fallen, and the King's leg was under him. 
 
 "Your hand, sire, give me your hand," said Henry. 
 
 The King let go his horse's bridle, seized the saddle with his 
 left hand, and tried to draw out his hunting knife with his
 
 THE HUNT. 291 
 
 right ; but the knife, pressed into his belt by the weight of 
 his body, would not come from its sheath. 
 
 " The boar ! the boar ! " cried Charles ; " it is on me, D'Alen- 
 qon ! on me ! " 
 
 The horse, recovering himself as if he understood his mas- 
 ter's danger, stretched his muscles, and had already succeeded 
 in getting up on its three legs, when, at the cry from his 
 brother, Henry saw the Due Francois grow frightfully pale 
 and raise the musket to his shoulder, but, instead of striking 
 the boar, which was but two feet from the King, the ball broke 
 the knee of the horse, which fell down again, his nose touching 
 the ground. At that instant the boar, with its snout, tore 
 Charles's boot. 
 
 " Oh ! '' murmured D'Alenqon with ashy lips, " I suppose 
 that the Due d'Anjou is King of France, and that I am King 
 of Poland." 
 
 The boar was about to attack Charles's leg, when suddenly 
 the latter felt someone raise his arm ; then he saw the flash of a 
 sharp-pointed blade which was driven into the shoulder of the 
 boar and disappeared up to its guard, while a hand gloved in 
 steel turned aside the head already poked under his clothes. 
 
 As the horse had risen, Charles had succeeded in freeing 
 his leg, and now raising himself heavily, he saw that he was 
 dripping with blood, whereupon he became as pale as a corpse. 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, who still knelt holding the boar pierced 
 to the heart, " sire, it is nothing, I turned aside the teeth, and 
 your Majesty is not hurt." 
 
 Then he rose, let go the knife, and the boar fell back pour- 
 ing forth more blood from its mouth than from its wound. 
 
 Charles, surrounded by a breathless crowd, assailed by cries 
 of terror which would have dashed the greatest courage, was 
 for a moment ready to fall on the dying animal. But he 
 recovered himself and, turning toward the King of Navarre, 
 he pressed his hand with a look in which shone the first spark 
 of feeling that had been roused in his heart for twenty-four 
 years. 
 
 " Thank you, Henri ot ! " said he. 
 
 " My poor brother ! " cried D'Alenc,on, approaching Charles. 
 
 " Ah ! it is you, D' Alenqon, is it ? " said the King. " Well, 
 famous marksman that you are, what became of your ball ? " 
 
 " It must have flattened itself against the boar," said the 
 duke.
 
 292 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Well ! my God ! " exclaimed Henry, with admirably as- 
 sumed surprise ; " you see, Franqois, your bullet has broken 
 the leg of his Majesty's horse. That is strange ! " 
 
 What ! " said the King ; " is that true ? " 
 
 " It is possible," said the duke terrified ; " my hand shook 
 so!" 
 
 " The fact is that for a clever marksman that was a strange 
 thing to do, Franqois ! " said Charles frowning. " A second 
 time, Henriot, I thank you ! " 
 
 " Gentlemen," continued the King, " let us return to Paris ; I 
 have had enough of this." 
 
 Marguerite came up to congratulate Henry. 
 
 " Yes, indeed, Margot," said Charles, " congratulate him, 
 and sincerely too, for without him the King of France would 
 be Henry III." 
 
 " Alas, madame," said the Bearnais, " Monsieur le Due 
 d'Anjou, who is already my enemy, will be angrier than ever 
 at me. But what can you expect ? One does what one can. 
 Ask Monsieur d'Alenqon." 
 
 And bowing, he drew his knife from the wild boar's body 
 and dug it two or three times into the earth to wipe off the 
 blood.
 
 PART II. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 FRATERNITY. 
 
 IN saving the life of Charles, Henry had done more than 
 save the life of a man, he had prevented three kingdoms 
 from changing sovereigns. 
 
 Had Charles IX. been killed, the Due d'Anjou would have 
 become King of France, and the Due d'Alenqon in all prob- 
 ability would have been King of Poland. As to Navarre, as 
 Monsieur le Due d'Anjou was the lover of Madame de Conde, 
 its crown would probably have paid to the husband the com- 
 placency of his wife. Now in all this no good would have 
 come to Henry. He would have changed masters, that would 
 have been all. Instead of Charles IX. who tolerated him, 
 he would have seen the Due d'Anjou on the throne of France, 
 and being of one heart and mind with his mother Catharine, 
 the latter had sworn that he should die, and he would not 
 have failed to keep his oath. All these thoughts entered his 
 mind when the wild boar sprang at Charles IX., and we know 
 that the result of his rapid thinking was that his own life was 
 attached to that of Charles IX. 
 
 Charles IX. had been saved by an act of devotion, the motive 
 of which the King could not fathom. But Marguerite had 
 understood, and she had admired that strange courage of 
 Henry which, like flashes of lightning, shone only in a storm. 
 
 Unfortunately it was not all to have escaped the kingd om of 
 the Due d'Anjou. Henry had to make himself king. He had 
 to dispute Navarre with the Due d'AlenQon and with the 
 Prince of Conde ; above all he had to leave the court where 
 one walked only between two precipices, and go away protected 
 by a son of France. 
 
 As he returned from Bondy Henry pondered deeply on the 
 
 293
 
 294 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 situation. On arriving at the Louvre his plan was formed. 
 Without removing his riding-boots, just as he was, covered 
 with dust and blood, he betook himself to the apartments of 
 the Due d'Alenqon, whom he found striding up and down in 
 great agitation. 
 
 On perceiving him the prince gave a start of surprise. 
 
 " Yes," said Henry, taking him by both hands ; " yes, I 
 understand, my good brother, you are angry because I was the 
 first to call the King's attention to the fact that your ball 
 struck the leg of his horse instead of the boar, as you intended 
 it should. But what can you expect ? I could not prevent 
 an exclamation of surprise. Besides, the King would have 
 noticed it, would he not?" 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt," murmured D'Alenqon. " And yet I 
 can think of it only as an evil intention on your part to 
 denounce me as you did, and which, as you yourself saw, had 
 no result except to make my brother Charles suspect me, and 
 to make hard feeling between us." 
 
 " We will return to this in a few moments. As to my good 
 or evil intentions regarding you, I have come to you on pur- 
 pose that you may judge them." 
 
 " Very good ! " said D'Alenqon with his customary reserve. 
 " Speak, Henry, I am listening." 
 
 " When I have spoken, Franqois, you will readily see what 
 
 my intentions are, for the confidence I am going to place in 
 
 you does away with all reserve and prudence. And when I 
 
 have told you, you will be able to ruin me by a single word ! " 
 
 . " What is it ? " said Franqois, beginning to be anxious. 
 
 " And yet," continued Henry, " I have hesitated a long time 
 to speak to you of the thing which brings me here, especially 
 after the way in which you turned a deaf ear to-day." 
 
 " Really," said Francois, growing pale, " I do not know 
 what you mean, Henry." 
 
 " Brother, your interests are too dear to me not to tell you 
 that the Huguenots have made advances to me." 
 
 " Advances ! " said D'Alenqon. " What advances ? " 
 
 " One of them, Monsieur de Mouy of Saint Phal, the son of 
 the brave De Mouy, assassinated by Maurevel, you know " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Well, he came at the risk of his life to show me that I 
 was in captivity." 
 
 " Ah ! indeed ! and what did you say to him ? "
 
 FRA TERNITY. 295 
 
 " Brother, you know that I love Charles dearly. He has 
 saved my life, and the queen mother has been like a real 
 mother to me. So I refused all the offers he made me." 
 
 " What were these offers ? " 
 
 " The Huguenots want to reconstruct the throne of Navarre, 
 and as in reality this throne belongs to me by inheritance, 
 they offered it to me." 
 
 " Yes ; and Monsieur de Mouy, instead of the consent he 
 expected to ask for, has received your relinquish men t ? " 
 
 " My formal relinquishmeut even in writing. But since," 
 continued Henry. 
 
 " You have repented, brother ? " interrupted D'Alenqon. 
 
 " No, I merely thought I noticed that Monsieur de Mouy 
 had become discontented with me, and was paying his visits 
 elsewhere." 
 
 " Where ? " asked Franqois quickly. 
 
 " I do not know. At the Prince of Conde's perhaps." 
 
 " Yes, that might be," said the duke. 
 
 " Besides," went on Henry, " I have positive knowledge as 
 to the leader he has chosen." 
 
 Francois grew pale. 
 
 " But," continued Henry, " the Huguenots are divided 
 among themselves, and De Mouy, brave and loyal as he is, 
 represents only one-half of the party. Now this other half, 
 which is not to be scorned, has not given up the hope of having 
 Henry of Navarre on the throne, who having hesitated at first 
 may have reflected since." 
 
 You think this ? " 
 
 " Oh, every day I receive proofs of it. The troops which 
 joined us at the hunt, did you notice of what men it was com- 
 posed ? " 
 
 " Yes, of converted gentlemen." 
 
 " Did you recognize the leader of the troop who signed to 
 me ? " 
 
 " Yes, it was the Vicomte de Turenne." 
 
 " Did you know what they wanted of me ? " 
 
 " Yes, they proposed to you to escape." 
 
 " Then," said Henry to Franqois, who was growing restless, 
 " there is evidently a second party which wants something 
 else besides what Monsieur de Mouy wants." 
 
 " A second party ? " 
 
 " Yes, and a very powerful one, I tell you, so that in order
 
 296 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 to succeed it is necessary to unite the two Turenne and De 
 Mouy. The conspiracy progresses, the troops are ready, the 
 signal alone is waited for. Now in this supreme situation, 
 which demands prompt solution on my part, I have come to 
 two decisions between which I am wavering. I have come to 
 submit these decisions to you as to a friend." 
 
 " Say rather as to a brother." 
 
 " Yes, as to a brother," went on Henry. 
 
 " Speak, then, I am listening." 
 
 " In the first place I ought to explain to you the condition 
 of my mind, my dear Francois. No desire, no ambition, no 
 ability. I am an honest country gentleman, poor, sensual, and 
 timid. The career of conspirator offers me indignities poorly 
 compensated for even by the certain prospect of a crown." 
 
 "Ah, brother," said FraiiQois, "you do wrong. Sad indeed 
 is the position of a prince whose fortune is limited by the 
 boundary of the paternal estate or by a man in a career for 
 honors! I do not believe, therefore, in what you tell me." 
 
 " And yet what I tell you is so true, brother, that if I thought 
 I had a true friend, I would resign in his favor the power 
 which this party wishes to give me ; but," he added with a 
 sigh, " I have none." 
 
 " Perhaps you have. You probably are mistaken." 
 
 " No, venire saint gris ! " said Henry, " except yourself, 
 brother, I see no one who is attached to me ; so that rather 
 than let fail an attempt which might bring to light some un- 
 worthy man, I truly prefer to inform my brother the King of 
 what is taking place. I will mention no names, I will desig- 
 nate neither country nor date, but I will foretell the catas- 
 trophe." 
 
 " Great God ! " exclaimed D'Alencjon unable to repress his 
 terror, " what do you mean ? What ! you, you, the sole hope 
 of the party since the death of the admiral ; you, a converted 
 Huguenot, a poor convert, or at least such you were thought to 
 be, you would raise the knife against your brothers ! Henry, 
 Henry, by doing this, do you know that you would be de- 
 livering to a second Saint Bartholomew all the Calviuists in 
 the kingdom ? Do you know that Catharine is waiting for 
 just such a chance to exterminate all who have survived ?" 
 
 And the duke trembling, his face spotted with red and white 
 blotches, pressed Henry's hand to beg him to give up this 
 idea which would ruin him.
 
 FRATERNITY. 297 
 
 " What ! " said Henry, with an expression of perfect good- 
 humor, " do you think there would be so much trouble, Fran- 
 Qois ? With the King's word, however, it seems to me that I 
 should avoid it." 
 
 " The word of King Charles IX., Henry ! Did not the 
 admiral have it ? Did not Teligny have it ? Did not you 
 yourself have it ? Oh, Henry, I tell you if you do this, you 
 will ruin us all. Not only them, but all who have had direct 
 or indirect relations with them." 
 
 Henry seemed to ponder an instant. 
 
 " If I were an important prince at court," said he, " I should 
 act differently. In your place, for instance, in your place, 
 Franqois, a son of France, and probable heir to the crown " 
 
 Francois shook his head ironically. 
 
 " In my place," said he, " what would you do ? " 
 
 " In your place, brother," replied Henry, " I should place 
 myself at the head of the movement and direct it. My name 
 and my credit should answer to my conscience for the life of 
 the rebellious, and I should derive some benefit first for my- 
 self, then for the King, perhaps, from an enterprise which 
 otherwise might do the greatest injury to France." 
 
 D'Alengon listened to these words with a joy which caused 
 every muscle of his face to expand. 
 
 " Do you think," said he, " that this method is practicable 
 and that it would save us all the disasters you foresee ? " 
 
 " I think so," said Henry. " The Huguenots love you. Your 
 bearing is modest, your position both high and interesting, and 
 the kindness you have always shown to those of the faith will 
 incline them to serve you." 
 
 " But," said D'Alenqon, " there is a division in the party. 
 Will those who want you want me ? " 
 
 " I will undertake to bring them together by two means." 
 
 " What means ? " 
 
 " First, by the confidence the leaders have in me ; then by 
 the fear that your highness, knowing their names " 
 
 " But who will tell me these names ? " 
 
 " I, venire saint gris ! " 
 
 " You will do that ? " 
 
 " Listen, Francois ; as I told you, you are the only one I love 
 at court," said Henry. " This, no doubt, is because you are per- 
 secuted like myself ; and then my wife, too, loves you with an 
 affection which is unequalled "
 
 298 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Francois flushed with pleasure. 
 
 " Believe me, brother," continued Henry ; " take this thing in 
 hand, reign in Navarre ; and provided you keep a place at your 
 table for me, and a fine forest in which to hunt, I shall con- 
 sider myself fortunate." 
 
 " Reign in Navarre ! " said the duke ; " but if " 
 
 " If the Due d'Anjou is chosen King of Poland ; is that it ? 
 I will finish your thought for you." 
 
 Frangois looked at Henry with something like terror. 
 
 " Well, listen, Francois," continued Henry, " since nothing 
 escapes you. This is how I reason : If the Due d'Anjou is 
 chosen King of Poland, and our brother Charles, God keep him ! 
 should happen to die, it is but two hundred leagues from Pan 
 to Paris, while it is four hundred from Paris to Cracovie. So 
 you would be here to receive the inheritance by the time 
 the King of Poland learned it was vacant. Then, if you are 
 satisfied with me, you could give me the kingdom of Navarre, 
 which would thenceforth be merely one of the jewels in your 
 crown. In that way I would accept it. The worst that could 
 happen to you would be that you would remain king there and 
 bring up a race of kings by living with me and my family, 
 while here, what are you ? a poor persecuted prince, a poor 
 third son of a king, the slave of two elder brothers, and one 
 whom a whim may send to the Bastille." 
 
 " Yes, yes," said Francois ; " I know that very well, so well 
 that I do not see why you should give up this plan you pro- 
 pose to me. Is there no throb there ? " 
 
 And the Due d'Alenqon put his hand on his brother's heart. 
 
 " There are," said Henry, smiling, " burdens too heavy for 
 some hands ; therefore I shall not try to raise this one ; fear 
 of fatigue is greater than the desire of possession." 
 
 " So, Henry, you really renounce it ? " 
 
 "I said so to De Mouy and I repeat it to you." 
 
 " But in such cases, my dear brother," said D'Alenqon, " one 
 does not say, one proves." 
 
 Henry breathed like a pugilist who feels his enemy's back 
 bending. 
 
 " I will prove it this evening," said he. " At nine o'clock we 
 shall have the names of the leaders and the plan of the under- 
 taking. I have already sent my renunciation to De Mouy." 
 
 Frangois took Henry's hand and pressed it effusively between 
 his own.
 
 FRA TERNITY. 299 
 
 At that moment Catharine entered the Due d'Alenqon's 
 rooms, unannounced, as was her habit. 
 
 " Together ! " said she, smiling ; " two good brothers, 
 truly ! " 
 
 " I trust so, madame," said Henry, with great coolness, while 
 the Due d'Alencon turned white from distress. 
 
 Henry stepped back to leave Catharine free to speak with 
 her son. 
 
 The queen mother drew a magnificent jewel from her bag. 
 
 " This clasp comes from Florence," said she. " I will give 
 it to you for the belt of your sword." 
 
 Then in a low tone : 
 
 " If to-night you hear any noise in your good brother Henry's 
 room, do not stir." 
 
 Francois pressed his mother's hand, and said : 
 
 " Will you allow me to show Henry the beautiful gift you 
 have just given me ? " 
 
 " You may do more. Give it to him in your name and in 
 mine, for I have ordered a second one just like it." 
 
 " You hear, Henry," said Franqois, " my good mother brings 
 me this jewel and doubles its value by allowing me to give it 
 to you." 
 
 Henry went into ecstasies over the beauty of the clasp, and 
 was enthusiastic in his thanks. When his delight had grown 
 calmer : 
 
 " My sou," said Catharine, " I feel somewhat indisposed 
 and I am going to bed ; your brother Charles is greatly 
 wearied from his fall and is going to do the same. So we 
 shall not have supper together this evening, but each will be 
 served in his own room. Oh, Henry, I forgot to congratulate 
 you on your bravery and quickness. You saved your king and 
 your brother, and you shall be rewarded for it." 
 
 " I am already rewarded, madame," replied Henry, bowing. 
 
 " By the feeling that you have done your duty ? " replied 
 Catharine. " That is not enough, and Charles and I will do 
 something to pay the debt we owe you." 
 
 " Everything that comes to me from you and my good brother 
 will be welcome, madame." 
 
 Then he bowed and withdrew. 
 
 " Ah ! brother Francois ! " thought Henry as he left, " I am 
 sure now of not leaving alone, and the conspiracy which had a 
 body has found a head and a heart. Only let us look out for
 
 300 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 ourselves. Catharine gives me a present, Catharine promises 
 me a reward. There is some deviltry beneath it all. I must 
 confer this evening with Marguerite." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE GRATITUDE OP KING CHARLES IX. 
 
 MAUREVEL had spent a part of the day in the King's armory ; 
 but when it was time for the hunters to return from the chase 
 Catharine sent him into her oratory with the guards who had 
 joined him. 
 
 Charles IX., informed by his nurse on his arrival that a man 
 had spent part of the day in his room, was at first very angry 
 that a stranger had been admitted into his apartments. But 
 his nurse described the man, saying that he was the same one 
 she herself had been ordered to admit one evening, and the 
 King realized that it was Maurevel. Then remembering the 
 order his mother had wrung from him that morning, he under- 
 stood everything. 
 
 " Oh, ho ! " murmured Charles, " the same day on which he 
 has saved my life. The time is badly chosen.'' 
 
 He started to go to his mother, but one thought deterred 
 him. 
 
 " By Heaven ! If I mention this to her it will result in a 
 never-ending discussion. Better for us to act by ourselves. 
 
 " Nurse," said he, " lock every door, and say to Queen Eliza- 
 beth l that I am suffering somewhat from the fall I have had, 
 and that I shall sleep alone to-night." 
 
 The nurse obeyed, and as it was not yet time for the execu- 
 tion of his plan, Charles sat himself down to compose poetry. 
 It was this occupation which made the time pass most quickly 
 for the King. Nine o'clock struck before he thought it was 
 more than seven. He counted the strokes of the clock one by 
 one, and at the last he rose. 
 
 " The devil ! " said he, " it is just time." Taking his hat and 
 cloak, he left his room by a secret door he had had made in 
 
 1 Charles IX. had married Elizabeth of Austria, daughter of Maximilian.
 
 THE GRATITUDE OF KING CHARLES IX. 301 
 
 the wall, of the existence of which even Catharine herself was 
 ignorant. 
 
 Charles went directly to Henry's apartments. On leaving 
 the Due d'Alenqon, the latter had gone to his rooom to change 
 his clothes and had left again at once. 
 
 " He probably has decided to take supper with Margot," said 
 the King. " He was very pleasant with her to-day, at least so 
 it seemed to me.'' 
 
 He went to the queen's apartments. Marguerite had brought 
 back with her the Duehesse de Nevers, Coconnas, and La Mole, 
 and was having a supper of preserves and pastry with them. 
 
 Charles knocked at the hall door, which was opened by 
 Gillonne. But at sight of the King she was so frightened that 
 she scarcely had sufficient presence of mind to courtesy, and in- 
 stead of running to inform her mistress of the august visit she 
 was to have, she let Charles enter without other warning than the 
 cry that had escaped her. The King crossed the antechamber, 
 and guided by the bursts of laughter advanced towards the 
 dining-room. 
 
 "Poor Henriot!" said he, "he is enjoying himself without 
 a thought of evil." 
 
 " It is I," said he, raising the portiere and showing ft smil- 
 ing face. 
 
 Marguerite gave a terrible cry. Smiling as he was, his 
 face appeared to her like the face of Medusa. Seated opposite 
 the door, she had recognized him at once. The two men turned 
 their backs to the King. 
 
 " Your Majesty ! " cried the queen, rising in terror. 
 
 The three other guests felt their heads begin to swim ; 
 Coconnas alone retained his self-possession. He rose also, but 
 with such tactful clumsiness that in doing so he upset the 
 table, and with it the glass, plate, and candles. Instantly 
 there was complete darkness and the silence of death. 
 
 " Run," said Coconnas to La Mole ; " quick ! quick ! " 
 
 La Mole did not wait to be told twice. Springing to the 
 side of the wall, he began groping with his hands for the 
 sleeping-room, that he might hide in the cabinet that opened 
 out of it and which he knew so well. But as he stepped 
 across the threshold he ran against a man who had just entered 
 by the secret corridor. 
 
 " What does all this mean ? " asked Charles, in the dark- 
 ness, in a tone which was beginning to betray a formidable
 
 302 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 accent of impatience. " Am I such a mar-joy that the sight of 
 me causes all this confusion ? Come, Henriot ! Henriot ! where 
 are you ? Answer me." 
 
 " We are saved ! " murmured Marguerite, seizing a hand 
 which she took for that of La Mole. " The King thinks my 
 husband is one of our guests." 
 
 " And I shall let him think so, madame, you may be sure," 
 said Henry, answering the queen in the same tone. 
 
 " Great God ! " cried Marguerite, hastily dropping the hand 
 she held, which was that of the King of Navarre. 
 
 " Silence ! " said Henry. 
 
 " In the name of a thousand devils ! why are you whisper- 
 ing in this way ?" cried Charles. "Henry, answer me ; where 
 are you ? " 
 
 " Here, sire," said the King of Navarre. 
 
 " The devil ! " said Coconnas, who was holding the Duchesse 
 de Nevers in a corner, " the plot thickens." 
 
 " In that case we are doubly lost," said Henriette. 
 
 Coconnas, brave to the point of rashness, had reflected that 
 the candles would have to be lighted sooner or later, and think- 
 ing the sooner the better, he dropped the hand of Madame de 
 Nevers, picked up a taper from the midst of the debris, and 
 going to a brazier blew on a piece of coal, with which he at 
 once made a light. The chamber was again illuminated. 
 Charles IX. glanced around inquiringly. 
 
 Henry was by the side of his wife, the Duchesse de Nevers 
 was alone in a corner, while Coconnas stood in the centre of 
 the room, candle-stick in hand, lighting up the whole scene. 
 
 " Excuse me, brother," said Marguerite, " we were not ex- 
 pecting you." 
 
 " So, as you may have perceived, your Majesty filled us with 
 strange terror," said Henriette. 
 
 " For my part," said Henry, who had surmised everything, 
 " I think the fear was so real that in rising I overturned the 
 table." 
 
 Coconnas glanced at the King of Navarre as much as to say : 
 
 " Good ! Here is a man who understands at once." 
 
 " What a frightful hubbub ! " repeated Charles IX. Your 
 supper is ruined, Henriot ; come with me and you shall finish 
 it elsewhere ; I will carry you off this evening." 
 
 " What, sire ! " said Henry, " your Majesty will do me the 
 honor ? "
 
 THE GRATITUDE OF KING CHARLES IX. 308 
 
 " Yes, my Majesty will do you the honor of taking you 
 u way from the Louvre. Lend him to me, Margot, I will bring 
 him back to you to-morrow morning." 
 
 " Ah, brother," said Marguerite, " you do not need my 
 permission for that ; you are master." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " I will get another cloak from my room, 
 and will return immediately." 
 
 " You do not need it, Henriot ; the cloak you have is all 
 right." 
 
 " But, sire," began the Bearnais. 
 
 " In the name of a thousand devils, I tell you not to go 
 to your rooms ! Do you not hear what I say ? Come along ! " 
 
 " Yes, yes, go ! " said Marguerite, suddenly pressing her 
 husband's arm ; for a singular look from Charles had convinced 
 her that something unusual was going on. 
 
 " Here I am, sire," said Henry. 
 
 Charles looked at Coconnas, who was still carrying out his 
 office of torch-bearer by lighting the other candles. 
 
 " Who is this gentleman ? " asked the King of Henry, eye- 
 ing the Piedmontese from head to foot. " Is he Monsieur de 
 la Mole ? " 
 
 " Who has told him of La Mole ? " asked Marguerite in a 
 low tone. 
 
 " No, sire," replied Henry, " Monsieur de la Mole is not 
 here, I regret to say. Otherwise I should have the honor of 
 presenting him to your Majesty at the same time as Monsieur 
 de Coconnas, his friend. They are perfectly inseparable, and 
 both are in the suite of Monsieur d'Aleugon." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! our famous marksman ! " said Charles. " Good ! " 
 Then frowning : 
 
 " Is not this Monsieur de la Mole a Huguenot ? " he asked. 
 
 " He is converted, sire, and I will answer for him as for my- 
 self." 
 
 " When you answer for any one, Henriot, after what you 
 did to-day, I have no further right to doubt him. But I 
 should have liked to see this Monsieur de la Mole. However, 
 I can meet him another time." 
 
 Giving a last glance about the room, Charles embraced 
 Marguerite, took hold of the arm of the King of Navarre, and 
 led him off. 
 
 At the gate of the Louvre Henry wanted to speak to some 
 one.
 
 304 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Come, come ! pass out quickly, Henriot," said Charles. 
 " When I tell you that the air of the Louvre is not good for you 
 this evening, the devil ! you must believe me ! " 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! " murmured Henry ; " and what will 
 De Mouy do all alone in my room ? I trust the air which is 
 not good for me may be no worse for him ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed the King, when Henry and he had crossed 
 the drawbridge, " does it suit you, Henry, to have the gentlemen 
 of Monsieur d'Alengon courting your wife ? " 
 
 " How so, sire ? " 
 
 " Truly, is not this Monsieur de Coconnas making eyes at 
 Margot ? " 
 
 Who told you that ? " 
 
 " Well," said the King, " I heard it." 
 
 " A mere joke, sire ; Monsieur de Coconnas does make eyes 
 at some one, but it is at Madame de Nevers." 
 
 " Ah, bah." 
 
 "I can answer to your Majesty for what I tell you." 
 
 Charles burst into laughter. 
 
 " Well," said he, " let the Due de Guise come to me again 
 with his gossip, and I will gently pull his mustache by telling 
 him of the exploits of his sister-in-law. But after all," said 
 the King, thinking better of it, " I do not know whether it 
 was Monsieur de Coconnas or Monsieur de la Mole he referred 
 to." 
 
 "Neither the one more than the other, sire, and I can 
 answer to you for the feelings of my wife." 
 
 " Good, Henriot, good ! " said the King. " I like you better 
 now than the way you were before. On my honor, you are 
 such a good fellow that I shall end by being unable to get 
 along without you." 
 
 As he spoke the King gave a peculiar whistle, whereupon 
 four gentlemen who were waiting for him at the end of the Rue 
 de Beauvais joined him. The whole party set out towards 
 the middle of the city. 
 
 Ten o'clock struck. 
 
 " Well ! " said Marguerite, after the King and Henry had 
 left, " shall we go back to table ? " 
 
 " Mercy, no ! " cried the duchess, " I have been too badly 
 frightened. Long live the little house in the Rue Cloche 
 Percee ! No one can enter that without regularly besieging 
 it, and our good men have the right to use their swords there.
 
 THE GRATITUDE OF KING CHARLES IX. 305 
 
 BUG what are you looking for under the furniture and in the 
 closets, Monsieur de Coconnas ? " 
 
 " I am trying to find my friend La Mole," said the Pied- 
 montese. 
 
 " Look in my room, monsieur," said Marguerite, " there is a 
 certain closet " 
 
 " Very well," said Coconnas, " I will go there." 
 
 He entered the room. 
 
 " Well ! " said a voice from the darkness ; " where are 
 we?" 
 
 " Oh ! by Heaven ! we have reached the dessert." 
 
 " And the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " He has seen nothing. He is a perfect husband, and I 
 wish my wife had one like him. But I fear she never will, 
 even if she marries again." 
 
 And King Charles ? " 
 
 " Ah ! the King. That is another thing. He has taken 
 off the husband." 
 
 Really ? " 
 
 " It is as I tell you. Furthermore, he honored me by look- 
 ing askance at me when he discovered that I belonged to 
 Monsieur d'Alenqon, and cross when he found out that I was 
 your friend." 
 
 " You think, then, that he has heard me spoken of ? " 
 
 " I fear that he has heard nothing ver,y good of you. But 
 that is not the point. I believe these ladies have a pilgrimage 
 to make to the Rue de Roi de Sicile, and that we are to take 
 them there." 
 
 " Why, that is impossible ! You know that very well." 
 
 " How impossible ? " 
 
 " We are on duty at his royal highness's." 
 
 " By Heavens, that is so ; I always forget that we are 
 ranked, and that from the gentlemen we once were we have 
 had the honor to pass into valets." 
 
 Thereupon the two friends went and told the queen and the 
 duchess the necessity of their being present at least when Mon- 
 sieur le Due retired. 
 
 " Very well," said Madame de Nevers, " we will go by our- 
 selves." 
 
 " Might we know where you are going ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " Oh ! you are too curious ! " said the duchess. " Quaere et 
 invenies."
 
 306 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 The young men bowed and went at once to Monsieur 
 d'Alenqon. 
 
 The duke seemed to be waiting for them in his cabinet. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said he, " you are very late, gentlemen." 
 
 " It is scarcely ten o'clock, monseigneur," said Coconnas. 
 
 The duke drew out his watch. 
 
 " That is true," said he. " And yet every one has gone to 
 sleep in the Louvre." 
 
 " Yes, monsieur, but we are here at your orders. Must we 
 admit into the chamber of your highness the gentlemen who 
 are with the King until he retires ? " 
 
 " On the contrary, go into the small reception-room and dis- 
 miss every one." 
 
 The young men obeyed, carried out the order, which sur- 
 prised no one, because of the well-known character of the 
 duke, and returned to him. 
 
 " Monseigneur," said Coconnas, " your highness will prob- 
 ably either go to bed or work, will you not ? " 
 
 " No, gentlemen ; you may have leave of absence until to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " Well, well," whispered Coconnas into La Mole's ear, " the 
 court is going to stay up all night, apparently. It will be 
 devilishly pleasant. Let us have our share of it." 
 
 And both young men descended the stairs four steps at a 
 time, took their cloaks and their night swords, and hastily left 
 the Louvre after the two ladies, whom they overtook at the 
 corner of the Rue du Coq Saint Honore. 
 
 Meanwhile the Due d'Alenqon, with open eyes and ears, 
 locked himself in his room to await the unexpected events 
 he had been promised. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 
 
 As the duke had said to the young men, the most profound 
 silence reigned in the Louvre. 
 
 Marguerite and Madame de Nevers had departed for the 
 Rue Tizon. Coconnas and La Mole had followed them. The 
 King and Henry were knocking about the city. The Due 
 d'Alenqon was in his room vaguely and anxiously waiting for
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 307 
 
 the events which the queen mother had predicted. Catharine 
 had gone to bed, and Madame de Sauve, seated by her, was 
 reading some Italian stories which greatly amused the good 
 queen. Catharine had not been in such good humor for a long 
 time. Having done justice to a collation with her ladies in 
 waiting, having consulted her physician and arranged the 
 daily accounts of her household, she had ordered prayers for 
 the success of a certain enterprise, which she said was of great 
 importance to the happiness of her children. Under certain 
 circumstances it was Catharine's habit a habit, for that matter, 
 wholly Florentine to have prayers and masses read the object 
 of which was known only to God and herself. 
 
 Finally she had seen Rene, and had chosen several novelties 
 from among her rich collection of perfumed bags. 
 
 " Let me know," said Catharine, " if my daughter the Queen 
 of Navarre is in her rooms ; and if she is there, beg her to 
 come to me." 
 
 The page to whom this order was given withdrew, and an 
 instant later he returned, accompanied by Gillonue. 
 
 " Well ! " said the queen mother, " I asked for the mistress, 
 not the servant." 
 
 " Madame," said Gillonne, " I thought I ought to come my- 
 self and tell your majesty that the Queen of Navarre has gone 
 out with her friend the Duchesse de Nevers " 
 
 " Gone out at this hour ! " exclaimed Catharine, frowning ; 
 " where can she have gone ? " 
 
 " To a lecture on chemistry," replied Gillonne, " which is to 
 be held in the Hotel de Guise, in the pavilion occupied by 
 Madame de Nevers." 
 
 " When will she return ? " asked the queen mother. 
 
 " The lecture will last until late into the night," replied 
 Gillonne, " so that probably her majesty will stay with her 
 friend until to-morrow morning." 
 
 " The Queen of Navarre is happy," murmured Catharine ; 
 "she has friends and she is queen ; she wears a crown, is 
 called your majesty, yet has no subjects. She is happy indeed." 
 
 After this remark, which made her listeners smile inwardly : 
 
 " Well," murmured Catharine, " since she has gone out 
 for she has gone, you say ? " 
 
 " Half an hour ago, madame." 
 
 " Everything is for the best ; you may go." 
 
 Gillonne bowed and left.
 
 308 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 11 Go on with your reading, Charlotte," said the queen. 
 
 Madame de Sauve continued. At the end of ten minutes 
 Catharine interrupted the story. 
 
 " Ah, by the way," said she, " have the guards dismissed 
 from the corridor." 
 
 This was the signal for which Maurevel was waiting. The 
 order of the queen mother was carried out, and Madame de 
 Sauve went on with her story. She had read for about a 
 quarter of an hour without any interruption, when a prolonged 
 and terrible scream reached the royal chamber and made the 
 hair of those present stand on end. 
 
 The scream was followed by the sound of a pistol-shot. 
 
 " What is it ? " said Catharine ; " why do you stop reading, 
 Carlotta ? " 
 
 " Madame," said the young woman, turning pale, " did you 
 not hear ? " 
 
 "What?" asked Catharine. 
 
 " That cry." 
 
 " And that pistol-shot ? " added the captain of the guards. 
 
 "A cry, a pistol-shot? " asked Catharine; "I heard nothing. 
 Besides, is a shout or a pistol-shot such a very unusual 
 thing at the Louvre ? Read, read, Carlotta." 
 
 " But listen, madame," said the latter, while Monsieur de 
 Nancey stood up, his hand on his sword, but not daring to 
 leave without permission from the queen, " listen, I hear 
 steps, curses." 
 
 " Shall I go and find out about it, madame ? " said De 
 Kancey. 
 
 " Not at all, monsieur, stay where you are," said Catharine, 
 raising herself on one hand to give more emphasis to her 
 order. " Who, then, would protect me in case of an alarm ? 
 It is only some drunken Swiss fighting." 
 
 The calmness of the queen, contrasted with the terror on the 
 faces of all present, was so remarkable that, timid as she was, 
 Madame de Sauve fixed a questioning glance on the queen. 
 
 "Why, madame, I should think they were killing some 
 one." 
 
 " Whom do you think they are killing ? " 
 
 " The King of Navarre, madame ; the noise comes from the 
 direction of his apartments." 
 
 " The fool ! " murmured the queen, whose lips in spite of 
 her self-control were beginning to move strangely, for she was
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 309 
 
 muttering a prayer ; " the fool sees her King of Navarre 
 everywhere." 
 
 " My God ! my God ! " cried Madame de Sauve, falling back 
 in her chair. 
 
 " It is over, it is over," said Catharine. " Captain," she con- 
 tinued, turning to Monsieur de Nancey, " I hope if there is any 
 scandal in the palace you will have the guilty ones severely 
 punished to-morrow. Go on with your reading, Carlotta." 
 And Catharine sank back on her pillow with a calmness that 
 greatly resembled weakness, for those present noticed great 
 drops of perspiration rolling down her face. 
 
 Madame de Sauve obeyed this formal order, but her eyes 
 and her voice were mere machines. Her thoughts wandered 
 to other things which represented a terrible danger hanging 
 over a loved head. Finally, after struggling on for several 
 minutes, she became so oppressed between her feelings and eti- 
 quette that her words became unintelligible, the book fell from 
 her hands, and she fainted. 
 
 Suddenly a louder noise was heard ; a quick, heavy step fell 
 on the corridor, two pistol-shots shook the windows ; and Cath- 
 arine, astonished at the interminable struggle, rose in terror, 
 erect, pale, with dilating eyes. As the captain of the guard 
 was about to hurry out, she stopped him, saying : 
 
 " Let every one remain here. I myself will go and see what 
 is the matter." 
 
 This is what was taking place, or rather what had taken 
 place. That morning De Mouy had received the key of Henry's 
 room from the hands of Orthon. In this key, which was 
 piped, he had noticed a roll of paper. He drew it out with a 
 pin. It was the password of the Louvre for that night. 
 
 Besides, Orthon had verbally transmitted to him the words 
 of Henry, asking De Mouy to come to the king at ten o'clock in 
 the Louvre. 
 
 At half -past nine De Mouy put on a suit of armor, the 
 strength of which he had already more than once had oc- 
 casion to test ; over this he buttoned a silk doublet, fastened 
 on his sword, put his pistols in his belt, and over everything 
 threw the red cloak of La Mole. 
 
 We have seen how, before going back to his rooms, Henry had 
 thought best to pay a visit to Marguerite, and how he arrived 
 by the secret stairway just in time to run against La Mole in 
 Marguerite's sleeping-room, and to appear in the dining-room
 
 310 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 before the King. It was at that very moment when, thanks to 
 the password sent by Henry, and above all to the famous red 
 cloak, that De Mouy passed under the gate of the Louvre. 
 
 The young man went directly to the apartments of the King 
 of Navarre, imitating as well as he could, as was his habit, 
 the gait of La Mole. He found Orthon waiting for him in 
 the antechamber. 
 
 " Sire de Mouy," said the mountaineer, " the king has gone 
 out, but he told me to admit you, and to tell you to wait for 
 him. If he should be late in returning, he wants you, you 
 know, to lie down on his bed." 
 
 De Mouy entered without asking for further explanation, for 
 what Orthon had just told him was only the repetition of what 
 he had already heard that morning. In order to pass away 
 the time he took a pen and ink and, approaching a fine 
 map of France which hung on the wall, he set to work to count 
 and determine the stopping-places between Paris and Pau. 
 But this was only the work of a quarter of an hour, and then 
 De Mouy did not know what to do. 
 
 He made two or three rounds of the room, rubbed his eyes, 
 yawned, sat down, got up, and sat down again. Finally, taking 
 advantage of Henry's invitation, and the familiarity which 
 existed between princes and their gentlemen, he placed his 
 pistols and the lamp on a table, stretched himself out on the 
 great bed with the sombre hangings which furnished the rear 
 of the room, laid his sword by his side, and, sure of not being 
 surprised since a servant was in the adjoining room, he fell 
 into a pleasant sleep, the noise of which soon made the vast 
 canopy ring with its echoes. De Mouy snored like a regular 
 old soldier, and in this he could have vied with the King of 
 Navarre himself. 
 
 It was then that six men, their swords in their hands and 
 their knives at their belts, glided silently into the corridor 
 which communicated by a small door with the apartments of 
 Catharine and by a large one with those of Henry. 
 
 One of the six men walked ahead of the others. Besides 
 his bare sword and his dagger, which was as strong as a hunting- 
 knife, he carried his faithful pistols fastened to his belt by 
 silver hooks. 
 
 This man was Maurevel. Having reached Henry's door, he 
 stopped. 
 
 "Are you perfectly sure that the sentinels are not in the
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 311 
 
 corridor ? " he asked of the one who apparently commanded 
 the little band. 
 
 " Not a single one is at his post," replied the lieutenant. 
 
 "Very good," said Maurevel. "Now there is nothing 
 further except to find out one thing that is, if the man we are 
 looking for is in his room." 
 
 " But," said the lieutenant, arresting the hand which Maure- 
 vel had laid on the handle of the door, " but, captain, these 
 apartments are those of the King of Navarre." 
 
 " Who said they were not ? " asked Maurevel. 
 
 The guards looked at one another in amazement, and the 
 lieutenant stepped back. 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed he, " arrest some one at this hour, in 
 the Louvre, and in the apartments of the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " What should you say," said Maurevel, " were I to tell you 
 that the one you are about to arrest is the King of Navarre 
 himself ? " 
 
 " I should say, captain, that it is serious business and that 
 without an order signed by King Charles IX." 
 
 "Read this," said Maurevel. 
 
 And drawing from his doublet the order which Catharine 
 had given him he handed it to the lieutenant. 
 
 " Very well," replied the latter after he had read it. " I have 
 nothing further to say." 
 
 " And you are ready ? " 
 
 " I am ready." 
 
 " And you ? " continued Maurevel, turning to the other five 
 sbirros. 
 
 They all saluted respectfully. 
 
 " Listen to me, then, gentlemen," said Maurevel ; " this is 
 my plan : two of you will remain at this door, two at the door 
 of the sleeping-room, and two will go with me." 
 
 " Afterwards ? " said the lieutenant. 
 
 " Pay close attention to this : we are ordered to prevent the 
 prisoner from calling out, shouting, or resisting. Any infrac- 
 tion of this order is to be punished by death." 
 
 " Well, well, he has full permission," said the lieutenant to 
 the man chosen by him to follow Maurevel into the king's 
 room. 
 
 " Full," said Maurevel. 
 
 " Poor devil of the King of Navarre ! " said one of the men. 
 " It was written above that he should not escape this."
 
 312 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " And here too," said Maurevel, taking Catharine's order 
 from the hands of the lieutenant and returning it to his breast. 
 
 Maurevel inserted the key Catharine had given him into the 
 lock, and leaving two men at the outer door, as had been 
 agreed on, he entered the antechamber with the four others. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said Maurevel, hearing the noisy breathing of 
 the sleeper, the sound of which reached even as far as that, " it 
 seems that we shall find what we are looking for." 
 
 Orthon, thinking it was his master returning, at once started 
 up and found himself face to face with five armed men in the 
 first chamber. 
 
 At sight of the sinister face of Maurevel, who was called 
 the King's Slayer, the faithful servant sprang back, and placing 
 himeslf before the second door : 
 
 " Who are you ? " said he, " and what do you want ? " 
 
 " In the King's name," replied Maurevel, " where is your 
 master ? " 
 
 " My master ? " 
 
 " Yes, the King of Navarre." 
 
 " The King of Navarre is not in his room," said Orthon, 
 barring the door more than ever, " so you cannot enter." 
 
 " Excuses, lies ! " said Maurevel. " Come, stand back ! " 
 
 The Bearnais people are stubborn ; this one growled like 
 one of his own mountain dogs, and far from being intimidated : 
 
 " You shall not enter," said he ; " the king is out." 
 
 And he clung to the door. 
 
 Maurevel made a sign. The four men seized the stubborn 
 servant, snatched him from the door-sill to which he was 
 clinging, and as he started to open his mouth and cry out, 
 Maurevel clapped a hand to his lips. 
 
 Orthon bit furiously at the assassin, who dropped his hand 
 with a dull cry, and brought down the handle of his sword on 
 the head of the servant. Orthon staggered and fell back, shout- 
 ing, " Help ! help ! help ! " 
 
 Then his voice died away. He had fainted. 
 
 The assassins stepped over his body, two stopped at the 
 second door, and two entered the sleeping-room with Maurevel. 
 
 In the glow of the lamp burning on the night table they 
 saw the bed. 
 
 The curtains were drawn. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said the lieutenant, " he has stopped snoring, 
 apparently."
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 313 
 
 " Be quick ! " cried Maurevel. 
 
 At this, a sharp cry, resembling the roar of a lion rather 
 than a human voice, came from behind the curtains, which were 
 violently thrown back, and a man appeared sitting there armed 
 with a cuirass, his head covered with a helmet which reached 
 to his eyes. Two pistols were in his hand, and his sword lay 
 across his knees. 
 
 No sooner did Maurevel perceive this figure and recognize 
 De Mouy than he felt his hair rise on end ; he became fright- 
 fully pale, foam sprang to his lips, and he stepped back as if 
 he had come face to face with a ghost. Suddenly the armed 
 figure rose and stepped forward as Maurevel drew back, so 
 that from the position of threatener, the latter now became 
 the one threatened, and vice versa. 
 
 " Ah, scoundrel ! " cried De Mouy, in a dull voice, " so you 
 have come to murder me as you murdered my father ! " 
 
 The two guards who had entered the room with Maurevel 
 alone heard these terrible words. As they were uttered a 
 pistol was placed to Maurevel's forehead. The latter sank to 
 his knees just as De Mouy put his hand on the trigger; the 
 shot was fired and one of the guards who stood behind him 
 and whom he had unmasked by this movement dropped to the 
 floor, struck to the heart. At the same instant Maurevel fired 
 back, but the ball glanced off De Mouy's cuirass. 
 
 Then, measuring the distance, De Mouy sprang forward and 
 with the edge of his broadsword split open the head of the 
 second guard, and turning towards Maurevel crossed swords 
 with him. 
 
 The struggle was brief but terrible. At the fourth pass 
 Maurevel felt the cold steel in his throat. He uttered a stifled 
 cry and fell backwards, upsetting the lamp, which went out in 
 the fall. 
 
 At once De Mouy, strong and agile as one of Homer's heroes, 
 took advantage of the darkness and sprang, with head lowered, 
 into the antechamber, knocked down one guard, pushed aside 
 the other, and shot like an arrow between those at the outer 
 door. He escaped two pistol-shots, the balls of which grazed 
 the wall of the corridor, and from that moment was safe, for 
 one loaded pistol still was lefjb him, besides the sword which 
 had dealt such terrible blows. 
 
 For an instant he hesitated, undecided whether to go to 
 Monsieur d'Alenqon's, the door of whose room he thought had
 
 314 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 just opened, or to try and escape from the Louvre. He de- 
 termined on the latter course, continued on his way, slow at 
 first, jumped ten steps at a time, and reaching the gate uttered 
 the two passwords and rushed on, shouting out : 
 
 " Go upstairs ; there is murder going on by order of the 
 King." 
 
 Taking advantage of the amazement produced on the senti- 
 nel by his words and the sound of the pistol-shots, he ran on 
 and disappeared in the Rue du Coq without having received a 
 scratch. 
 
 It was at this moment that Catharine stopped the captain 
 of the guards, saying : 
 
 " Stay here ; I myself will go and see what is the matter." 
 
 " But, madame," replied the captain, " the danger your 
 majesty runs compels me to follow you." 
 
 " Stay here, monsieur," said Catharine, in a still more impe- 
 rious tone, " stay here. There is a more powerful protection 
 around kings than the human sword." 
 
 The captain remained where he was. 
 
 Taking a lamp, Catharine slipped her bare feet into a pair of 
 velvet slippers, left her room, and reaching the corridor, still 
 full of smoke, advanced as impassible and as cold as a shadow 
 towards the apartments of the King of Navarre. 
 
 Silence reigned supreme. 
 
 Catharine reached the door, crossed the threshold, and first 
 saw Orthon, who had fainted in the antechamber. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said she, " here is the servant ; further on we 
 shall probably find the master." She entered the second door. 
 
 Then her foot ran against a corpse ; she lowered her lamp ; 
 it was the guard who had had his head split open. He was 
 quite dead. 
 
 A few feet further on the lieutenant, who had been struck by 
 a bullet, was drawing his last breath. 
 
 Finally, before the bed lay a man whose face was as pale as 
 death and who was bleeding from a double wound in his throat. 
 He was clinching his hands convulsively in his efforts to rise. 
 
 It was Maurevel. 
 
 Catharine shuddered. She saw the empty bed, she looked 
 around the room seeking in vain for the body she hoped to 
 find among the three corpses. 
 
 Maurevel recognized Catharine. His eyes were horribly 
 dilated and he made a despairing gesture towards her.
 
 MAN PROPOSES BUT GOD DISPOSES. 315 
 
 " Well," said she in a whisper, " where is he ? what has 
 happened ? Unfortunate man ! have you let him escape ? " 
 
 Maurevel strove to speak, but an unintelligible sound came 
 from his throat, a bloody foam covered his lips, and he shook 
 his head in sign of inability and pain. 
 
 " Speak ! " cried Catharine, " speak ! if only one word ! " 
 
 Maurevel pointed to his wound, again made several inarticu- 
 late gasps, which ended in a hoarse rattle, and fainted. 
 
 Catharine looked around her. She was surrounded by the 
 bodies of dead and dying ; blood flowed in every direction, and 
 the silence of death hovered over everything. 
 
 Once again she spoke to Maurevel, but failed to rouse him ; 
 he was not only silent but motionless ; a paper was in his 
 doublet. It was the order of arrest signed by the King. 
 Catharine seized it and hid it in her breast. Just then she 
 heard a light step behind her, and turning, she saw the Due 
 d'AlenQon at the door. In spite of himself he had been drawn 
 thither by the noise, and the sight before him fascinated him. 
 
 " You here ? " said she. 
 
 " Yes, madame. For God's sake what has happened ? " 
 
 " Go back to your room, Franqois ; you will know soon 
 enough." 
 
 D'Alenqon was not as ignorant of the affair as Catharine 
 supposed. 
 
 At the sound of the first steps in the corridor he had 
 listened. Seeing some men enter the apartments of the King 
 of Navarre, and by connecting this with some words Catharine 
 had uttered, he had guessed what was about to take place, and 
 was rejoiced at having so dangerous an enemy destroyed by a 
 hand stronger than his own. Before long the noises of pistol- 
 shots and the rapid steps of a man running had attracted his 
 attention, and he had seen disappearing in the light space 
 caused by the opening of the door leading to the stairway the 
 red cloak too well known not to be recognized. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " he cried, " De Mouy in the apartments of the 
 King of Navarre ! Why, that is impossible ! Can it be Mon- 
 sieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 He grew alarmed. Remembering that the young man had been 
 recommended to him by Marguerite herself, and wishing to 
 make sure that it was he whom he had just seen, he ascended 
 hurriedly to the chamber of the two young men. It was 
 vacant. But in a corner he found the famous red cloak hanging
 
 316 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 against the wall. His suspicions were confirmed. It was 
 not La Mole, but De Mouy. Pale and trembling lest the 
 Huguenot should be discovered, and would betray the secrets 
 of the conspiracy, he rushed to the gate of the Louvre. There 
 he was told that the red cloak had escaped safe and sound, 
 shouting out as he passed that some one was being murdered in 
 the Louvre by order of the King. 
 
 " He is mistaken," murmured D'Alenqon ; " it is by order of 
 the queen mother." 
 
 Returning to the scene of combat, he found Catharine wan- 
 dering like a hyena among the dead. 
 
 At the order from his mother the young man returned to 
 his rooms, affecting calmness and obedience, in spite of the 
 tumultuous thoughts which were passing through h is mind. 
 
 In despair at the failure of this new attempt' Catharine 
 called the captain of the guards, had the bodies removed, gave 
 orders that Maurevel, who was only wounded, be carried to his 
 home, and told them not to waken the King. 
 
 " Oh ! " she murmured, as she returned to her rooms, her 
 head sunk on her bosom, "he has again escaped. The hand 
 of God is over this man. He will reign ! he will reign ! " 
 
 Entering her room, she passed her hand across her brow, 
 and assumed an ordinary smile. 
 
 " What was the matter, madame ? " asked every one except 
 Madame de Sauve, who was too frightened to ask any questions. 
 
 " Nothing," replied Catharine ; " a noise, that was all." 
 
 " Oh ! " cried Madame de Sauve, suddenly pointing to the 
 floor, " your majesty says there is nothing the matter, and 
 every one of your majesty's steps leaves a trace of blood on the 
 carpet ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 A NIGHT OF KINGS. 
 
 CHARLES IX. walked along with Henry leaning on his arm, 
 followed by his four gentlemen and preceded by two torch- 
 bearers. 
 
 " When I leave the Louvre," said the poor King, " I feel a 
 pleasure similar to that which comes to me when I enter a 
 beautiful forest. I breathe, I live, I am free."
 
 A NIGHT OF KINGS. 317 
 
 Henry smiled. 
 
 " lu that case," said he, " your Majesty would be in your 
 element among the mountains of the Beam." 
 
 " Yes, and I understand that you want to go back to them ; 
 but if you are very anxious to do so, Henriot," added Charles, 
 laughing, " my advice is to be careful, for my mother Catha- 
 rine loves you so dearly that it is absolutely impossible for 
 her to get along without you." 
 
 " What does your Majesty plan to do this evening ? " 
 asked Henry, changing this dangerous conversation. 
 
 " I want to have you meet some one, Henriot, and you shall 
 give me your opinion." 
 
 " I am at your Majesty's orders." 
 
 " To the right ! to the right ! We will take the Rue des 
 Barres." 
 
 The two kings, followed by their escort, had passed the 
 Rue de la Savonnerie, when in front of the Hotel de Conde 
 they saw two men, wrapped in large cloaks, coming out of a 
 secret door which one of them noiselessly closed behind him. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said the King to Henry, who as usual had seen 
 everything, but had not spoken, " this deserves attention." 
 
 " Why do you say that, sire ? " asked the King of Navarre. 
 
 "It is not on your account, Henriot. You are sure of 
 your wife," added Charles with a smile ; " but your cousin De 
 Conde is not sure of his, or if so, he is making a mistake, the 
 devil ! " 
 
 " But how do you know, sire, that it is Madame de Conde 
 whom these gentlemen have been visiting ? " 
 
 " Instinct tells me. The fact that the men stood in the 
 doorway without moving until they saw us ; then the cut of 
 the shorter one's cloak by Heaven ! that would be strange ! " 
 
 What ? " 
 
 " Nothing. An idea I had, that is all ; let us go on." 
 
 He walked up to the two men, who, seeing him, started to 
 walk away. 
 
 " Hello, gentlemen ! " cried the King ; " stop ! " 
 
 " Are you speaking to us ? " asked a voice which made 
 Charles and his companion tremble. 
 
 " Well, Henriot," said Charles, " do you recognize the 
 voice now ? " 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " if your brother the Due d'Anjou was 
 not at La Rochelle, I would swear it was he speaking."
 
 318 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Well," said Charles, " he is not at La Rochelle, that is 
 all." 
 
 " But who is with him ? " 
 
 " Do you not recognize his companion ? " 
 
 "No, sire." 
 
 " Yet his figure is unmistakable. Wait, you shall see who 
 he is hello, there ! I tell you," cried the King, " do you 
 not hear, by Heaven ? " 
 
 " Are you the watch, that you order us to stop ? " said the 
 taller of the two men, freeing his arm from the folds of his 
 cloak. 
 
 " Pretend that we are the watch," said the King, " and stop 
 when we tell you to do so." 
 
 Leaning over to Henry's ear, he added : 
 
 "Now you will see the volcano send forth its fire." 
 
 " There are eight of you," said the taller of the two men, 
 this time showing not only his arm but his face, " but were you 
 a hundred, pass on ! " 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! the Due de Guise ! " said Henry. 
 
 " Ah ! our cousin from Lorraine," said the King ; " at last 
 you will meet ! How fortunate ! " 
 
 " The King ! " cried the duke. 
 
 At these words the other man covered himself with his 
 cloak and stood motionless, having first uncovered out of 
 respect. 
 
 " Sire," said the Due de Guise, " I have just been paying a 
 visit to my sister-in-law, Madame de Conde." 
 
 " Yes and you brought one of your gentlemen with you ? 
 Which one ? " 
 
 " Sire," replied the duke, " your Majesty does not know him." 
 
 " We will meet him, however," said the King. 
 
 Walking up to the other figure, he signed to one of the 
 lackeys to bring a torch. 
 
 " Pardon me, brother ! " said the Due d' Anjou, opening his 
 cloak and bowing with poorly disguised anger. 
 
 "Ah! ah ! Henry, is it you ? But no, it is not possible, I 
 am mistaken my brother of Anjou would not have gone to 
 see any one else before first calling on me. He knows that for 
 royal princes, returning to the capital, Paris has but one 
 entrance, the gate of the Louvre." 
 
 " Pardon me, sire," said the Due d' Anjou ; " I beg your 
 Majesty to excuse my thoughtlessness."
 
 A NIGHT OF KINGS. 319 
 
 " Ah, yes !" replied the King, mockingly ; " and what were 
 you doing, brother, at the Hotel de Conde ? " 
 
 " Why," said the King of Navarre in his sly way, " what your 
 Majesty intimated just now." 
 
 And leaning over to the King he ended his sentence in a 
 burst of laughter. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked the Due de Guise, haughtily ; for 
 like every one else at court, he had a way of treating the poor 
 King of Navarre very rudely, " why should I not go and see 
 my sister-in-law. Does not Monsieur le Due d'Alencon visit 
 his ? " 
 
 Henry flushed slightly. 
 
 " What sister-in-law ? " asked Charles. " I know none 
 except Queen Elizabeth." 
 
 " Pardon, sire ! it was your sister I should have said 
 Madame Marguerite, whom we saw pass in her litter as we 
 came by here half an hour ago. She was accompanied by two 
 courtiers who rode on either side of her." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Charles. " What do you say to that, 
 Henry ? " 
 
 " That the Queen of Navarre is perfectly free to go where 
 she p] eases, but I doubt if she has left the Louvre." 
 
 " Well, I am sure she did," said the Due de Guise. 
 
 "And I too," said the Due d'Anjou, "from the fact that 
 the litter stopped in the Rue Cloche Percee." 
 
 " Your sister-in-law, not this one," said Henry, pointing to 
 the Hotel de Conde, " but that one," turning in the direction 
 of the Hotel de Guise, " must also be of the party, for we left 
 them together, and, as you know, they are inseparable." 
 
 " I do not know what your majesty means," replied the Due 
 de Guise. 
 
 " On the contrary," said the king, " nothing is simpler. 
 That is why a courtier was riding at either side of the litter." 
 
 " Well !" said the duke, "if there is any scandal concerning 
 my sisters-in-law, let us beg the King to withhold justice." 
 
 "Well, by Heaven," said Henry, " let us leave Madame de 
 Conde and Madame de Nevers ; the King is not anxious about 
 his sister and I have confidence in my wife." 
 
 " No, no," said Charles, " I want to make sure of it ; but let 
 us attend to the matter ourselves. The litter stopped in the 
 Rue Cloche Percee, you say, cousin ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire."
 
 320 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Do you know the house ? " 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 " Well, let us go to it. And if in order to find out who is 
 in it, it is necessary to burn it down, we will burn it." 
 
 It was with this end in view, which was rather discouraging 
 for the tranquillity of those concerned, that the four chief lords 
 of the Christian world set out to the Rue Saint Antoine. 
 
 They reached the Rue Cloche Percee. Charles, who wished 
 to work privately, dismissed the gentlemen of his suite, saying 
 that they might have the rest of the night to themselves, but 
 for them to be at the Bastille with two horses at six o'clock in 
 the morning. 
 
 There were only three houses in the Rue Cloche Percee. 
 The search was much less difficult as two of the buildings 
 were perfectly willing to open their doors. One of the houses 
 faced the Rue Saint Antoine and the other the Rue du Roi de 
 Sicile. 
 
 As to the third house, that was a different matter. It was 
 the one which was guarded by the German janitor, and this 
 janitor was not easily managed. That night Paris seemed des- 
 tined to offer memorable examples of conjugal fidelity. In 
 vain did Monsieur de Guise threaten in his purest Saxon ; in 
 vain did Henry of Anjou offer a purse filled with gold ; in vain 
 Charles went so far as to say that he was lieutenant of the watch ; 
 the brave German paid attention neither to the statement, the 
 offer, nor the threats. Seeing that they insisted, and in a way 
 that was becoming importunate, he slipped the nose of a gun 
 under the iron bars, a move which brought forth bursts of 
 laughter from three of the four visitors. Henry of Navarre 
 stood apart, as if the affair had no interest for him. But as 
 the weapon could not be turned between the bars, it was 
 scarcely dangerous for any except a blind man, who might 
 stand directly in front of it. 
 
 Seeing that the porter was neither to be intimidated, bribed, 
 nor persuaded, the Due de Guise pretended to leave with his 
 companions ; but the retreat did not last long. At the corner 
 of the Rue Saint Antoine the duke found what he sought. 
 This was a rock similar in size to those which three thousand 
 years before had been moved by Ajax, son of Telamon, and 
 Diomed. The duke raised it to his shoulder and came back, 
 signing to his companions to follow. Just then the janitor, 
 who had seen those he took for malefactors depart, closed the
 
 A NIGHT OF KINGS. 321 
 
 door. But he had not time to draw the bolts before the Due 
 de Guise took advantage of the moment, and hurled his veri- 
 table living catapult against the door. The lock broke, carry- 
 ing away a portion of the wall to which it had been fastened. 
 The door sprang open, knocking down the German, who, in 
 falling, gave a terrible cry. This cry awakened the garrison, 
 which otherwise would have run great risk of being surprised. 
 
 At that moment La Mole and Marguerite were translating an 
 idyl of Theocritus, and Coconnas, pretending that he too was 
 a Greek, was drinking some strong wine from Syracuse with 
 Henriette. The scientific and bacchanalian conversation was 
 violently interrupted. 
 
 La Mole and Coconnas at once extinguished the candles, and 
 opening the windows, sprang out on the balcony. Then per- 
 ceiving four men in the darkness, they set to work to hurl at 
 them everything they had at hand, in the meantime making a 
 frightful noise with blows from the flat of their swords, which, 
 however, struck nothing but the wall. Charles, the most infu- 
 riated of the besiegers, received a sharp blow on the shoulder, 
 the Due d'Anjou a bowl full of orange and lemon marmalade, 
 and the Due de Guise a leg of venison. Henry received noth- 
 ing. He was downstairs questioning the porter, whom Mon- 
 sieur de Guise had strapped to the door, and who continued to 
 answer by his eternal " Ich verstehe nicht." The women en- 
 couraged the besieged by handing them projectiles, which suc- 
 ceeded one another like hailstones. 
 
 " The devil ! " exclaimed Charles IX., as a table struck his 
 head, driving his hat over his eyes, " if they don't open the 
 door pretty soon I will have them all hanged." 
 
 "My brother ! " whispered Marguerite to La Mole. 
 
 " The King ! " cried the latter to Henriette. 
 
 " The King ! the King ! " repeated Henriette to Coconnas, 
 who was dragging a chest to the window, and who was trying 
 to exterminate the Due de Guise. Without knowing who the 
 latter was he was having a private struggle with him. 
 
 " The King, I tell you," repeated Henriette. 
 
 Coconnas let go of the chest and looked up in amazement. 
 
 " The King ? " said he. 
 
 " Yes, the King." 
 
 " Then let us hide." 
 
 " Yes. La Mole and Marguerite have already fled. Come ! " 
 
 " Where ? "
 
 322 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Come, I tell you." 
 
 And seizing him by the hand, Henriette pushed Coconnas 
 through the secret door which connected with the adjoining 
 house, and all four, having locked this door behind them, es- 
 caped into the Kue Tizon. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said Charles, " I think that the garrison has 
 surrendered." 
 
 They waited a few minutes. No sound reached the besiegers. 
 
 " They are preparing some ruse," said the Due de Guise. 
 
 " It is more likely that they have recognized my brother's 
 voice and have fled," said the Due d'Anjou. 
 
 " They would have to pass by here," said Charles. 
 
 " Yes," said the Due d'Anjou, " unless the house has two 
 exits." 
 
 " Cousin," said the King, " take up your stone again and 
 hurl it against the other door as you did at this." 
 
 The duke thought it unnecessary to resort to such means, 
 and as he had noticed that the second door was not as solid as 
 the first he broke it down by a simple kick. 
 
 " The torches ! the torches ! " cried the King. 
 
 The lackeys approached. The torches were out, but the 
 men had everything necessary for relighting them. This was 
 done. Charles IX. took one and handed the other to the Due 
 d'Anjou. 
 
 The Due de Guise entered first, sword in hand. 
 
 Henry brought up the rear. 
 
 They reached the first floor. 
 
 . In the dining-room the table was set or rather upset, for it 
 was the supper which had furnished the projectiles. The 
 candlesticks were overturned, the furniture topsy-turvy, and 
 everything which was not silver plate lay in fragments. 
 
 They entered the reception-room, but found no more clue 
 there than in the other room as to the identity of the revellers. 
 Some Greek and Latin books and several musical instruments 
 were all they saw. 
 
 The sleeping-room was more silent still. A night lamp 
 burned in an alabaster globe suspended from the ceiling; but 
 it was evident that the room had not been occupied. 
 
 " There is a second door," said the King. 
 
 " Very likely," said the Due d'Anjou. 
 
 " But where is it ? " asked the Due de Guise. 
 
 They looked everywhere, but could not find it.
 
 A NIGHT OF KINGS. 
 
 " Where is the janitor ? " asked the King. 
 
 " I bound him to the gate/' said the Due de Guise. 
 
 " Ask him, cousin." 
 
 " He will not answer." 
 
 " Bah ! we will have a dry fire built around his legs," said 
 the King, laughing, "then he will speak." 
 
 Henry glanced hurriedly out of the window. 
 
 " He is not there," said he. 
 
 " Who untied him ? " asked the Due de Guise, quickly. 
 
 " The devil ! " exclaimed the King, " and we know nothing 
 as yet." 
 
 "Well ! " said Henry, "you see very clearly, sire, that there 
 is nothing to prove that my wife and Monsieur de Guise's 
 sister-in-law have been in this house." 
 
 " That is so," said Charles. " The Scriptures tell us that 
 there are three things which leave no trace the bird in the 
 air, the fish in the sea, and the woman no, I am wrong, the 
 man, in " 
 
 " So," interrupted Henry, " what we had better do is " 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, " what we had better do is for me to 
 look after my bruise, for you, D'Anjou, to wipe off your orange 
 marmalade, and for you, De Guise, to get rid of the grease." 
 Thereupon they left without even troubling to close the door. 
 Reaching the Rue Saint Antoine : 
 
 " Where are you bound for, gentlemen ? " asked the King 
 of the Due d'Anjou and the Due de Guise. 
 
 " Sire, we are going to the house of Nantouillet, who is ex- 
 pecting my Lorraine cousin and myself to supper. Will your 
 Majesty come with us ? " 
 
 " No, thanks, we are going in a different direction. Will you 
 take one of my torch-bearers ? " 
 
 " Thank you, no, sire," said the Due d'Anjou, hastily. 
 
 " Good ; he is afraid I will spy on him," whispered Charles 
 to the King of Navarre. 
 
 Then taking the latter by the arm : 
 
 " Come, Henriot," said he, " I will take you to supper to- 
 night." 
 
 " Are we not going back to the Louvre ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " No, I tell you, you stupid ! Come with me, since I tell you 
 to come. Come ! " 
 
 And he dragged Henry down the Rue Geoffrey Lasnier.
 
 324 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE ANAGRAM. 
 
 THE Rue Gamier sur 1'Eau runs into the Rue Geoffrey 
 Lasnier, and the Rue des Barres lies at right angles to the 
 former. 
 
 On the right, a short distance down the Rue de la Mortel- 
 lerie, stands a small house in the centre of a garden surrounded 
 by a high wall, which has but one entrance. Charles drew a 
 key from his pocket and inserted it into the lock. The gate 
 was unbolted and immediately opened. Telling Henry and the 
 lackey bearing the torch to enter, the King closed and locked 
 the gate behind him. 
 
 Light came from one small window which Charles smilingly 
 pointed out to Henry. 
 
 " Sire, I do not understand," said the latter. 
 
 " But you will, Henriot." 
 
 The King of Navarre looked at Charles in amazement. 
 His voice and his face had assumed an expression of gentle- 
 ness so different from usual that Henry scarcely recognized 
 him. 
 
 " Henriot," said the King, " I told you that when I left the 
 Louvre I came out of hell. When I enter here I am in 
 paradise." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " I am happy that your Majesty has 
 thought me worthy of taking this trip to Heaven with you." 
 
 " The road thither is a narrow one," said the King, turning 
 to a small stairway, " but nothing can be compared to it." 
 
 ^ Who is the angel who guards the entrance to your Eden, 
 sire ? " 
 
 " You shall see," replied Charles IX. 
 
 Signing to Henry to follow him noiselessly, he opened first 
 one door, then another, and finally paused on a threshold. 
 
 " Look ! " said he. 
 
 Henry approached and gazed on one of the most beautiful 
 pictures he had ever seen. 
 
 A young woman of eighteen or nineteen lay sleeping, her 
 head resting on the foot of a little bed in which a child was 
 asleep. The woman held its little feet close to her lips, while 
 her long hair fell over her shoulders like a flood of gold. It
 
 MARIE UTTERED A CRY AND FELL ON HER KNEES
 
 THE ANAGRAM. 325 
 
 was like one of Albane's pictures of the Virgin and the Child 
 Jesus. 
 
 " Oh, sire/' said the King of Navarre, " who is this lovely 
 creature ? " 
 
 " The angel of my paradise, Henriot, the only one who loves 
 me." 
 
 Henry smiled. 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, " for she loved me before she knew I 
 was King." 
 
 " And since she has known it ? " 
 
 " Well, since she has known it," said Charles, with a smile 
 which showed that royalty sometimes weighed heavily on 
 him, " since she has known it she loves me still ; so you may 
 judge." 
 
 The King approached the woman softly and pressed a 
 kiss as light as that which a bee gives to a lily on her rosy 
 cheek. 
 
 Yet, light as it was, she awakened at once. 
 
 " Charles ! " she murmured, opening her eyes. 
 
 " You see," said the King, " she calls me Charles. The 
 queen says ' sire ' ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " cried the young woman, " you are not alone, my 
 King." 
 
 " No, my sweet Marie, I wanted to bring you another king, 
 happier than myself because he has no crown; more unhappy 
 than I because he has no Marie Touchet. God makes com- 
 pensation for everything." 
 
 " Sire, is it the King of Navarre ? " asked Marie. 
 
 " Yes, my child; come here, Henriot." The King of Navarre 
 drew near ; Charles took him by the hand. 
 
 " See this hand, Marie," said he, " it is the hand of a good 
 brother and a loyal friend. Were it not for this hand " 
 
 " Well, sire ? " 
 
 "Well, had it not been for this hand to-day, Marie, our 
 child would have no father." 
 
 Marie uttered a cry, fell, on her knees, and seizing Henry's 
 hand covered it with kisses. 
 
 " Very good, Marie, very good," said Charles. 
 
 " What have you done to thank him, sire ? " 
 
 " I have done for him what he did for me." 
 
 Henry looked at Charles in astonishment. 
 
 " Some day you will know what I mean, Henriot ; meanwhile
 
 326 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 come here and see." He approached the bed, on which the 
 child still slept. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, " if this little fellow were in the Louvre 
 instead of here in this little house in the Rue des Barres, many 
 things would be changed for the present as well as for the 
 future perhaps." 1 
 
 "Sire," said Marie, "if your Majesty is willing, I prefer 
 him to stay here ; he sleeps better." 
 
 "Let us not disturb his slumber, then," said the King; "it 
 is so sweet to sleep when one does not dream ! " 
 
 " Well, sire," said Marie, pointing to a door opening out of 
 the room. 
 
 " Yes, you are right, Marie," said Charles IX., " let us have 
 supper." 
 
 " My well-beloved Charles," said Marie, " you will ask the 
 king your brother to excuse me, will you not ? " 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " For having dismissed our servants, sire," continued Marie, 
 turning to the King of Navarre ; " you must know that Charles 
 wants to be served by me alone." 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! " said Henry, " I should think so ! " 
 
 Both men entered the dining-room. The mother, anxious 
 and careful, laid a warm blanket over the little Charles, who, 
 thanks to the sound sleep of childhood, so envied by his 
 father, had not wakened. 
 
 Marie rejoined them. 
 
 " There are only two covers ! " said the King. 
 
 " Permit me," said Marie, " to serve your majesties." 
 
 " Now," said Charles, " this is where you cause me trouble, 
 Henriot " 
 
 " How so, sire ? " 
 
 " Did you not hear ? " 
 
 " Forgive me, Charles, forgive me." 
 
 " Yes, I will forgive you. But sit here, near me, between 
 us." 
 
 "I will obey," said Marie. 
 
 She brought a plate, sat down between the two kings, and 
 served them. 
 
 " Is it not good, Henriot," said Charles, " to have one place 
 
 1 Had this natural child, no other than the famous Due d'Angouleme, who died in 
 1650, been legitimate, he would have supplanted Heury III., Henry IV., Louis XIII., and 
 Louis XIV. What would he have given in place of them? The imagination gropes 
 hopelessly about among the shadows of such a question.
 
 THE ANAGRAM. 327 
 
 in the world in which one can eat and drink without needing 
 any one to taste the meats and wines beforehand ? " 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, smiling, and by the smile replying to 
 the constant fear in his own mind, " believe me, I appreciate 
 your happiness more than any one." 
 
 " And tell her, Henriot, that in order for us to live happily, 
 she must not mingle in politics. Above all, she must not be- 
 come acquainted with my mother." 
 
 " Queen Catharine loves your Majesty so passionately that 
 she would be jealous of any other love," replied Henry, finding 
 by a subterfuge the means of avoiding the dangerous confi- 
 dence of the King. 
 
 " Marie," said the latter, " I have brought you one of the 
 finest and the wittiest men I know. At court, you see, and 
 this is saying a great deal, he puts every one in the shade. I 
 alone have clearly understood, not his heart, perhaps, but his 
 mind." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " I am sorry that in exaggerating the 
 one as you do, you mistrust the other." 
 
 " I exaggerate nothing, Henriot," said the King ; " besides, 
 you will be known some day." 
 
 Then turning to the young woman : 
 
 11 He makes delightful anagrams. Ask him to make one of 
 your name. I will answer that he will do it." 
 
 " Oh, what could you expect to find in the name of a poor 
 girl like me ? what gentle thought could there be in the letters 
 with which chance spelled Marie Touchet ? " 
 
 " Oh ! the anagram from this name, sire," said Henry, " is 
 so easy that there is no great merit in finding it." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! it is already found," said Charles. " You see 
 Marie." 
 
 Henry drew his tablets from the pocket of his doublet, tore 
 out a paper, and below the name Marie Touchet wrote Jc 
 charme tout. Then he handed the paper to the young woman. 
 
 " Truly," she cried, " it is impossible ! " 
 
 " What has he found ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " Sire, I dare not repeat it." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " in the name Marie Touchet there is, 
 letter for letter, by changing the ' i ' into a ' j,' as is often 
 done, Je charme tout." (I charm all.) 
 
 " Yes," exclaimed Charles, " letter for letter. I want this 
 to be your motto, Marie, do you hear ? Never was one better
 
 328 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 deserved. Thanks, Henriot. Marie, I will give it to you 
 written in diamonds." 
 
 The supper over, two o'clock struck from Notre-Dame. 
 
 " Now," said Charles, " in return for this compliment, Marie, 
 you will give the king an armchair, in which he can sleep 
 until daybreak ; but let it be some distance from us, because 
 he snores frightfully. Then if you waken before I do, you 
 will rouse me, for at six o'clock we have to be at the Bastille. 
 Good-night, Henriot. Make yourself as comfortable as pos- 
 sible. But," he added, approaching the King of Navarre and 
 laying his hand on his shoulder, " for your life, Henry, do you 
 hear ? for JOUT life, do not leave here without me, especially 
 to return to the Louvre." 
 
 Henry had suspected too many things in what still remained 
 unexplained to him to disobey such advice. Charles IX. 
 entered his room, and Henry, the sturdy mountaineer, settled 
 himself in an armchair, in which he soon justified the precau- 
 tion taken by his brother-in-law in keeping at a distance. 
 
 At dawn he was awakened by Charles. As he had not un- 
 dressed, it did not take him long to finish his toilet. The King 
 was more happy and smiling than he ever was at the Louvre. 
 The hours spent by him in that little house in the Rue des 
 Barres were his hours of sunshine. 
 
 Both men went out through the sleeping-room. The young 
 woman was still in bed. The child was asleep in its cradle. 
 Both were smiling. 
 
 Charles looked at them for a moment with infinite tender- 
 ness. 
 
 Then turning to the King of Navarre : 
 
 " Henriot," said he, " if you ever hear what I did for you 
 last night, or if misfortune come to me, remember this child 
 asleep in its cradle." 
 
 Then kissing both mother and child on the forehead, with- 
 out giving Henry time to question him: 
 
 "Good-by, my angels," said he, and went out. 
 
 Henry followed, deep in thought. The horses were waiting 
 for them at the Bastille, held by the gentlemen to whom Charles 
 IX. had given the order. 
 
 Charles signed to Henry to mount, sprang into his own sad- 
 dle, and riding through the garden of the Arbalite, followed 
 the outside highways. 
 
 " Where are we going ? " asked Henry.
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 329 
 
 " We are going to see if the Due d'Anjou returned for 
 Madame de Conde alone/' replied Charles, " and if there is as 
 much ambition as love in his heart, which I greatly doubt." 
 
 Henry did not understand the answer, but followed Charles 
 in silence. 
 
 They reached the Marais, and as from the shadow of the 
 palisades they could see all which at that time was called 
 the Faubourg Saint Laurent, Charles pointed out to Henry 
 through the grayish mist of the morning some men wrapped 
 in great cloaks and wearing fur caps. They were on horseback, 
 and rode ahead of a wagon which was heavily laden. As 
 they drew near they became outlined more clearly, and one 
 could see another man in a long brown cloak, his face hidden 
 by a French hat, riding and talking with them. 
 
 "Ah ! ah!" said Charles, smiling, "I thought so." 
 
 " Well, sire," said Henry, " if I am not mistaken, that 
 rider in the brown cloak is the Due d'Anjou." 
 
 " Yes," said Charles IX. Turn out a little, Henriot, I do 
 not want him to see us." 
 
 " But," asked Henry, " who are the men in gray cloaks with 
 fur caps ? " 
 
 " Those men," said Charles, " are Polish ambassadors, and 
 in that wagon is a crown. And now," said he, urging his 
 horse to a gallop, and turning into the road of the Porte du 
 Temple, " come, Henriot, I have seen all that I wanted to see." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 
 
 WHEN Catharine thought that everything was over in the 
 King of Navarre's rooms, when the dead guards had been re- 
 moved, when Maurevel had been carried to her apartments, 
 and the carpet had been cleaned, she dismissed her women, for 
 it was almost midnight, and strove to sleep. But the shock 
 had been too violent, and the disappointment too keen. 
 
 That detested Henry, constantly escaping her snares, which 
 were usually fatal, seemed protected by some invincible power 
 which Catharine persisted in calling chance, although in her 
 heart of hearts a voice told her that its true name was destiny.
 
 330 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 The thought that the report of the new attempt in spreading 
 throughout the Louvre and beyond the Louvre would give a 
 greater confidence than ever in the future to Henry and the 
 Huguenots exasperated her, and at that moment had chance, 
 against which she was so unfortunately struggling, delivered her 
 enemy into her hands, surely with the little Florentine dagger 
 she wore at her belt she could have thwarted that destiny so 
 favorable to the King of Navarre. 
 
 The hours of the night, hours so long for one waiting and 
 watching struck one after another without Catharine's being 
 able to close her eyes. A whole world of new plans unrolled 
 in her visionary mind during those nocturnal hours. Finally 
 at daybreak she rose, dressed herself, and went to the apart- 
 ments of Charles IX. 
 
 The guards, who were accustomed to see her go to the King at 
 all hours of the day and night, let her pass. She crossed the 
 antechamber, therefore, and reached the armory. But there 
 she found the nurse of Charles, who was awake. 
 
 " My son ? " said the queen. 
 
 " Madame, he gave orders that no one was to be admitted to 
 his room before eight o'clock." 
 
 " This order was not for me, nurse." 
 
 " It was for every one, madame." 
 
 Catharine smiled. 
 
 " Yes, I know very well," said the nurse, " that no one has any 
 right to oppose your majesty ; I therefore beg you to listen to 
 the prayer of a poor woman and to refrain from entering." 
 
 " Nurse, I must speak to my son." 
 
 " Madame, I will not open the door except on a formal order 
 from your majesty." 
 
 " Open, nurse," said Catharine, " I order you to open ! " 
 
 At this voice, more respected and much more feared in the 
 Louvre than that of Charles himself, the nurse handed the key 
 to Catharine, but the queen had no need of it. She drew from 
 her pocket her own key of the room, and under its heavy 
 pressure the door yielded. 
 
 The room was vacant, Charles's bed was untouched, and his 
 greyhound Acteon, 'asleep on the bear-skin that covered the 
 step of the bed, rose and came forward to lick the ivory hands 
 of Catharine. 
 
 " Ah ! " said the queen, frowning, " he is out ! I will wait 
 for him."
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 331 
 
 She seated herself, pensive and gloomy, at the window which 
 overlooked the court of the Louvre, and from which the chief 
 entrance was visible. 
 
 For two hours she sat there, as motionless and pale as a 
 marble statue, when at length she perceived a troop of horse- 
 men returning to the Louvre, at whose head she recognized 
 Charles and Henry of Navarre. 
 
 Then she understood all. Instead of arguing with her in 
 regard to the arrest of his brother-in-law, Charles had taken 
 him away and so had saved him. 
 
 " Blind, blind, blind ! " she murmured. Then she waited. 
 An instant later footsteps were heard in the adjoining room, 
 which was the armory. 
 
 " But, sire," Henry was saying, " now that we have returned 
 to the Louvre, tell me why you took me away and what is the 
 service you have rendered me." 
 
 "No, no, Henriot," replied Charles, laughing, "some day, 
 perhaps, you will find out ; but for the present it must remain 
 a mystery. Know only that for the time being you have in all 
 probability brought about a fierce quarrel between my mother 
 and me." 
 
 As he uttered these words, Charles raised the curtain and 
 found himself face to face with Catharine. 
 
 Behind him and above his shoulder rose the pale, anxious 
 countenance of the Bearnais. 
 
 " Ah ! you here, madame ? " said Charles IX., frowning. 
 
 " Yes, my son," said Catharine, " I want to speak to you." 
 
 To me ? " 
 
 " To you alone." 
 
 "Well, well," said Charles, turning to his brother-in-law, 
 " since there is no escape, the sooner the better." 
 
 " I will leave you, sire," said Henry. 
 
 " Yes, yes, leave us," replied Charles ; " and as you are a 
 Catholic, Henriot, go and hear a mass for me while I stay for 
 the sermon." 
 
 Henry bowed and withdrew. 
 
 Charles IX. went directly to the point. 
 
 " Well, madame," said he, trying to make a joke of the 
 affair. " By Heaven ! you are waiting to scold me, are you 
 not ? I wickedly upset your little plan. Well, the devil ! I 
 could not let the man who had just saved my life be arrested 
 and taken to the Bastille. Nor did I want to quarrel with my
 
 332 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 mother. I am a good son. Moreover," he added in a low 
 tone, "the Lord punishes children who quarrel with their 
 mothers. Witness my brother Franqois II. Forgive me, there- 
 fore, frankly, and confess that the joke was a good one." 
 
 " Sire," said Catharine, " your Majesty is mistaken ; it is 
 not a joke.'' 
 
 " Yes, yes ! and you will end by looking at it in that way, 
 or the devil take me ! " 
 
 " Sire, by your blunder you have baffled a project which 
 would have led to an important discovery." 
 
 " Bah! a project. Are you embarrassed because of a baffled 
 project, mother ? You can make twenty others, and in those, 
 well, I promise I will second you." 
 
 " Now that you will second me it is too late, for he is 
 warned and will be on his guard." 
 
 " Well," said the King, " let us come to the point. ' What 
 have you against Henriot ? " 
 
 " The fact that he conspires." 
 
 " Yes, I know that this is your constant accusation ; but 
 does not every one conspire more or less in this charming royal 
 household called the Louvre ? " 
 
 " But he conspires more than any one, and he is much more 
 dangerous than one imagines." 
 
 " A regular Lorenzino ! " said Charles. 
 
 " Listen," said Catharine, becoming gloomy at mention of 
 this name, which reminded her of one of the bloodiest catastro- 
 phies in the history of Florence. " Listen ; there is a way of 
 proving to me that I am wrong." 
 
 " What way, mother ? " 
 
 " Ask Henry who was in his room last night." 
 
 " In his room last night ? " 
 
 " Yes ; and if he tells you " 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well, I shall be ready to admit that I have been mistaken." 
 
 " But in case it was a woman, we cannot ask." 
 
 " A woman ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " A woman who killed two of your guards and perhaps 
 mortally wounded Monsieur de Maurevel ! " 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said the King, " this is serious. Was there any 
 bloodshed ? " 
 
 " Three men were stretched on the floor."
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 333 
 
 " And the one who reduced them to this state ? " 
 
 "Escaped safe and sound." 
 
 " By Gog and Magog ! " exclaimed Charles, " he was a brave 
 fellow, and you are right, mother, I must know him." 
 
 "Well, I tell you in advance that you will not know 
 him, at least not through Henry." 
 
 " But through you, mother ? The man did not escape with- 
 out leaving some trace, without your noticing some part of his 
 clothing." 
 
 " Nothing was noticed except the very elegant red cloak 
 which he wore." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! a red cloak ! " cried Charles. " I know only one 
 at court remarkable enough to attract attention." 
 
 " Exactly," said Catharine. 
 
 Well ? " demanded Charles. 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, " wait for me in your rooms, my 
 son, and I will go and see if my orders have been carried out." 
 
 Catharine left, and Charles, alone, began walking up and 
 down distractedly, whistling a hunting-song, one hand in his 
 doublet, the other hanging down, which his dog licked every 
 time he paused. 
 
 As to Henry he had left his brother-in-law greatly dis- 
 turbed, and instead of going along the main corridor he had 
 taken the small private stairway, to which we have already 
 referred more than once, and which led to the second story. 
 Scarcely had he ascended four steps before he perceived a 
 figure at the first landing. He stopped, raising his hand to 
 his dagger. But he soon saw it was a woman, who took hold 
 of his hand and said in a charming voice which he well knew : 
 
 "Thank God, sire, you are safe and sound. I was so afraid 
 for you, but no doubt God heard my prayer." 
 
 " What has happened ? " said Henry. 
 
 " You will know when you reach your rooms. You need 
 not worry over Orthon. I have seen to him." 
 
 The young woman descended the stairs hastily, making 
 Henry believe that she had met him by chance. 
 
 " That is strange," said Henry' to himself. " What is the 
 matter ? What has happened to Orthon ? " 
 
 Unfortunately, the question was not heard by Madame de 
 Sauve, for the latter had already disappeared. 
 
 Suddenly at the top of the stairs Henry perceived another 
 figure, but this time it was that of a man.
 
 334 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Hush ! " said the man. 
 
 " Ah ! is it you, Franqois ? " 
 
 " Do not call me by my name." 
 
 " What has happened ? " 
 
 " Return to your rooms and you will see, then slip into the 
 corridor, look carefully around to make sure that no one is 
 spying on you, and come to my apartments. The door will be 
 ajar." 
 
 He, too, disappeared down the stairs, like the phantoms in a 
 theatre who glide through a trap door. 
 
 " Ventre saint gris ! " murmured the Bearnais, " the puzzle 
 continues ; but since the answer is in my rooms, let us go 
 thither and find it." 
 
 However, it was not without emotion that Henry went on 
 his way. He had the sensitiveness and the superstition of 
 youth. Everything was clearly reflected on his mind, the sur- 
 face of which was as smooth as a mirror, and what he had just 
 heard foretold trouble. 
 
 He reached the door of his rooms and listened. Not a 
 sound. Besides, since Charlotte had said to return to his 
 apartments, it was evident that there was nothing for him to 
 fear by doing so. He glanced hurriedly around the first room 
 it was vacant. Nothing showed that anything had occurred. 
 
 " Orthon is not here," said he. 
 
 He passed on to the next room. There everything was 
 explained. 
 
 In spite of the water which had been thrown on in buckets- 
 ful, great red spots covered the floor. A piece of furniture 
 was broken, the bed curtains had been slashed by the sword, 
 a Venetian mirror had been shattered by a bullet ; and a 
 bloody hand which had left its terrible imprint on the wall 
 showed that this silent chamber had been the scene of a fright- 
 ful struggle. Henry embraced all these details at a glance, and 
 passing his hand across his forehead, now damp with perspira- 
 tion, murmured : 
 
 " Ah, I know now the service the King has rendered me. 
 They came here to assassinate me and ah ! De Mouy ! 
 what have they done to De Mouy ? The wretches ! They 
 may have killed him ! " 
 
 And as anxious to learn the news as the Due d'Alenqon was 
 to tell it, Henry threw a last mournful glance on the surround- 
 ing objects, hurried from the room, reached the corridor, made
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 335 
 
 sure that it was vacant, and pushing open the half-closed door, 
 which he carefully shut behind him, he hurried to the Due 
 d'Alenqon's. 
 
 The duke was waiting for him in the first room. Laying 
 his finger on his lips, he hastily took Henry's hand and drew 
 him into a small round tower which was completely isolated, 
 and which consequently was out of range of spies. 
 
 " Ah, brother," said he, " what a horrible night ! " 
 
 " What happened ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " They tried to arrest you." 
 
 "Me?" 
 
 " Yes, you." 
 
 " For what reason ? " 
 
 " I do not know. Where were you ? " 
 
 " The King took me into the city with him last night." 
 
 " Then he knew about it," said D'Alenqon. " But since you 
 were not in your rooms, who was ? " 
 
 " Was some one there ? " asked Henry as if he were ignorant 
 of the fact. 
 
 " Yes, a man. When I had heard the noise, I ran to help 
 you; but it was too late." 
 
 " Was the man arrested ? " asked Henry, anxiously. 
 
 " No, he escaped, after he had wounded Maurevel danger- 
 ously and killed two guards." 
 
 " Ah ! brave De Mouy ! " cried Henry. 
 
 " It was De Mouy, then ? " said D'Alengon, quickly. 
 
 Henry saw that he had made a mistake. 
 
 " I presume so," said he, " for I had an appointment with 
 him to discuss your escape, and to tell him that I had yielded 
 all my rights to the throne of Navarre to you." 
 
 " If that is known," said D'Alenqon, growing pale, " we are 
 lost." 
 
 " Yes, for Maurevel will speak." 
 
 " Maurevel received a sword-thrust in his throat, and I 
 found out from the surgeon who dressed the wound that it 
 would be a week before he would utter a single word." 
 
 " A week ! That is more than enough for De Mouy to 
 escape." 
 
 " For that matter," said D'Alengon, " it might have been 
 some one besides Monsieur de Mouy." 
 
 " You think so ? " said Henry.
 
 336 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, the man disappeared very quickly, and nothing bnt 
 his red cloak was seen." 
 
 " And a red cloak," said Henry, " is more apt to be worn by 
 a courtier than by a soldier. I should never suspect De Mouy 
 in a red cloak." 
 
 " No, if any one were suspected," said D'Alenqon, " it would 
 be more apt to be " 
 
 He stopped. 
 
 " It would be more likely to be Monsieur de la Mole," said 
 Henry. 
 
 " Certainly, since I myself, who saw the man running away, 
 thought so for an instant." 
 
 " You thought so ? Why, it must have been Monsieur de la 
 Mole, then." 
 
 " Does he know anything ? " asked D'Alenqon. 
 
 " Absolutely nothing ; at least, nothing of importance." 
 
 " Brother," said the duke ; " I really think now that it was 
 he." 
 
 " The devil ! " said Henry ; " if it was, that will trouble the 
 queen greatly, for she is interested in him." 
 
 " Interested, you say ? " said D'Alenqon in amazement. 
 
 " Yes. Do you not remember, Francois, that it was your 
 sister who recommended him to you ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the duke, in a dull voice ; " so I tried to be agree- 
 able to him. The proof of this is that, fearing his red cloak 
 might compromise him, I went up to his rooms and took the 
 cloak away." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " exclaimed Henry, " that was doubly prudent. 
 And now I would not bet, but I would swear, that it was he." 
 
 " Even in court ? " asked Francois. 
 
 " Faith, yes," replied Henry. " He probably came to bring 
 me some message from Marguerite." 
 
 " If I were sure of being upheld by your testimony," said 
 D'Alenqon, " I would almost accuse him." 
 
 " If you were to accuse him," replied Henry, " you under- 
 stand, brother, that I would not contradict you." 
 
 " But the queen ? " said D'Alenqon. 
 
 " Ah, yes, the queen." 
 
 " We must know what she would do." 
 
 " I will undertake to find out." 
 
 ' Plague it, brother ! she will do wrong to lie to us, for this 
 affair will make a glorious reputation of bravery for the young
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 337 
 
 man, and which cannot have cost him dear either, for he 
 probably bought it on credit. Furthermore, it is true that he 
 is well able to pay back both interest and capital." 
 
 " Well, what can you expect ? " said Henry ; " in this base 
 world one has nothing for nothing ! " 
 
 And bowing and smiling to D'Alenqon, he cautiously thrust 
 his head into the corridor, and making sure that no one had 
 been listening, he hurried rapidly away, and disappeared down 
 the private stairway which led to the apartments of Mar- 
 guerite. 
 
 As far as she was concerned, the Queen of Navarre was no 
 less anxious than her husband. The night's expedition sent 
 against her and the Duchesse de Nevers by the King, the Due 
 d'Anjou, the Due de Guise, and Henry, whom she had recog- 
 nized, troubled her greatly. In all probability there was 
 nothing which could compromise her. The janitor unfastened 
 from the gate by La Mole and Coconnas had promised to be 
 silent. But four lords like those with whom two simple 
 gentlemen, such as La Mole and Coconnas, had coped, would 
 not have gone out of their way by chance, or without having 
 had some reason for thus inconveniencing themselves. Mar- 
 guerite had returned at daybreak, having passed the rest of 
 the night with the Duchesse de Nevers. She had retired at 
 once, but had been unable to sleep, and had started at the 
 slightest sound. 
 
 In the midst of this anxiety she heard some one knocking 
 at the secret door, and being informed that the visitor was 
 Gillonne, she gave orders to have her admitted. 
 
 Henry waited at the outer door. Nothing in his appearance 
 showed the wounded husband. His usual smile lay on his 
 delicate lips, and not a muscle of his face betrayed the terrible 
 anxiety through which he had just passed. He seemed to 
 glance inquiringly at Marguerite to discover if she would allow 
 him to talk with her alone. Marguerite understood her hus- 
 band's look, and signed to Gillonne to withdraw. 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, " I know how deeply you are at- 
 tached to your friends, and I fear I bring you bad news." 
 
 " What is it, monsieur ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " One of your dearest servants is at present greatly compro- 
 mised." 
 
 " Which one ? " 
 
 " The dear Count de la Mole."
 
 338 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Monsieur le Comte de la Mole compromised ! And why ? " 
 
 " Because of the affair of last night." 
 
 In spite of her s.elf-control Marguerite could not keep from 
 blushing. 
 
 But she made an effort over herself. 
 
 What affair ? " she asked. 
 
 " What," said Henry, " did you not hear all the noise which 
 was made in the Louvre ? " 
 
 "No, monsieur." 
 
 " I congratulate you, madame," said Henry, with charming 
 simplicity. " This proves that you are a sound sleeper." 
 
 " But what happened ? " 
 
 " It seems that our good mother gave an order to Monsieur 
 de Maurevel and six of his men to arrest me." 
 
 " You, monsieur, you ? " 
 
 " Yes, me." 
 
 " For what reason ? " 
 
 " Ah, who can tell the reasons of a mind as subtle as that 
 of your mother ? I suspect the reasons, but I do not know 
 them positively." 
 
 " And you were not in your rooms ? " 
 
 " No ; I happened not to be. You have guessed rightly, 
 madame, I was not. Last evening the King asked me to go 
 out with him. But, although I was not in my rooms, some one 
 else was." 
 
 Who ? " 
 
 " It seems that it was the Count de la Mole." 
 
 " The Count de la Mole ! " exclaimed Marguerite, astonished. 
 
 " By Heavens ! what a lively little fellow this man from the 
 provinces is ! " continued Henry. " Do you know that he 
 wounded Maurevel and killed two guards ? " 
 
 " Wounded Monsieur de Maurevel and killed two guards ! 
 impossible ! " 
 
 " What ! You doubt his courage, madame ? " 
 
 " No, but I say that Monsieur de la Mole could not have 
 been in your rooms." 
 
 Why not ? " 
 
 " Why, because because " said Marguerite, embarrassed, 
 " because he was elsewhere." 
 
 " Ah ! If he can prove an alibi," said Henry, " that is 
 different ; he will tell where he was, and the matter will be 
 settled."
 
 THE RETURN TO THE LOUVRE. 339 
 
 " Where was he ? " said Marguerite, quickly. 
 
 " In all probability the day will not pass without his being 
 arrested and questioned. But unfortunately as there are 
 proofs " 
 
 " Proofs ! what proofs ? " 
 
 " The man who made this desperate defence wore a red 
 cloak." 
 
 " But Monsieur de la Mole is not the only one who has a 
 red cloak I know another man who has one." 
 
 u No doubt, and I too know one. But this is what will 
 happen : if it was not Monsieur de la Mole who was in my 
 rooms, it must have been the other man who wears a red 
 cloak, like La Mole. Now, do you know who this other man 
 is?" 
 
 " Heavens ! " 
 
 " There lies the danger. You, as well as myself, madame, 
 have seen it. Your emotion proves this. Let us now talk 
 like two people who are discussing the most desirable thing in 
 the world a throne ; a most precious gift life. De Mouy 
 arrested, we are ruined." 
 
 " Yes, I understand that." 
 
 " While Monsieur de la Mole compromises no one ; at least 
 you would not suppose him capable of inventing a story such 
 as, for instance, that he was with some ladies whom I 
 know ? " 
 
 "Monsieur," said Marguerite, "if you fear only that, you 
 may be easy. He will not say it." 
 
 " What ! " said Henry, " would he remain silent if death 
 were to be the price of his silence ? " 
 
 " He would remain silent, monsieur." 
 
 " You are sure of this ? " 
 
 " I am sure." 
 
 " Then everything is for the best," said Henry, rising. 
 
 " You are going, monsieur ? " asked Marguerite, quickly. 
 
 " Oh, my God, yes. This is all I had to say to you." 
 
 " And you are going " 
 
 " To try and get out of the trouble we have been put to by 
 this devil of a man in the red cloak." 
 
 " Oh, my God ! my God ! the poor young man ! " cried 
 Marguerite, pitifully, wringing her hands. 
 
 " Really," said Henry, as he went out, " this dear Monsieur 
 de la Mole is a faithful servant."
 
 340 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER. 
 
 CHARLES entered his room, smiling and joking. But after a 
 conversation of ten minutes with his mother, one would have 
 said that the latter had given him her pallor and anger in ex- 
 change for the light-heartedness of her son. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole," said Charles, " Monsieur de la Mole ! 
 Henry and the Due d'Alengon must be sent for. Henry, be- 
 cause this young man was a Huguenot; the Due d'Alenqon, 
 because he is in his service." 
 
 " Send for them if you wish, my son, but you will learn 
 nothing. Henry and Franqois, I fear, are much more closely 
 bound together than one would suppose from appearances. To 
 question them is to suspect them. I think it would be better 
 to wait for the slow but sure proof of time. If you give the 
 guilty ones time to breathe again, my son, if you let them think 
 they have escaped your vigilance, they will become bold and 
 triumphant, and will give you a better opportunity to punish 
 them. Then we shall know everything." 
 
 Charles walked up and down, undecided, gnawing his anger, 
 as a horse gnaws his bit, and pressing his clinched hand to his 
 heart, which was consumed by his one idea. 
 
 " No, no," said he, at length ; " I will not wait. You do not 
 know what it is to wait, beset with suspicions as I am. Be- 
 sides, every day these courtiers become more insolent. Even 
 last night did not two of them dare to cope with us ? 
 If Monsieur de la Mole is innocent, very good ; but I should 
 not be sorry to know where Monsieur de la Mole was last 
 night, while they were attacking my guards in the Louvre, 
 and me in the Rue Cloche Percee. So let the Due d'Alenqon 
 be sent for, and afterwards Henry. I will question them sep- 
 arately. You may remain, mother." 
 
 Catharine sat down. For a determined spirit such as hers 
 was, every incident turned by her powerful hand would lead 
 her to her goal, although it might seem to be leading away 
 from it. From every blow there would result noise and a 
 spark. The noise would guide, the spark give light. 
 
 The Due d'Alen^on entered. His previous conversation
 
 THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER. 341 
 
 with Henry had prepared him for this interview ; therefore he 
 was quite calm. 
 
 His replies were very exact. Warned by his mother to remain 
 in his own rooms, he was completely ignorant of the events of 
 the night. But as his apartments opened upon the same corri- 
 dor as did those of the King of Navarre, he had at first 
 thought he heard a sound like that of a door being broken in, 
 then curses, then pistol-shots. Thereupon he had ventured to 
 push his door partly open, and had seen a man in a red cloak 
 running away. 
 
 Charles and his mother exchanged glances. 
 
 " In a red cloak ? " said the King. 
 
 " In a red cloak," replied D'Alen^on. 
 
 "And did you have any suspicions regarding this red 
 cloak ? " 
 
 D'Alenqon rallied all his strength that he might lie as 
 naturally as possible. 
 
 " At first sight," said he, " I must confess to your Majesty that 
 I thought I recognized the red cloak of one of my gentlemen." 
 
 " What is the name of this gentleman ? " 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 "Why was not Monsieur de la Mole with you as his duty 
 required him to be ? " 
 
 " I had given him leave of absence," said the duke. 
 
 " That is well ; now you may go," said Charles. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon started towards the door by which he 
 had entered. 
 
 " Not that way," said Charles ; " this way." 
 
 And he indicated the door opening into his nurse's room. 
 Charles did not want Franqois and Henry to meet. 
 
 He did not know that they had already seen each other for 
 an instant, and that this instant had sufficed for the two 
 brothers-in-law to agree on their plans. 
 
 At a sign from Charles, Henry entered. 
 
 He did not wait for Charles to question him, however. 
 
 "Sire," said he, "yonr Majesty has done well to send for 
 me, for I was just coming to demand justice of you." 
 
 Charles frowned. 
 
 " Yes, justice," said Henry. " I will begin by thanking your 
 Majesty for having taken me with you last night ; for, by do- 
 ing this, I now know that you saved my life. But what had I 
 done that an attempt should be made to assassinate me ? "
 
 342 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Not to assassinate," said Catharine, quickly, " but to arrest 
 you." 
 
 " Well," said Henry, " even so. What crime have I com- 
 mitted to merit arrest ? If I am guilty I am as much so this 
 morning as I was last evening. Tell me my offence, sire." 
 
 Embarrassed as to what reply to make, Charles looked at 
 his mother. 
 
 " My son," said Catharine, " you receive suspicious charac- 
 ters." 
 
 " Very good," said Henry, " and these suspicious characters 
 compromise me ; is that it, madame ? " 
 
 " Yes, Henry." 
 
 " Give me their names ! Give me their names ! Who are 
 they ? Let me see them ! " 
 
 " Really," said Charles, " Henriot has the right to demand 
 an explanation." 
 
 " And I do demand it ! " said Henry, realizing the superior- 
 ity of his position and anxious to make the most of it. " I ask 
 it from my good brother Charles, and from my good mother 
 Catharine. Since my marriage with Marguerite have I not 
 been a kind husband ? ask Marguerite. A good Catholic ? 
 ask my confessor. A good relative ? ask those who were at 
 the hunt yesterday." 
 
 '( Yes, that is true, Henriot," said the King ; " but what can 
 you do ? They claim that you conspire." 
 
 " Against whom ? " 
 
 " Against me." 
 
 " Sire, if I had been conspiring against you, I had merely to 
 let events take their course, when your horse broke his knee 
 and could not rise, or when the furious boar turned on your 
 Majesty." 
 
 " Well, the devil ! mother, do you know that he is right ? " 
 
 " But who was in your rooms last night ? " 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, " in times when so few dare to 
 answer for themselves, I should never attempt to answer for 
 others. I left my rooms at seven o'clock in the evening, at 
 ten o'clock my brother Charles took me away, and I spent the 
 night with him. I could not be with your Majesty and know 
 what was going on in my rooms at the same time." 
 
 " But," said Catharine, " it is none the less true that one of 
 your men killed two of his Majesty's guards and wounded 
 Monsieur de Maurevel."
 
 THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER. 343 
 
 " One of my men ? " said Henry. " What man, inadaine ? 
 Name him." 
 
 " Every one accuses Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole is not in my suite, madame ; Monsieur 
 de la Mole belongs to Monsieur d'Alenqon, to whom he was 
 recommended by your daughter." 
 
 " But," said Charles, " was it Monsieur de la Mole who was 
 in your rooms, Henriot ? " 
 
 " How can you expect me to know, sire ? I can say neither 
 yes nor no. Monsieur de la Mole is an exceptional servant, 
 thoroughly devoted to the Queen of Navarre. He often 
 brings me messages, either from Marguerite, to whom he is 
 grateful for having recommended him to Monsieur le Due 
 d Alenqon, or from Monsieur le Due himself. I cannot say 
 that it was not Monsieur de la Mole " 
 
 " It was he," said Catharine. " His red cloak was recog- 
 nized." 
 
 " Has Monsieur de la Mole a red cloak, then ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " And the man who so cleverly disposed of two of my 
 guards and Monsieur de Maurevel " 
 
 " Had a red cloak ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " Exactly," said Charles. 
 
 " I have nothing to say," said the Bearnais. " But in any 
 case it seems to me that instead of summoning me here, since I 
 was not in my rooms, it is Monsieur de la Mole, who, having 
 been there, as you say, should be questioned. But," said 
 Henry, " I must observe one thing to your Majesty." 
 
 " What is that ? " 
 
 " This, that if I had seen an order signed by my King and 
 had defended myself instead of obeying this order, I should be 
 guilty and should deserve all sorts of punishment ; but it was 
 not I but some stranger whom this order in no way concerned. 
 There was an attempt made to arrest him unjustly, he defended 
 himself too well, perhaps, but he was in the right." 
 
 " And yet " murmured Catharine. 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, " was the order to arrest me ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine, " and his Majesty himself signed it." 
 
 " Was it an order to arrest any one found in my place in 
 case I was not there ? " 
 
 " No," said Catharine. 
 
 " Well ! " said Henry, " unless you prove that I was conspir-
 
 344 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 ing and that the man who was in my rooms was conspiring 
 with me, this man is innocent." 
 
 Then turning to Charles IX. : 
 
 " Sire," continued Henry, " I shall not leave the Louvre. At a 
 simple word from your Majesty I shall even be ready to 
 enter any state prison you may be pleased to suggest. But 
 while waiting for the proof to the contrary I have the right to 
 call myself and I do call myself the very faithful servant, sub- 
 ject, and brother of your Majest} 7 ." 
 
 And with a dignity hitherto unknown in him, Henry bowed 
 to Charles and withdrew. 
 
 " Bravo, Henriot ! " said Charles, when the King of Navarre 
 had left. 
 
 " Bravo ! because he has defeated us ? " said Catharine. 
 
 " Why should I not applaud ? When we fence together 
 and he touches me do I not say ' bravo ' ? Mother, you are 
 wrong to hate this boy as you do." 
 
 " My son," said Catharine, pressing the hand of Charles IX., 
 " I do not hate him, I fear him." 
 
 " Well, you are wrong, mother. Henriot is my friend, and 
 as he said, had he been conspiring against me he had only to 
 let the wild boar alone." 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine, " so that Monsieur le Due d'Anjou, 
 his personal enemy, might be King of France." 
 
 " Mother, whatever Henriot's motive in saving my life, the 
 fact is that he saved it, and, the devil ! I do not want any 
 harm to come to him. As to Monsieur de la Mole, well, I will 
 talk about him with my brother D'Alengon, to whom he 
 belongs." 
 
 This was Charles IX.'s way of dismissing his mother, who 
 withdrew endeavoring to fix her suspicions. On account of 
 his unimportance, Monsieur de la Mole did not answer to her 
 needs. 
 
 Returning to her rooms, Catharine found Marguerite waiting 
 for her. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said she, " is it you, my daughter ? I sent for 
 you last evening." 
 
 " I know it, madame, but I had gone out." 
 
 " And this morning ? " 
 
 " This morning, madame, I have come to tell your majesty 
 that you are about to do a great wrong." 
 
 " What is that ? "
 
 THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER. 345 
 
 "You are going to have Monsieur le Comte de la Mole 
 arrested." 
 
 " You are mistaken, my daughter, I am going to have no 
 one arrested. It is the King, not I, who gives orders for 
 arrests." 
 
 " Let us not quibble over the words, madame, when the cir- 
 cumstances are serious. Monsieur de la Mole is going to be 
 arrested, is he not ? " 
 
 " A'ery likely." 
 
 " Accused of having been found in the chamber of the King 
 of Navarre last night, and of having killed two guards and 
 wounded Monsieur de Maurevel ? " 
 
 " Such indeed is the crime they impute to him." 
 
 " They impute it to him wrongly, madame," said Marguerite ; 
 " Monsieur de la Mole is not guilty." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole not guilty ! " said Catharine, giving 
 a start of joy, and thinking that what Marguerite was about 
 to tell her would throw light on the subject. 
 
 " No," went on Marguerite, " he is not guilty, he cannot be 
 so, for he was not in the king's room." 
 
 " Where was he, then ? " 
 
 " In my room, madame." 
 
 " In your room ? " 
 
 " Yes, in my room." 
 
 At this avowal from a daughter of France, Catharine felt 
 like hurling a withering glance at Marguerite, but she merely 
 crossed her arms on her lap. 
 
 " And," said she after a moment's silence, " if Monsieur de la 
 Mole is arrested and questioned " 
 
 " He will say where he was and with whom he was, mother," 
 replied Marguerite, although she felt sure of the contrary. 
 
 " Since this is so, you are right, my daughter ; Monsieur de 
 la Mole must not be arrested." 
 
 Marguerite shivered. It seemed to her that there was some- 
 thing strange and terrible in the way her mother uttered these 
 words ; but she had nothing to say, for what she had come to 
 ask for had been granted her. 
 
 " But," said Catharine, " if it was not Monsieur de la Mole 
 who was in the king's room, it was some one else ! " 
 
 Marguerite was silent. 
 
 " Do you know who it was, my daughter ? " said Catharine. 
 
 " No, mother," said Marguerite, in an unsteady voice.
 
 346 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Come, do not be half confidential." 
 
 " I repeat, madanae, that I do not know," replied Marguerite 
 again, growing pale in spite of herself. 
 
 " Well, well," said Catharine, carelessly, " we shall find out. 
 Go now, my daughter. You may rest assured that your 
 mother will watch over your honor." 
 
 Marguerite went out. 
 
 " Ah ! " murmured Catharine, " they are in league. Henry 
 and Marguerite are working together. While the wife is 
 silent, the husband is blind. Ah, you are very clever, my 
 children, and you think yourselves very strong. But your 
 strength is in your union and I will break you, one after the 
 other. Besides, the day will come when Maurevel can speak 
 or write, utter a name, or spell six letters, and then we shall 
 know everything. Yes, but in the meantime the guilty shall 
 be in safe-keeping. The best thing to do would be to separate 
 them at once." 
 
 Thereupon Catharine set out for the apartments of her son, 
 whom she found holding a conference with D'Alencon. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " exclaimed Charles IX., frowning, " is it you, 
 mother ? " 
 
 " Why did you not say ' again ' ? The word was in your 
 mind, Charles." 
 
 "What is in my mind belongs to me, madame," said the 
 King, in the rough tone he sometimes used even when speaking 
 to Catharine. " What do you want of me ? Tell me quickly." 
 
 " Well, you were right, my son," said Catharine to Charles, 
 " and you, D'Alenqon, were wrong." 
 
 " In what respect, madame ? " asked both princes. 
 
 " It was not Monsieur de la Mole who was in the apart- 
 ments of the King of Navarre." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " cried Francois, growing pale. 
 
 " Who was it, then ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " We do not know yet, but we shall know when Maurevel 
 is able to speak. So let us drop the subject, which will soon 
 be explained, and return to Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " Well, what do you want of Monsieur de la Mole, mother, 
 since he was not in the rooms of the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " No," said Catharine, " he was not there, but he was with 
 the queen." 
 
 " With the queen ! " cried Charles, bursting into a nervous 
 1 augh.
 
 THE GIRDLE OF THE QUEEN MOTHER. 347 
 
 "With the queen," murmured D'Alenqon, turning as pale 
 as death. 
 
 " No, no," said Charles, " De Guise told me he had met Mar- 
 guerite's litter." 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine, " she has a house in town." 
 
 " In the Rue Cloche Percee ! " cried the King. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! this is too much," said D'Alenqon, driving his nails 
 into his breast. " And to have had him recommended to me ! ' ; 
 
 " Ah ! now that I think of it ! " said the King, stopping sud- 
 denly, " it was he who defended himself against us last night, 
 and who hurled the silver bowl at my head, the wretch ! " 
 
 " Oh, yes ! " repeated Franqois, " the wretch ! " 
 
 " You are right, my children," said Catharine, without ap- 
 pearing to understand the feelings which incited both of her 
 sons to speak. " You are right, for a single indiscreet act of 
 this gentleman might cause a horrible scandal, and ruin a 
 daughter of France. One moment of madness would be enough 
 for that." 
 
 " Or of vanity," said Francois. 
 
 " No doubt, no doubt," said Charles. " And yet we cannot 
 bring the case into court unless Henriot consents to appear as 
 plaintiff." 
 
 "My son," said Catharine, placing her hand on Charles's 
 shoulder in such a way as to call the King's attention to what 
 she was about to propose, " listen to what I say. A crime 
 has been committed, and there may be scandal. But this 
 sort of offence to royalty is not punished by judges and hang- 
 men. If you were simple gentlemen, I should have nothing 
 to say to you, for you are both brave, but you are princes, 
 you cannot cross swords with mere country squires. Think 
 how you can avenge yourselves as princes." 
 
 " The devil ! " cried Charles, " you are right, mother, and I 
 will consider it." 
 
 " I will help you, brother," cried Francois. 
 
 " And I," said Catharine, unfastening the black silk girdle 
 which was wound three times about her waist, and the two 
 tassels of which fell to her knees. " I will retire, but I leave 
 you this to represent me." 
 
 And she threw the girdle at the feet of the two princes. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said Charles, " I understand." 
 
 " This girdle " said D'Alenqon, picking it up. 
 
 " Is punishment and silence," said Catharine, victorious ;
 
 348 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " but," she added, " there would be no harm in mentioning this 
 to Henry." 
 
 She withdrew. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " said D'Alenqon ; " a good idea, and when 
 Henry knows that his wife has betrayed him So," he 
 added, turning to the King, "you will adopt our mother's 
 suggestion ? " 
 
 " In every detail," said Charles, not doubting but that he 
 would drive a thousand daggers into D'Alenqon's heart. " This 
 will annoy Marguerite, but it will delight Henriot." 
 
 Then, calling one of his guards, he ordered Henry sum- 
 moned, but thinking better of it : 
 
 " No, no," said he, " I will go for him myself. Do you, 
 D'Alenqon, inform D'Anjou and De Guise." 
 
 Leaving his apartments, he ascended the private stairway to 
 the second floor, which led to Henry's chamber. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 PROJECTS OF REVEXGE. 
 
 HENRY took advantage of the respite afforded him by his 
 well-sustained examination to go to Madame de Sauve's. He 
 found Orthon completely recovered from his fainting-fit. But 
 Orthon could tell him nothing, except that some men had 
 broken into the king's rooms, that the leader had struck him 
 with the handle of his sword, and that the blow had stunned 
 him. No one had troubled about Orthon. Catharine had seen 
 that he had fainted and had believed him to be dead. 
 
 As he had come to himself between the departure of the 
 queen mother and the arrival of the captain of the guards 
 charged with clearing up the room, he had taken refuge in 
 Madame de Sauve's apartments. 
 
 Henry begged Charlotte to keep the young man until news 
 came from De Mouy, who would not fail to write him from his 
 hiding-place. Then he would send Orthon to carry his answer 
 to De Mouy, and instead of one devoted man he could count 
 on two. This decided on, he returned to his rooms and 
 began further to consider matters, walking up and down the 
 while. Suddenly the door opened and the King appeared.
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 349 
 
 " Your Majesty ! " cried Henry, rising to meet him. 
 
 " In person. Really, Henriot, you are a good fellow, and I 
 love you more and more." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " your Majesty overwhelms me." 
 
 " You have but one fault, Henriot." 
 
 " What is that ? The one for which your Majesty has 
 already reproached me several times ? " said Henry. " My 
 preferring to hunt animals rather than birds ? " 
 
 " No, no, I am not referring to that, Henriot, I mean some- 
 thing else." 
 
 " If your Majesty will explain," said Henry, who saw from 
 the smile on Charles's lips that the King was in a good humor, 
 " I will try and correct it." 
 
 " It is this, that having such good eyes, you see no better 
 than you do." 
 
 " Bah ! " said Henry, " can I be short-sighted, then, sire, 
 without knowing it ? " 
 
 " Worse than that, Henry, worse than that, you are blind." 
 
 " Ah, indeed," said the Bearnais, " but is it not when I 
 shut my eyes that this happens ? " 
 
 " Well, yes ! " said Charles, " you are perfectly capable of 
 that. At all events, I am going to open your eyes." 
 
 " God said, ' Let there be light,' and there was light. Your 
 Majesty is the representative of God on earth. Therefore you 
 can do here what God does in heaven. Proceed; I am all 
 attention." 
 
 " When De Guise said last night that your wife had just 
 passed escorted by a gallant you would not believe it." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " how could I believe that the sister of 
 your Majesty could commit an act of such imprudence ? " 
 
 " When he told you that your wife had gone to the Rue 
 Cloche Percee, you would not believe that either ! " 
 
 " How was I to suppose, sire, that a daughter of France 
 would thus publicly risk her reputation ? " 
 
 " When we besieged the house in the Rue Cloche Percee, 
 and when I had a silver bowl hurled at my shoulder, D'Anjou 
 some orange marmalade on his head, and De Guise a haunch 
 of venison in the face, you saw two women and two men, did 
 you not ? " 
 
 " I saw nothing, sire. Does not your Majesty remember 
 that I was questioning the janitor ? " 
 
 " Yes, but, by Heaven, I saw "
 
 350 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 11 Ah, if your Majesty saw anything, that is a different 
 thing." 
 
 " I saw two men and two women. Well, I know now be- 
 yond a doubt that one of the women was Margot, and that one 
 of the men was Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " Well," said Henry, " if Monsieur de la Mole was in the 
 Rue Cloche Percee, he was not here." 
 
 " No," said Charles, " he was not here. But never mind 
 who was here ; we shall know this as soon as that imbecile of 
 a Maurevel is able to speak or write. The point is that Mar- 
 got is deceiving you." 
 
 " Bah ! " said Henry ; " do not believe such nonsense." 
 
 " When I tell you that you are more than near-sighted, that 
 you are blind, the devil ! will you believe me just once, stupid ? 
 I tell you that Margot is deceiving you, and that this evening 
 we are going to strangle her lover." 
 
 Henry gave a start of surprise, and looked at his brother-in- 
 law in amazement. 
 
 " Confess, Henry, that at heart you are not sorry. Margot 
 will cry out like a thousand Niobes ; but, faith ! so much 
 the worse. I do not want you to be made a fool of. If Conde 
 is deceived by the Due d'Anjou, I will wink; Conde is my 
 enemy. But you are my brother ; more than this, you are my 
 friend." 
 
 "But, sire"- 
 
 " And I do not want you to be annoyed, and made a fool of. 
 You have been a quintain long enough for all these popinjays 
 who come from the provinces to gather our crumbs, and court 
 our women. Let them come, or rather let them come again. 
 By Heaven! you have been deceived, Henriot, that might 
 happen to any one, but I swear, you shall have shining 
 satisfaction, and to-morrow they shall say : In the name of a 
 thousand devils ! it seems that King Charles loves his brother 
 Henriot, for last night he had Monsieur de la Mole's tongue 
 pulled out in a most amusing manner." 
 
 " Is this really decided on, sire ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " Decided on, determined on, arranged. The coxcomb will 
 have no time to plead his cause. The expedition will consist 
 of myself, D'Anjou, D'AlenQon, and De Guise a king, two 
 sons of France, and a sovereign prince, without counting you." 
 
 " How without counting me ? " 
 
 " Why, you are to be one of us."
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 351 
 
 " I ! " 
 
 " Yes, you ! you shall stab the fellow in a royal manner, 
 while the rest of us strangle him." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " your kindness overpowers me ; but 
 how do you know " 
 
 " Why, the devil ! it seems that the fellow boasts of it. He 
 goes sometimes to your wife's apartments in the Louvre, some- 
 times to the Rue Cloche Percee. They compose verses together. 
 I should like to see the stanzas that fop writes. Pastorales 
 they are. They discuss Bion and Moschus, and read first 
 Daphne and then Corydon. Ah ! take a good dagger with 
 you ! " 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " upon reflection " 
 
 What ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty will see that I cannot join such an expedi- 
 tion. It seems to me it would be inconvenient to be there in 
 person. I am too much interested in the affair to take any 
 calm part in it. Your Majesty will avenge the honor of your 
 sister on a coxcomb who boasts of having calumniated my 
 wife ; nothing is simpler, and Marguerite, whom I hold to be 
 innocent, sire, is in no way dishonored. But were I of the 
 party, it would be a different thing. My co-operation would 
 convert an act of justice into an act of revenge. It would no 
 longer be an execution, but an assassination. My wife would 
 no longer be calumniated, but guilty." 
 
 "By Heaven, Henry, as I said just now to my mother, 
 you speak words of wisdom. You have a devilishly quick 
 mind." 
 
 And Charles gazed complacently at his brother-in-law, who 
 bowed in return for the compliment. 
 
 " Nevertheless," added Charles, " you are willing to be rid 
 of this coxcomb, are you not ? " 
 
 " Everything your Majesty does is well done," replied the 
 King of Navarre. 
 
 " Well, well, let me do your work for you. You may be 
 sure it shall not be the worse for it." 
 
 " I leave it to you, sire," said Henry. 
 
 " At what time does he usually go to your wife's room ? " 
 
 " About nine o'clock." 
 
 " And he leaves ? " 
 
 " Before I reach there, for I never see him." 
 
 About "
 
 352 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " About eleven." 
 
 " Very well. Come this evening at midnight. The deed 
 will be done." 
 
 Charles pressed Henry's hand cordially, and renewing his 
 vows of friendship, left the apartment, whistling his favorite 
 hunting-song. 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! " said the Bearnais, watching Charles, 
 " either I am greatly mistaken, or the queeen mother is 
 responsible for all this deviltry. Truly, she does nothing but 
 invent plots to make trouble between my wife and myself. 
 Such a pleasant household ! " 
 
 And Henry began to laugh as he was in the habit of laugh- 
 ing when no one could see or hear him. 
 
 About seven o'clock that evening a handsome young man, 
 who had just taken a bath, was finishing his toilet as he calmly 
 moved about his room, humming a little air, before a mirror in 
 one of the rooms of the Louvre. Near him another young 
 man was sleeping, or rather lying .on a bed. 
 
 The one was our friend La Mole who, unconsciously, had 
 been the object of so much discussion all day ; the other was 
 his companion Coconnas. 
 
 The great storm had passed over him without his having 
 heard the rumble of the thunder or seen the lightning. He 
 had returned at three o'clock in the morning, had stayed in bed 
 until three in the afternoon, half asleep, half awake, building 
 castles on that uncertain sand called the future. Then he had 
 risen, had spent an hour at a fashionable bath, had dined at 
 Maitre La Huriere's, and returning to the Louvre had set himself 
 to finish his toilet before making his usual call on the queen. 
 
 " And you say you have dined ? " asked Coconnas, yawning. 
 
 " Faith, yes, and I was hungry too." 
 
 " Why did you not take me with you, selfish man ? " 
 
 "Faith, you were sleeping so soundly that I did not like to 
 waken you. But you shall sup with me instead. Be sure not 
 to forget to ask Maitre La Huriere for some of that light wine 
 from Anjou, which arrived a few days ago." 
 
 " Is it good ? " 
 
 " I merely tell you to ask for it." 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
 " Where am I going ? " said La Mole, surprised that his 
 friend should ask him such a question ; " I am going to pay 
 my respects to the queen."
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 353 
 
 " Well," said Coconnas, " if I were going to dine in our little 
 house in the Rue Cloche Percee, I should have what was left 
 over from yesterday. There is a certain wine of Alicante 
 which is most refreshing." 
 
 " It would be imprudent to go there, Annibal, my friend, 
 after what occurred last right. Besides, did we not promise 
 that we would not go back there alone ? Hand me my cloak." 
 
 " That is so," said Coconnas, " I had forgotten. But where 
 the devil is your cloak ? Ah ! here it is." 
 
 "No, you have given me the black one, and it is the red one 
 I want. The queen likes me better in that." 
 
 " Ah, faith," said Coconnas, searching everywhere, " look 
 for yourself, I cannot find it." 
 
 " What ! " said La Mole, " you cannot find it ? Why, where 
 can it be ? " 
 
 " You probably sold it." 
 
 " Why, I have six crowns left." 
 
 " Well, take mine." 
 
 " Ah, yes, a yellow cloak with a green doublet ! I should 
 look like a popinjay ! " 
 
 " Faith, you are over-particular, so wear what you please." 
 
 Having tossed everything topsy-turvy in his search, La 
 Mole was beginning to abuse the thieves who managed to 
 enter even the Louvre, when a page from the Due d'Alenqon 
 appeared bringing the precious cloak in question. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried La Mole, " here it is at last ! " 
 
 " Is this your cloak, monsieur ? " said the page. " Yes ; 
 monseigneur sent for it to decide a wager he made regarding its 
 color." 
 
 " Oh ! " said La Mole, " I asked for it only because I was 
 going out, but if his highness desires to keep it longer " 
 
 " No, Monsieur le Comte, he is through with it." 
 
 The page left. La Mole fastened his cloak. 
 
 " Well," he went on, " what have you decided to do ? " 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
 " Shall I find you here this evening ? " 
 
 " How can I tell ? " 
 
 " Do you not know what you are going to do for two hours ? " 
 
 " I know well enough what I shall do, but I do not know 
 what I may be ordered to do." 
 
 " By the Duchesse de Nevers ? " 
 
 " No, by the Due d'AlenQon."
 
 354 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 "As a matter of fact/' said La Mole, "I have 'noticed for 
 some time that he has been friendly to you." 
 
 " Yes,'' said Coconnas. 
 
 " Then your fortune is made," said La Mole, laughing. 
 
 " Poof ! " said Coconnas. " He is only a younger brother ! " 
 
 " Oh ! " said La Mole, " he is so anxious to become the 
 elder one that perhaps Heaven will work some miracle in his 
 favor." 
 
 " So you do not know where you will be this evening ? " 
 
 No." 
 
 " Go to the devil, then, I mean good-by ! " 
 
 " That La Mole is a terrible fellow," thought Coconnas, 
 " always wanting me to tell him where I am going to be ! as if 
 I knew. Besides, I believe I am sleepy." And he threw 
 himself on the bed again. 
 
 La Mole betook himself to the apartments of the queen. In 
 the corridor he met the Due d'Alenqon. 
 
 " Ah ! you here, Monsieur la Mole ? " said the prince. 
 
 " Yes, my lord," replied La Mole, bowing respectfully. 
 
 " Are you going away from the Louvre ? " 
 
 " No, your highness. I am on my way to pay my respects 
 to her Majesty the Queen of Navarre." 
 
 " About what time shall you leave, Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Has monseigneur any orders for me ? " 
 
 " No, not at present, but I shall want to speak to you this 
 evening." 
 
 " About what time ? " 
 
 " Between nine and ten." 
 
 " I shall do myself the honor of waiting on your highness at 
 that time." 
 
 " Very good. I shall depend on you." 
 
 La Mole bowed and went on. 
 
 " There are times," said he, " when the duke is as pale as 
 death. It is very strange." 
 
 He knocked at the door of the queen's apartments. 
 Gillonne, who apparently was expecting him, led him to Mar- 
 guerite. 
 
 The latter was occupied with some work which seemed to 
 be wearying her greatly. A paper covered with notes and a 
 volume of Isocrates lay before her. She signed to La Mole to 
 let her finish a paragraph. Then, in a few moments, she 
 threw down her pen and invited the young man to sit beside
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 355 
 
 her. La Mole was radiant. Never had he been so handsome 
 or so light-hearted. 
 
 " Greek ! " said he, glancing at the book. " A speech of 
 Isocrates ! What are you doing with that ? Ah ! and Latin on 
 this sheet of paper! Ad Sarmatice legatos regince Margaritce 
 concio ! So you are going to harangue these barbarians in 
 Latin ? " 
 
 " I must," said Marguerite, " since they do not speak 
 French." 
 
 " But how can you write the answer before you have the 
 speech ? " 
 
 " A greater coquette than I would make you believe that 
 this was impromptu ; but I cannot deceive you, my Hyacinth e : 
 I was told the speech in advance, and I am answering it." 
 
 " Are these ambassadors about to arrive ? " 
 
 " Better still, they arrived this morning." 
 
 " Does any one know it ? " 
 
 " They came incognito. Their formal arrival is planned for 
 to-morrow afternoon, I believe, and you will see," said Mar- 
 guerite, with a little satisfied air not wholly free from pedantry, 
 " that what I have done this evening is quite Ciceronian. But 
 let us drop these important matters and speak of what has 
 happened to you." 
 
 " To me ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " What has happened to me ? " 
 
 " Ah ! it is in vain you pretend to be brave, you look pale." 
 
 " Then it is from having slept too much. I am humbly 
 sorry for it." 
 
 " Come, come, let us not play the braggart ; I know every- 
 thing." 
 
 " Have the kindness to inform me, then, my pearl, for I 
 know nothing." 
 
 " Well, answer me frankly. What did the queen mother 
 ask you ? " 
 
 " Had she something to say to me ? " 
 
 " What ! Have you not seen her ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Nor King Charles ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Nor the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " No."
 
 356 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " But you have seen the Due d'Alengon ? " 
 
 " Yes, I met him just now in the corridor." 
 
 " What did he say to you ? " 
 
 " That he had some orders to give me between nine and ten 
 o'clock this evening." 
 
 " Nothing else ? " 
 
 " Nothing else." 
 
 " That is strange." 
 
 " But what is strange ? Tell me." 
 
 " That nothing has been said to you." 
 
 " What has happened ? " 
 
 " All day, unfortunately, you have been hanging over an 
 abyss." 
 
 " I ? " 
 
 " Yes, you." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Well, listen. It seems that last night De Mouy was sur- 
 prised in the apartments of the King of Navarre, who was to 
 have been arrested. De Mouy killed three men, and escaped 
 without anything about him having been recognized except the 
 famous red cloak." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 "Well, this red cloak, which once deceived me, has thrown 
 others besides myself off the track. You have been suspected 
 and even accused of this triple murder. This morning they 
 wanted to arrest, judge, and perhaps convict you. Who knows ? 
 For in order to save yourself you would not have told where 
 you were, would you ? " 
 
 " Tell Avhere I was ? " cried La Mole ; " compromise you, my 
 beautiful queen ? Oh ! you are right. I should have died 
 singing, to spare your sweet eyes one tear." 
 
 " Alas ! " said Marguerite, " my sweet eyes Avould have been 
 filled with many, many tears." 
 
 " But what caused the great storm to subside ? " 
 
 " Guess." 
 
 How can I tell ? " 
 
 " There was only one way to prove that you were not in the 
 king's room." 
 
 And that was " 
 
 " To tell where you were." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 Well, I told."
 
 "UNFORTUNATE MAN!" SHE CRIED, HOLDING OUT THE PAPER.
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 357 
 
 " Whom did you tell ? " 
 
 " My mother." 
 
 " And Queen Catharine" 
 
 " Queen Catharine knows that I love you." 
 
 " Oh, madame ! after having done so much for me, you can 
 demand anything from your servant. Ah, Marguerite, truly, 
 what you did was noble and beautiful. My life is yours, Mar- 
 guerite." 
 
 " I hope so, for I have snatched it from those who wanted 
 to take it from me. But now you are saved." 
 
 " And by you ! " cried the young man ; " by my adored 
 queen ! " 
 
 At that instant a sharp noise made them start. La Mole 
 sprang back, filled with a vague terror. Marguerite uttered a 
 cry, and stood with her eyes riveted on the broken glass of one 
 of the window-panes. 
 
 Through this window a stone the size of an egg had entered 
 and lay on the floor. 
 
 La Mole saw the broken pane, and realized the cause of the 
 noise. 
 
 " Who dared to do this ? " he cried, springing to the window. 
 
 " One moment," said Marguerite. " It seems to me that 
 something is tied around the stone." 
 
 " Yes," said La Mole, " it looks like a piece of paper." 
 
 Marguerite went to the strange projectile and removed the 
 thin sheet which, folded like a narrow band, encircled the 
 middle of the stone. 
 
 The paper was attached to a cord, which came through the 
 broken window. 
 
 Marguerite unfolded the letter and read. 
 
 " Unfortunate man ! " she cried, holding out the paper to La 
 Mole, who stood as pale and motionless as a statue of Terror. 
 
 With a heart filled with gloomy forebodings he read these 
 words : 
 
 " They are waiting for Monsieur de la Mole, with long 
 swords, in the corridor leading to the apartments of Monsieur 
 d'Alenpon. Perhaps he would prefer to escape by this window 
 and join Monsieur de Mouy at Mantes " 
 
 " Well ! " asked La Mole, after reading it, " are these swords 
 longer than mine ? '' 
 
 " No, but there may be ten against one."
 
 358 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 11 Who is the friend who has sent us this note ? " asked La 
 Mole. 
 
 Marguerite took it from the young man's hand and looked 
 at it attentively. 
 
 " The King of Navarre's handwriting ! " she cried. " If he 
 warns us, the danger is great. Flee, La Mole, flee, I beg 
 you." 
 
 " How ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " By this window. Does not the note refer to it ? " 
 
 " Command, my queen, and I will leap from the window to 
 obey you, if I broke my head twenty times by the fall." 
 
 " Wait, wait," said Marguerite. " It seems to me that there 
 is a weight attached to this cord." 
 
 " Let us see," said La Mole. 
 
 Both drew up the cord, and with indescribable joy saw a 
 ladder of hair and silk at the end of it. 
 
 " Ah ! you are saved," cried Marguerite. 
 
 " It is a miracle of heaven ! " 
 
 " No, it is a gift from the King of Navarre." 
 
 " But suppose it were a snare ? " said La Mole. " If this 
 ladder were to break under me? Madame, did you not 
 acknowledge your love for me to-day ? " 
 
 Marguerite, whose joy had dissipated her grief, became ashy 
 pale. 
 
 " You are right," said she, " that is possible." 
 
 She started to the door. 
 
 " What are you going to do ? " cried La Mole. 
 
 " To find out if they are really waiting for you in the corri- 
 dor." 
 
 " Never ! never ! For their anger to fall on you ? " 
 
 " What can they do to a daughter of France ? As a woman 
 and a royal princess I am doubly inviolable." 
 
 The queen uttered these words with so much dignity that 
 La Mole understood she ran no risk, and that he must let her 
 do as she wished. 
 
 Marguerite put La Mole under the protection of Gillonne, 
 leaving to him to decide, according to circumstances, whether 
 to run or await her return, and started down the corridor. A 
 side hall led to the library as well as to several reception- 
 rooms, and at the end led to the apartments of the King, the 
 queen mother, and to the small private stairway by which one 
 reached the apartments of the Due d'Alen^on and Henry.
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 359 
 
 Although it was scarcely nine o'clock, all the lights were ex- 
 tinguished, and the corridor, except for the dim glimmer which 
 came from the side hall, was quite dark. The Queen of Na- 
 varre advanced boldly. When she had gone about a third of 
 the distance she heard whispering which sounded mysterious 
 and startling from an evident effort made to suppress it. It 
 ceased almost instantly, as if by order from some superior, 
 and silence was restored. The light, dim as it was, seemed to 
 grow less. Marguerite walked on directly into the face of the 
 danger if danger there was. To all appearances she was 
 calm, although her clinched hands indicated a violent nervous 
 tension. As she approached, the intense silence increased, 
 while a shadow like that of a hand obscured the wavering and 
 uncertain light. 
 
 At the point where the transverse hall crossed the main 
 corridor a man sprang in front of the queen, uncovered a red 
 candlestick, and cried out : 
 
 " Here he is ! " 
 
 Marguerite stood face to face with her brother Charles. 
 Behind him, a silken cord in hand, was the Due d'Alenqon. 
 At the rear, in the darkness, stood two figures side by side, 
 reflecting no light other than that of the drawn swords which 
 they held in their hands. Marguerite saw everything at a 
 glance. Making a supreme effort, she said smilingly to 
 Charles : 
 
 " You mean, here she is, sire ! " 
 
 Charles recoiled. The others stood motionless. 
 
 " You, Margot ! " said he. " Where are you going at this 
 hour ? " 
 
 " At this hour ! " said Marguerite. " Is it so late ? " 
 
 " I ask where you are going ? " 
 
 " To find a book of Cicero's speeches, which I think I left at 
 our mother's." 
 
 " Without a light ? " 
 
 " I supposed the corridor was lighted." 
 
 " Do you come from your own apartments ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " What are you doing this evening ? " 
 
 " Preparing my address for the Polish ambassadors. Is 
 there not a council to-morrow ? and does not each one have to 
 submit his address to your Majesty ? " 
 
 " Have you not some one helping you with this work ? "
 
 360 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Marguerite summoned all her strength. 
 
 " Yes, brother," said she, " Monsieur de la Mole. He is 
 very learned." 
 
 " So much so," said the Due d'Alenqon, " that I asked him 
 when he had finished with you, sister, to come and help me, 
 for I am not as clever as you are." 
 
 " And were you waiting for him ? " asked Marguerite as 
 naturally as possible. 
 
 " Yes," said D'Alenqon, impatiently. 
 
 " Then," said Marguerite, " I will send him to you, brother, 
 for we have finished my work." 
 
 " But your book ? " said Charles. 
 
 " I will have Gillonne get it." 
 
 The two brothers exchanged a sign. 
 
 " Go," said Charles, " and we will continue our round." 
 
 " Your round ! " said Marguerite ; " whom are you looking 
 for ? " 
 
 " The little red man," said Charles. " Do you not know 
 that there is a little red man who is said to haunt the old 
 Louvre ? My brother D'Alenqon claims to have seen him, 
 and we are looking for him." 
 
 " Good luck to you," said Marguerite, and she turned round. 
 Glancing behind her, she saw the four figures gather close to 
 the wall as if in conference. In an instant she had reached 
 her own door. 
 
 " Open, Gillonne," said she, " open." 
 
 Gillonne obeyed. 
 
 Marguerite sprang into the room and found La Mole wait- 
 ing for her, calm and quiet, but with drawn sword. 
 
 " Flee," said she, " flee. Do not lose a second. They are 
 waiting for you in the corridor to kill you." 
 
 " You command me to do this ? " said La Mole. 
 
 "I command it. We must part in order to see each other 
 again." 
 
 While Marguerite had been away La Mole had made sure 
 of the ladder at the window. He now stepped out, but before 
 placing his foot on the first round he tenderly kissed the 
 queen's hand. 
 
 " If the ladder is a trap and I should perish, Marguerite, 
 remember your promise." 
 
 " It was not a promise, La Mole, but an oath. Fear noth- 
 ing. Adieu ! "
 
 PROJECTS OF REVENGE. 361 
 
 And La Mole, thus encouraged, let himself slip down the 
 ladder. At the same instant there was a knock at the door. 
 
 Marguerite watched La Mole's perilous descent and did not 
 turn away from the window until she was sure he had reached 
 the ground in safety. 
 
 " Madame," said Gillonne, " madame ! " 
 
 " Well ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " The King is knocking at the door." 
 
 " Open it." 
 
 Gillonne did so. 
 
 The four princes, impatient at waiting, no doubt, stood on 
 the threshold. 
 
 Charles entered. 
 
 Marguerite came forward, a smile on her lips. 
 
 The King cast a rapid glance around. 
 
 " Whom are you looking for, brother ? " asked Marguerite. 
 
 " Why," said Charles, " I am looking I am looking why, 
 the devil ! I am looking for Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ! " 
 
 " Yes ; where is he ? " 
 
 Marguerite took her brother by the hand and led him to 
 the window. 
 
 Just then two horsemen were seen galloping away, around 
 the wooden tower. One of them unfastened his white satin 
 scarf and waved it in the darkness, as a sign of adieu. The 
 two men were La Mole and Orthon. 
 
 Marguerite pointed them out to Charles. 
 
 " Well ! " said the King, " what does this mean ? " 
 
 " It means," replied Marguerite, " that Monsieur le Due 
 d' Alenqon may put his cord back into his pocket, and that Mes- 
 sieurs d'Anjou and de Guise may sheathe their swords, for 
 Monsieur de la Mole will not pass through the corridor again 
 to-night."
 
 362 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 THE ATRIDES. 
 
 SINCE his return to Paris, Henry of Anjou had not seen his 
 mother Catharine alone, and, as every one knows, he was her 
 favorite son. 
 
 This visit was not merely for the sake of etiquette, nor the 
 carrying out of a painful ceremony, but the accomplishment of 
 a very sweet duty for this son who, if he did not love his 
 mother, was at least sure of being tenderly loved by her. 
 
 Catharine loved this son best either because of his bravery, 
 his beauty, for besides the mother, there was the woman in 
 Catharine, or because, according to some scandalous chroni- 
 cles, Henry of Anjou reminded the Florentine of a certain 
 happy epoch of secret love. 
 
 Catharine alone knew of the return of the Due d' Anjou to 
 Paris. Charles IX. would have been ignorant of it had not 
 chance led him to the Hotel de Conde just as his brother was 
 leaving it. Charles had not expected him until the following 
 day, and Henry of Anjou had hoped to conceal from him the 
 two motives which had hastened his arrival by a day, namely, 
 his visit to the beautiful Marie of Cleves, princess of Conde, and 
 his conference with the Polish ambassadors. 
 
 It was this last reason, of the object of which Charles was 
 uncertain, which the Due d' Anjou had to explain to his mother. 
 And the reader, ignorant on this point as was Henry of Navarre, 
 will profit by the explanation. 
 
 When the Due d' Anjou, so long expected, entered his 
 mother's rooms, Catharine, usually so cold and formal, and 
 who since the departure of her favorite son had embraced with 
 effusion no one but Coligny, who was to be assassinated the 
 following day, opened her arms to the child of her love, and 
 pressed him to her heart with a burst of maternal affection 
 most surprising in a heart already long grown cold. 
 
 Then pushing him from her she gazed at him and again 
 drew him into her arms. 
 
 " Ah, niadame," said he, " since Heaven grants me the 
 privilege of embracing my mother in private, console me, for I 
 am the most wretched man alive."
 
 THE ATRIDES. 363 
 
 " Oh, ray God ! my beloved child," cried Catharine, " what 
 has happened to you ? " 
 
 " Nothing which you do not know, mother. I am in love. 
 I am loved ; but it is this very love which is the cause of my 
 unhappiness." 
 
 " Tell me about it, my son," said Catharine. 
 
 " Well, mother, these ambassadors, this departure " 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine, " the ambassadors have arrived ; the 
 departure is near at hand." 
 
 " It need not be near at hand, mother, but my brother 
 hastens it. He detests me. I am in his way, and he wants to 
 rid himself of me." 
 
 Catharine smiled. 
 
 " By giving you a throne, poor, unhappy crowned head ! " 
 
 " Oh, no, mother," said Henry in agony, " I do not wish to 
 go away. I, a son of France, brought up in the refinement of 
 polite society, near the best of mothers, loved by one of the 
 dearest women in the world, must I go among snows, to the 
 ends of the earth, to die by inches among those rough people 
 who are intoxicated from morning until night, and who gauge 
 the capacity of their king by that of a cask, according to what 
 he can hold ? No, mother, I do not want to go ; I should 
 die ! " 
 
 " Come, Henry," said Catharine, pressing her son's hands, 
 " come, is that the real reason ? " 
 
 Henry's eyes fell, as though even to his mother he did not 
 dare to confess what was in his heart. 
 
 " Is there no other reason ? " asked Catharine ; " less roman- 
 tic, but more rational, more political ? " 
 
 " Mother, it is not my fault if this thought comes to me, and 
 takes stronger hold of me, perhaps, than it should ; but did 
 not you yourself tell me that the horoscope of my brother 
 Charles prophesied that he would die young ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine, " but a horoscope may lie, my son. 
 Indeed, I myself hope that all horoscopes are not true." 
 
 " But his horoscope said this, did it not ? " 
 
 " His horoscope spoke of a quarter of a century ; but it did 
 not say whether it referred to his life or his reign." 
 
 "Well, mother, bring it about so that I can stay. My 
 brother is almost twenty-four. In one year the question will 
 be settled." 
 
 Catharine pondered deeply.
 
 364 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Yes," said she ; " it would certainly be better if it could 
 be so arranged." 
 
 " Oh, imagine my despair, mother," cried Henry, " if I were 
 to exchange the crown of France for that of Poland ! My 
 being tormented there with the idea that I might be reigning 
 in the Louvre in the midst of this elegant and lettered court, 
 near the best mother in the world, whose advice would spare 
 me half my work and fatigue, who, accustomed to bearing, 
 with my father, a portion of the burden of the State, would 
 like to bear it with me too ! Ah, mother, I should have been 
 a great king ! " 
 
 " There ! there ! dear child," said Catharine, to whom this 
 outlook had always been a very sweet hope, " there ! do not 
 despair. Have you thought of any way of arranging the 
 matter ? " 
 
 "Oh, yes, certainly, and that is why I came back two or 
 three days before I was expected, letting my brother Charles 
 suppose that it was on account of Madame de Conde. Then i 
 have been with De Lasco, the chief ambassador. I became ac- 
 quainted with him, andxlid all I could in that first interview to 
 make him hate me. I hope I have succeeded." 
 
 "Ah, my dear child," said Catharine, "that is wrong. You 
 must place the interest of France above your petty dislikes.'' 
 
 "Mother, in case any accident happened to my brother, 
 would it be to the interest of France for the Due d'Alenqon or 
 the King of Navarre to reign ? " 
 
 " Oh ! the King of Navarre, never, never ! " murmured 
 Catharine, letting anxiety cover her face with that veil of care 
 which spread over it every time this question arose. 
 
 " Faith," continued Henry, " my brother D'Alenqon is not 
 worth much more, and is no fonder of you." 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, " what did Lasco say ? " 
 
 " Even Lasco hesitated when I urged him to seek an audi- 
 ence. Oh, if he could write to Poland and annul this elec- 
 tion ! " 
 
 " Folly, my son, madness ! What a Diet has consecrated is 
 sacred." 
 
 " But, mother, could not these Poles be prevailed on to 
 accept my brother in my stead ? " 
 
 " It would be difficult, if not impossible," said Catharine. 
 
 "Never mind, try, make the attempt, speak to the King, 
 mother. Ascribe everything to my love for Madame de
 
 THE ATRIDES. 365 
 
 Conde* ; say that I am mad over her, that I am losing my mind. 
 He saw me coming out of the prince's hotel with De Guise, 
 who did everything for me a friend could do." 
 
 " Yes, in order to help the League. You do not see this, but 
 I do." 
 
 " Yes, mother, yes ; but meanwhile I am making use of him. 
 Should we not be glad when a man serves us while serving 
 himself ? " 
 
 " And what did the King say when he met you ? " 
 
 " He apparently believed what I told him, that love alone 
 had brought me back to Paris." 
 
 " But did he ask you what you did the rest of the night ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother ; but I had supper at Nantouillet's, where I 
 made a frightful riot, so that the report of it might get abroad 
 and deceive the King as to where I was." 
 
 " Then he is ignorant of your visit to Lasco ? " 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 " Good, so much the better. I will try to influence him in 
 your favor, dear child. But you know no influence makes any 
 impression on his coarse nature." 
 
 " Oh, mother, mother, what happiness if I could stay ! I 
 would love you even more than I do now if that were possible ! " 
 
 " If you stay you will be sent to war." 
 
 " Oh, never mind ! if only I do not have to leave France." 
 
 " You will be killed." 
 
 " Mother, one does not die from blows ; one dies from grief, 
 from meanness. But Charles will not let me remain ; he hates 
 me." 
 
 " He is jealous of you, my beautiful conqueror, that is well 
 known. Why are you so brave and so fortunate ? Why, at 
 scarcely twenty years of age, have you won battles like Alex- 
 ander or Csesar ? But, in the meantime, do not let your wishes 
 be known to any one ; pretend to be resigned, pay your court, 
 to the King. To-day there is a private council to read and 
 discuss the speeches which are to be made at the ceremony. 
 Act like the King of Poland, and leave the rest to me. By the 
 way, how about your expedition of last night ? " 
 
 " It failed, mother. The gallant was warned and escaped 
 by the window." 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, " some day I shall know who this 
 evil genius is who upsets all my plans in this way. Meanwhile 
 I suspect and let him beware ! "
 
 366 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " So, mother " said the Due d'Anjou. 
 
 " Let me manage this affair." 
 
 She kissed Henry tenderly on his eyes and pushed him from 
 the room. 
 
 Before long the princes of her household arrived at the 
 rooms of the queen. Charles was in a good humor, for the 
 cleverness of his sister Margot had pleased rather than vexed 
 him. Moreover, he had nothing against La Mole, and he had 
 waited for him somewhat eagerly in the corridor merely because 
 it was a kind of hunt. 
 
 D'Alenqon, on the contrary, was greatly preoccupied. The 
 repulsion he had always felt for La Mole had turned into hate 
 the instant he knew that La Mole was loved by his sister. 
 
 Marguerite possessed both a dreamy mind and a quick eye. 
 She had to remember as well as to watch. 
 
 The Polish deputies had sent a copy of the speeches which 
 they were to make. 
 
 Marguerite, to whom no more mention had been made of the 
 affair of the previous evening than as if it had never occurred, 
 read the speeches, and, except Charles, every one discussed 
 what he would answer. Charles let Marguerite reply as she 
 pleased. As far as D'AlenQon was concerned he was very par- 
 ticular as to the choice of terms ; but as to the discourse of 
 Henry of Anjou he seemed determined to attack it, and made 
 numerous corrections. 
 
 This council, without being in any way decisive, had greatly 
 embittered the feelings of those present. 
 
 Henry of Anjou, who had to rewrite nearly all his discourse, 
 withdrew to begin the task. 
 
 Marguerite, who had not heard of the King of Navarre since 
 the injury he had given to her window-pane, returned to her 
 rooms, hoping to find him there. 
 
 D'Alenqon, who had read hesitation in the eyes of his 
 brother of Anjou, and who had surprised a meaning glance 
 between him and his mother, retired to ponder on what he 
 regarded as a fresh plot. Charles was about to go to his 
 workshop to finish a boar-spear he was making for himself 
 when Catharine stopped him. 
 
 The King, who suspected that he was to meet some oppo- 
 sition to his will, paused and looked at his mother closely. 
 
 Well," he said, what now ? " 
 
 " A final word, sire, which we forgot, and yet it is of much
 
 THE ATRIDES. 367 
 
 importance : what day shall we decide on for the public re- 
 ception ? " 
 
 " Ah, that is true," said the King, seating himself again. 
 " Well, what day would suit you ? " 
 
 " I thought," replied Catharine, " from your Majesty's si- 
 lence and apparent forgetfulness, that there was some deep- 
 laid plan.'' 
 
 " No," said Charles ; " why so, mother ? " 
 
 " Because," added Catharine, very gently, " it seems to me, 
 my son, that these Poles should not see us so eager after their 
 crown." 
 
 " On the contrary, mother," said Charles, " it is they who 
 are in haste. They have come from Varsovia by forced 
 marches. Honor for honor, courtesy for courtesy." 
 
 " Your Majesty may be right in one sense ; I am not curi- 
 ous. So your idea is that the public reception should be held 
 soon ? " 
 
 " Faith, yes, mother ; is this not your idea too ? " 
 
 " You know that my ideas are only such as can further 
 your glory. I will tell you, therefore, that by this haste I fear 
 you will be accused of profiting very quickly by this oppor- 
 tunity to relieve the house of France of the burdens your 
 brother imposes on it, but which he certainly returns in glory 
 and devotion." 
 
 " Mother," said Charles, " on his departure from France I 
 will endow rny brother so richly that no one will ever dare to 
 think what you fear may be said." 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, " I surrender, since you have such 
 a ready reply to each of my objections. But to receive this 
 warlike people, who judge of the power of the states by ex- 
 terior signs, you must have a considerable array of troops, 
 and I do not think there are enough yet assembled in the Isle 
 de France." 
 
 " Pardon me, mother. I have foreseen this event, and am 
 prepared for it. I have recalled two battalions from Nor- 
 mandy and one from Guyenne ; my company of archers arrived 
 yesterday from Brittany ; the light horse, scattered throughout 
 Lorraine, will be in Paris in the course of the day ; and while 
 it is supposed that I have scarcely four regiments at my dis- 
 position, I have twenty thousand men ready to appear." 
 
 " Ah, ah ! " said Catharine, surprised. " In that case only 
 one thing is lacking, but that can be procured."
 
 368 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
 " Money. I believe that you are not furnished with an over- 
 supply." 
 
 " On the contrary, madame, on the contrary," said Charles 
 IX., " I have fourteen hundred thousand crowns in the Bas- 
 tille ; my private estates have yielded me during the last few 
 days eight hundred thousand crowns, which I have put in my 
 cellar in the Louvre, and in case of need Nantouillet holds 
 three hundred thousand crowns at my disposal." 
 
 Catharine shivered. Until then she had known Charles to 
 be violent and passionate, but never provident. 
 
 "Well," said she, "your Majesty thinks of everything. 
 That is fine ; and provided the tailors, the embroiderers, and 
 the jewellers make haste, your Majesty will be in a position to 
 hold this audience within six weeks." 
 
 " Six weeks ! " exclaimed Charles. " Mother, the tailors, 
 the embroiderers, and the jewellers have been at work ever 
 since we heard of my brother's nomination. As a matter of 
 fact, everything could be ready to-day, but, at the latest, it will 
 take only three or four days." 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Catharine ; " you are in greater haste 
 than I supposed, my son." 
 
 " Honor for honor, I told you." 
 
 "Well, is it this honor done to the house of France which 
 flatters you ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 "And is your chief desire to see a son of France on the 
 throne of Poland ? " 
 
 "Exactly." 
 
 " Then it is the event, the fact, and not the man, which is 
 of interest to you, and whoever reigns there " 
 
 " No, no, mother, by Heaven ! Let us keep to the point ! 
 The Poles have made a good choice. They are a skilful and 
 strong people ! A military people, a nation of soldiers, they 
 choose a captain for their ruler. That is logical, plague it ! 
 D'Anjou is just the man for them. The hero of Jarnac and 
 Montcontour fits them like a glove. Whom would you have 
 me send them ? D'Alenqon ? a coward ! He would give them 
 a fine idea of the Valois ! D'Alemjon ! He would run at the 
 first bullet that whistled by his ears, while Henry of Aujou is 
 a fighter. Yes ! his sword always in his hand, he is ever 
 pushing forward, on foot or horseback ! forward ! thrust !
 
 THE ATRIDES. 369 
 
 overpower ! kill ! Ah ! my brother of Anjou is a man, a 
 valiant soldier, who will lead them to battle from morning 
 until night, from one year's end to the next. He is not a hard 
 drinker, it is true ; but he will kill in cold blood. That is all. 
 This dear Henry will be in his element ; there ! quick ! quick ! 
 to battle ! Sound the trumpet and the drum ! Long live the 
 king ! Long live the conqueror ! Long live the general ! 
 He will be proclaimed imperator three times a year. That 
 will be fine for the house of France, and for the honor of the 
 Yalois ; he may be killed, but, by Heaven, it will be a glo- 
 rious death ! " 
 
 Catharine shuddered. Her eyes flashed fire. 
 
 " Say that you wish to send Henry of Anjou away from you," 
 she cried, " say that you do not love your brother ! " 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! ah ! " cried Charles, bursting into a nervous 
 laugh, " you have guessed, have you, that I want to send him 
 away ? You have guessed that I do not love him ? And when 
 did you reach this conclusion ? Come ! Love my brother ! 
 Why should I love him ? Ah ! ah ! ah ! Do you want to 
 make me laugh ? " 
 
 As he spoke, his pale cheeks grew flushed with a feverish 
 glow. 
 
 " Does he love me ? Do you love me ? Has any one, ex- 
 cept my dogs, and Marie Touchet, and my nurse, ever loved 
 me ? No ! I do not love my brother, I love only myself. Do 
 you hear ? And I shall not prevent my brother from doing as 
 I do." 
 
 " Sire," said Catharine, growing excited on her part, " since 
 you have opened your heart to me I must open mine to you. 
 You are acting like a weak king, like an ill-advised monarch ; 
 you are sending away your second brother, the natural support 
 of the throne, who is in every way worthy to succeed you if 
 any accident happened, in which case your crown would be left 
 in jeopardy. As you said, D'Alenqon is young, incapable, 
 weak, more than weak, cowardly ! And the Bearnais rises up 
 in the background, you understand ? " 
 
 " Well, the devil ! " exclaimed Charles, " what does it matter 
 to me what happens when I am dead ? The Bearnais rises 
 behind my brother, you say ! By Heaven ! so much the better ! 
 I said that I loved no one I was mistaken, I love Henriot. 
 Yes, I love this good Henriot. He has a frank manner, a 
 warm handshake, while I see nothing but false looks around
 
 370 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 me, and touch only icy hands. He is incapable of treason 
 towards me, I swear. Besides, I owe him amends, poor boy ! 
 His mother was poisoned by some members of my family, I 
 am told. Moreover, I am well. But if I were to be taken ill, 
 I would call him, I should want him to stay with me, I would 
 take nothing except from him, and when I died I would make 
 him King of France and of Navarre. And by Heaven ! in- 
 stead of laughing at my death as my brothers would do, he 
 Avould weep, or at least he would pretend to weep." 
 
 Had a thunderbolt fallen at Catharine's feet she would have 
 been less startled than at these words. She stood speech- 
 less, gazing at Charles with haggard eyes. Then at the end of 
 a few moments : 
 
 " Henry of Navarre ! " she cried, " Henry of Navarre King 
 of Prance to the detriment of my children ! Ah ! Holy Virgin ! 
 we shall see ! So this is why you wish to send away my 
 son ? " 
 
 " Your son and what am I, then ? the son of a wolf, like 
 Romulus ? " cried Charles, trembling with anger, his eyes 
 shining as though they were on fire. " Your son, you are right ; 
 the King of France is not your son, the King of Francfe has no 
 brothers, the King of France has no mother, the King of 
 France has only subjects. The King of France has no need 
 of feelings, he has wishes. He can get on without being loved, 
 but he shall be obeyed." 
 
 " Sire, you have misunderstood my words. I called my son 
 the one who was going to leave me. I love him better just 
 now because just now he is the one I am most afraid I shall 
 lose. Is it a crime for a mother to wish that her child should 
 not leave her ? " 
 
 " And I, I tell you that he shall leave you. I tell yon that 
 he shall leave France, that he shall go to Poland, and within 
 two days, too, and if you add one word he shall go to-morrow. 
 Moreover, if you do not smooth your brow, if you do not take 
 that threatening look from your eyes, I will strangle him this 
 evening, as yesterday you yourself would have strangled your 
 daughter's lover. Only I shall not fail, as we failed in regard 
 to La Mole." 
 
 At the first threat Catharine's head fell ; but she raised it 
 again almost immediately. 
 
 " Ah, poor child ! " said she, " your brother would kill you. 
 But do not fear, your mother will protect you."
 
 THE ATRIDES. 371 
 
 " Ah, you defy me ! " cried Charles. " Well ! by the blood 
 of Christ, he shall die, not this evening, not soon, but this very 
 instant. Ah, a weapon ! a dagger ! a knife ! Ah ! " 
 
 Having looked around in vain for what he wanted, Charles 
 perceived the little dagger his mother always wore at her belt, 
 sprang toward it, snatched it from its shagreen case encrusted 
 with silver, and rushed from the room to strike down Henry 
 of Anjou wherever he might meet him. But on reaching the 
 hall, his strength, excited beyond human endurance, suddenly 
 left him. He put out his arm, dropped the sharp weapon, 
 which stuck point downwards into the wood, uttered a piercing 
 cry, sank down, and rolled over on the floor. 
 
 At the same instant a quantity of blood spurted forth from 
 his mouth and nose. 
 
 " Jesus ! " said he. " They kill me ! Help ! help ! " 
 
 Catharine, who had followed, saw him fall. For one instant 
 she stood motionless, watching him. Then recollecting her- 
 self, not because of any maternal affection, but because of the 
 awkwardness of the situation, she called out : 
 
 The King is ill ! Help ! help ! " 
 
 At the cry a crowd of servants, officers, and courtiers gath- 
 ered around the young King. But ahead of them all a 
 woman rushed out, pushed aside the others, and raised 
 Charles, who had grown as pale as death. 
 
 " They kill me, nurse, they kill me," murmured the King, 
 covered Avith perspiration and blood. 
 
 " They kill you, my Charles ? " cried the good woman, 
 glancing at the group of faces with a look which reached even 
 Catharine. Who kills you ? " 
 
 Charles heaved a feeble sigh, and fainted. 
 
 " Ah ! " said the physician, Ambroise Pare, who was sum- 
 moned at once, " ah ! the King is very ill ! " 
 
 " Now, from necessity or compulsion," said the implacable 
 Catharine to herself, " he will have to grant a delay." 
 
 Whereupon she left the King to join her second son, who 
 was in the oratory, anxiously waiting to hear the result of an 
 interview which was of such importance to him.
 
 372 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 THE HOROSCOPE. 
 
 ON leaving the oratory, in which she had just informed 
 Henry all that had occurred, Catharine found Rene in her 
 chamber. It was the first time that the queen and the astrolo- 
 ger had seen each other since the visit the queen had made to 
 his shop at the Pont Saint Michel. But the previous evening 
 she had written him, and Rene had brought the answer to her 
 note in person. 
 
 " Well," said the queen, " have you seen him ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " How is he ? " 
 
 " Somewhat better." 
 
 "Can he speak?" 
 
 " No, the sword traversed his larynx." 
 
 " I told you in that case to have him write." 
 
 " I tried. He collected all his strength, but his hand could 
 trace only two letters. They are almost illegible. Then he 
 fainted. The jugular vein was cut and the blood he lost has 
 taken away all his strength." 
 
 " Have you seen the letters ? " 
 
 " Here they are." 
 
 Rene drew a paper from his pocket and handed it to Cath- 
 arine, who hastily unfolded it. 
 
 " An m and an o," said she. " Could it have been La Mole, 
 and was all that acting of Marguerite done to throw me off 
 the track ? " 
 
 " Madame," said Rene, " if I dared to express my opinion in 
 a matter about which your majesty hesitates to give yours 
 I should say that I believe Monsieur de la Mole is too much 
 in love to be seriously interested in politics." 
 
 " You think so ? " 
 
 " Yes, and above all too much in love with the Queen of 
 Navarre to serve the King very devotedly ; for there is no real 
 love without jealousy." 
 
 " You think that he is very much in love, then ? " 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
 " Has he been to you ? " 
 
 "Yes."
 
 THE HOROSCOPE. 373 
 
 " Did he ask you for some potion or philter ? " 
 
 " No, we kept to the wax figure." 
 
 " Pierced to the heart ? " 
 
 To the heart." 
 
 " And this figure still exists ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Have you it ? " 
 
 " It is in my rooms." 
 
 " It would be strange," said Catharine, " if these cabalistic 
 preparations really had the power attributed to them." 
 
 " Your majesty is a better judge of that than I." 
 
 " Is the Queen of Navarre in love with Monsieur de la 
 Mole?" 
 
 " She loves him enough to ruin herself for him. Yesterday 
 she saved him from, death at the risk of her honor and her 
 life. You see, madame, and yet you still doubt." 
 
 Doubt what ? " 
 
 " Science." 
 
 " Science also deceives me," said Catharine, looking steadily 
 at Rene, who bore her gaze without flinching. 
 
 About what ? " 
 
 " Oh ! you know what I mean ; unless, of course, it was the 
 scholar and not science." 
 
 " I do not know what you mean, madame," replied the 
 Florentine. 
 
 " Rene, have your perfumes lost their odor ? " 
 
 " No, madame, not when I use them ; but it is possible that 
 in passing through the hands of others " 
 
 Catharine smiled and shook her head. 
 
 " Your opiate has done wonders, Rene," said she ; " Madame 
 de Sauve's lips are fresher and rosier than ever." 
 
 " It is not my opiate that is responsible for that, madame. 
 The Baroness de Sauve, using the privilege of every pretty 
 woman to be capricious, has said nothing more to me about this 
 opiate, and after the suggestion from your majesty I thought 
 it best to send her no more of it. So that all the boxes are 
 still in my house just as you left them, with the exception of 
 one which disappeared, I know not how or why." 
 
 " That is well, Rene," said Catharine ; " perhaps later we 
 may return to this. In the meantime, let us speak of the 
 other matter." 
 
 " I am all attention, madame."
 
 374 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " What is necessary to gain an idea of the length of any 
 one's life ? " 
 
 " In the first place to know the day of his birth, his age, and 
 under what condition he first saw light." 
 
 And then ? " 
 
 " To have some of his blood and a lock of his hair." 
 
 " If I bring you some of his blood and a lock of his hair, if 
 I tell you the circumstance connected with his birth, the time, 
 and his present age, will you tell' me the probable date of his 
 death ? " 
 
 " Yes, to within a few days." 
 
 " Very well ; I have a lock of his hair and will get some of 
 his blood." 
 
 " Was he born during the day or night ? " 
 
 " At twenty -three minutes past five in the afternoon." 
 
 " Be at my room at five o'clock to-morrow. The experiment 
 must be made at the hour of his birth." 
 
 " Very well," said Catharine, " we will be there." 
 
 Rene bowed, and withdrew without apparently noticing the 
 " we will be there," which, however, contrary to her usual 
 habit, indicated that Catharine would not go alone. 
 
 The following morning at dawn Catharine went to her son's 
 apartments. At midnight she had sent to inquire after him, 
 and had been told that Maitre Ambroise Pare was with him, 
 ready to bleed him if the nervous troubles continued. 
 
 Still starting up from his sleep, and still pale from loss of 
 blood, Charles dozed on the shoulder of his faithful nurse, who 
 leaning against the bed had not moved for three hours for fear 
 of waking her dear child. 
 
 A slight foam appeared from time to time on the lips of the 
 sick man, and the nurse wiped it off with a fine embroidered 
 linen handkerchief. On the bed lay another handkerchief 
 covered with great spots of blood. 
 
 For an instant Catharine thought she would take possession 
 of the handkerchief ; but she feared that this blood mixed with 
 the saliva would be weak, and would not be efficacious. She 
 asked the nurse if the doctor had bled her son as he had said 
 he would do. The nurse answered " Yes " and that the flow 
 of blood had been so great that Charles had fainted twice. 
 The queen mother, who, like all princesses in those days, had 
 some knowledge of medicine, asked to see the blood. Noth- 
 ing was easier to do, as the physician had ordered that the
 
 THE HOROSCOPE. 375 
 
 blood be kept in order that he might examine it. It was in a 
 basin in an adjoining closet. Catharine went in to look at 
 it, poured some into a small bottle which she had brought 
 for this purpose ; and then came back, hiding in her pocket her 
 fingers, the tips of which otherwise would have betrayed her. 
 
 Just as she came back from the closet Charles opened his 
 eyes and saw his mother. Then remembering as in a dream 
 all his bitter thoughts : 
 
 " Ah ! is it you, madame ? " said he. " Well, say to your 
 well loved son, to your Henry of Anjou, that it shall be to- 
 morrow." 
 
 " My dear Charles," said Catharine, " it shall be just when 
 you please. Be quiet now and go to sleep." 
 
 As if yielding to this advice Charles closed his eyes ; and 
 Catharine, who had spoken to him as one does to calm a sick 
 person or a child, left the room. But when he heard the door 
 close Charles suddenly sat up, and in a voice still weak from 
 suffering, said : 
 
 "My chancellor! The seals! the court! send for them 
 all." 
 
 The nurse, with gentle insistence, laid the head of the King 
 back on her shoulder, and in order to put him to sleep strove 
 to rock him as she would have done a child. 
 
 " No, no, nurse, I cannot sleep any more. Call my attend- 
 ants. I must work this morning." 
 
 When Charles spoke in that way he was obeyed ; and even 
 the nurse, in spite of the privileges allowed her by her foster- 
 child, dared not disobey. She sent for those whom the King 
 wanted, and the council was planned, not for the next day, 
 which was out of the question, but for five days from then. 
 
 At the hour agreed on, that is, at five o'clock, the queen 
 mother and the Due d' Anjou repaired to the rooms of Kene, 
 who, expecting their visit, had everything ready for the mys- 
 terious seance. In the room to the right, that is, in the cham- 
 ber of sacrifices, a steel blade was heating over a glowing bra- 
 zier. From its fanciful arabesques this blade was intended to 
 represent the events of the destiny about which the oracle was 
 to be consulted. On the altar lay the Book of Fate, and dur- 
 ing the night, which had been very clear, Rene had studied 
 the course and the position of the stars. 
 
 Henry of Anjou entered first. He wore a wig, a mask con- 
 cealed his face, and a long cloak hid his figure. His mother
 
 376 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 followed. Had she not known beforehand that the man who 
 had preceded her was her son she never would have recognized 
 him. Catharine removed her mask ; the Due d'Anjou kept his 
 on. 
 
 " Did you make any observations last night ? " asked Catha- 
 rine. 
 
 " Yes, madame," said Rene ; " and the answer of the stars 
 has already told me the past. The one you wish to know 
 about, like every one born under the sign of the Cancer, has ;i 
 warm heart and great pride. He is powerful. He has lived 
 nearly a quarter of a century. He has until now had glory 
 and wealth. Is this so, madame ? " 
 
 " Possibly," said Catharine. 
 
 " Have you a lock of his hair, and some of his blood ?" 
 
 Yes." ' 
 
 Catharine handed to the necromancer a lock of fair hair and 
 a small bottle filled with blood. 
 
 Rene took the flask, shook it thoroughly, so that the fibrine 
 and water would mix, and poured a large drop of it on the 
 glowing steel. The living liquid boiled for an instant, and 
 then spread out into fantastic figures. 
 
 " Oh, madame," cried Rene, " I see him twisting in awful 
 agony. Hear how he groans, how he calls for help ! Do you 
 see how everything around him becomes blood ? Do you see 
 how about his death-bed great combats are taking place ? See, 
 here are the lances ; and look, there are the swords ! " 
 
 " Will it be long before this happens ? " asked Catharine, 
 trembling from an indescribable emotion and laying her hand 
 on that of Henry of Anjou, who in his eager curiosity was 
 leaning over the brazier. 
 
 Rene approached the altar and repeated a cabalistic prayer, 
 putting such energy and conviction into the act that the veins 
 of his temples swelled, and caused the prophetic convulsions 
 and nervous twinges from which the ancient priestesses suf- 
 fered before their tripods, and even on their death-beds. 
 
 At length he rose and announced that everything was ready, 
 took the flask, still three-quarters full, in one hand, and in the 
 other the lock of hair. Then telling Catharine to open the 
 book at random, and to read the first words she looked at, he 
 poured the rest of the blood on the steel blade, and threw the 
 hair into the brazier, pronouncing a cabalistic sentence com- 
 posed of Hebrew words which he himself did not understand.
 
 THE HOROSCOPE. 377 
 
 Instantly the Due d'Anjou and Catharine saw a white figure 
 appear on the sword like that of a corpse wrapped in his 
 shroud. Another figure, which seemed that of a woman, was 
 leaning over the first. 
 
 At the same time the hair caught fire and threw out a single 
 flame, clear, swift, and barbed like a fiery tongue. 
 
 " One year," cried Rene, " scarcely one year, and this man 
 shall die. A woman alone shall weep for him. But no, there 
 at the end of the sword is another woman, with a child in 
 her arms." 
 
 Catharine looked at her son, and, mother though she was, 
 seemed to ask him who these two women were. 
 
 But Rene had scarcely finished speaking before the steel 
 became white and everything gradually disappeared from its 
 surface. Then Catharine opened the book and read the fol- 
 lowing lines in a voice which, in spite of her effort at control, 
 she could not keep from shaking : 
 
 "' Ains a peri cil que Con redoutoit, 
 
 Plus tdt, trop t6t, si prudence n'etoit.' " ' 
 
 A deep silence reigned for some moments. 
 
 " For the one whom you know," asked Catharine, " what are 
 the signs for this month ? " 
 
 " As favorable as ever, madam e ; unless Providence inter- 
 feres with his destiny he will be fortunate. And yet " 
 
 And yet what ? " 
 
 " One of the stars in his pleiad was covered with a black 
 cloud while I made my observations." 
 
 "Ah!" exclaimed Catharine, "a black cloud there is some 
 hope, then ? " 
 
 " Of whom are you speaking, madame ? " asked the Due 
 d'Anjou. 
 
 Catharine drew her son away from the light of the brazier 
 and spoke to him in a low tone. 
 
 Meanwhile Rene knelt down, and in the glow of the flame 
 poured into his hand the last drop of blood which had re- 
 mained in the bottom of the flask. 
 
 " Strange contradiction," said he, " which proves how little 
 to be depended on is the evidence of simple science practised 
 by ordinary men ! To any one but myself, a physician, a 
 
 1(1 Thus had perished one who was feared, 
 
 Sooner, too soon, would he have died, had it not been for prudence."
 
 378 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 scholar, even for Maitre Ambroise Pare, this blood would seem 
 so pure, so healthy, so full of life and animal spirits, that it 
 would promise long years of life ; and yet all this vigor will 
 soon disappear, all this life will be extinct within a year ! " 
 
 Catharine and Henry of Anjou had turned round and were 
 listening. 
 
 The eyes of the prince glowed through his mask. 
 
 " Ah ! " continued Rene, " the present alone is known to 
 ordinary mortals; while to us the past and the future are 
 known." 
 
 "So," continued Catharine, "you still think he will die 
 within the year ? " 
 
 " As surely as we are three living persons who some day will 
 rest in our coffins." 
 
 " Yet you said that the blood was pure and healthy, and 
 that it indicated a long life." 
 
 " Yes, if things followed their natural course. But might 
 not an accident " 
 
 " Ah, yes, do you hear ? " said Catharine to Henry, " an 
 accident " 
 
 " Alas ! " said the latter, " all the more reason for my staying." 
 
 " Oh, think no more about that : it is not possible." 
 
 Then turning to Rene : 
 
 " Thanks," said the young man, disguising his voice, 
 " thanks ; take this purse." 
 
 " Come, count" said Catharine, intentionally giving her son 
 this title to throw Rene off the track. 
 
 They left. 
 
 " Oh, mother, you see," said Henry, " an accident and if 
 an accident should happen, I shall not be on hand ; I shall be 
 four hundred leagues from you" 
 
 " Four hundred leagues are accomplished in eight days, my 
 son." 
 
 " Yes; but how do I know whether those Poles will let me 
 come back ? If I could only wait, mother ! " 
 
 " Who knows ? " said Catharine ; " might not this accident 
 of which Rene speaks be the one which since yesterday has 
 laid the King on a bed of pain ? Listen, return by yourself, 
 my child. I shall go back by the private door of the mon- 
 astery of the Augustines. My suite is waiting for me in this 
 convent. Go, now, Henry, go, and keep from irritating your 
 brother in case you see him."
 
 CONFIDENCES. 379 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 CONFIDENCES. 
 
 THE first thing the Due d'Anjou heard on arriving at the 
 Louvre was that the formal reception of the ambassadors was 
 arranged for the fifth day from that. The tailors and the jew- 
 ellers were waiting for the prince with magnificent clothes and 
 superb jewels which the King had ordered for him. 
 
 While the duke tried them on with an anger which brought 
 the tears to his eyes, Henry of Navarre was very gay in a 
 magnificent collar of emeralds, a sword with a gold handle, 
 and a precious ring which Charles had sent him that morning. 
 
 D'Alenqon had just received a letter and had shut himself 
 up in his own room to read it. 
 
 As to Coconnas, he was searching every corner of the Louvre 
 for his friend. 
 
 In fact, as may easily be imagined, he had been somewhat 
 surprised at not seeing La Mole return that night, and by morn- 
 ing had begun to feel some anxiety. 
 
 Consequently he had started out to find his friend. He 
 began his search at the Hotel de la Belle Etoile, went from 
 there to the Rue Cloche Percee, from the Rue Cloche Percee 
 to the Rue Tizon, from there to the Pont Saint Michel, and 
 finally from the Pont Saint Michel to the Louvre. This search, 
 so far as those who had been questioned were concerned, had 
 been carried on in a way so original and exacting ( which may 
 easily be believed when one realizes the eccentric character of 
 Coconnas) that it had caused some explanations between him 
 and three courtiers. These explanations had ended, as was 
 the fashion of the times, on the ground. In these encounters 
 Coconnas had been as conscientious as he usually was in 
 affairs of that kind, and had killed the first man and wounded 
 the two others, saying : 
 
 " Poor La Mole, he knew Latin so well ! " 
 
 The last victim, who was the Baron de Boissey, said as he 
 fell: 
 
 " Oh, for the love of Heaven, Coconnas, do vary a little and 
 at least say that he knew Greek ! " 
 
 At last the report of the adventure in the corridor leaked 
 out. Coconnas was heartbroken over it ; for an instant he
 
 380 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 thought that all these kings and princes had killed his friend 
 and thrown him into some dungeon. 
 
 He learned that D'Alenqon had been of the party ; and over- 
 looking the majesty which surrounded a prince of the blood, he 
 went to him and demanded an explanation as he would have 
 done of a simple gentleman. 
 
 At first D'AlenQon was inclined to thrust out of the door the 
 impertinent fellow who came and asked for an account of his 
 actions. But Coconnas spoke so curtly, his eyes flashed with 
 such brightness, and the affair of the three duels in less than 
 twenty-four hours had raised the Piedmontese so high, that 
 D'Alenqon reflected, and instead of yielding to his first incli- 
 nation, he answered the gentleman with a charming smile : 
 
 " My dear Coconnas, it is true that the King was furious at 
 receiving a silver bowl on his shoulder, that the Duo d'Anjou 
 was vexed at being hit on the head by some orange marmalade, 
 and the Due de Guise humiliated at having the breath knocked 
 out of him by a haunch of venison, and so they were all de- 
 termined to kill Monsieur de la Mole. But a friend of your 
 friend's turned aside the blow. The party therefore failed in 
 their attempt. I give you my word as prince." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Coconnas, breathing as hard as a pair of 
 bellows. " By Heaven, monseigneur, this is good news, and I 
 should like to know this friend to show him my gratitude." 
 
 Monsieur d'Alenqon made no reply, but smiled more 
 pleasantly than he had yet done, implying to Coconnas that 
 this friend was none other than the prince himself. 
 
 " Well, monseigneur ! " said Coconnas, " since you have gone 
 so far as to tell me the beginning of the story, crown your kind- 
 ness by finishing it. They tried to kill him, but failed, you 
 say. Well, what happened then ? I am brave and can bear 
 the news. Have they thrown him into some dungeon ? So 
 much the better. It will make him more careful in future. 
 He never would listen to my advice ; besides, we can get him 
 out, by Heaven ! Stone does not baffle every one." 
 
 D'Alenqon shook his head. 
 
 " The worst of all this, my brave Coconnas," said he, " is 
 that your friend disappeared after the affair, and no one knows 
 where he went." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried the Piedmontese, again growing pale, 
 "had he gone to hell I should at least have known where he 
 is."
 
 CONFIDENCES. 381 
 
 " Listen," said D'Alemjon, who, although for different reasons, 
 was as anxious as Coconnas to know La Mole's whereabouts, 
 " I will give you the advice of a friend." 
 
 " Give it, my lord," said CocoVinas, eagerly. 
 
 " Go to Queen Marguerite. She must know what has be- 
 come of the friend you mourn." 
 
 " I will confess to your highness," said Coconnas, " that I 
 had thought of going to her, but I scarcely dared. Madame 
 Marguerite has a way of making me feel somewhat uncomfort- 
 able at times, and besides this, I feared that I might find her 
 in tears. But since your highness assures me that La Mole is 
 not dead and that her majesty knows where he is I will take 
 heart and go to her." 
 
 " Do so, my friend," said Francois. " And when you find 
 out where La Mole is, let me know, for really I am as anxious 
 as you are. But remember one thing, Coconnas " 
 
 What ? " 
 
 " Do not say you have come at my suggestion, for if you do 
 you will learn nothing." 
 
 " Monseigneur," said Coconnas, " since your highness recom- 
 mends secrecy on this point, I shall be as silent as a tench or 
 as the queen mother." 
 
 " What a kind, good, generous prince he is ! " murmured 
 Coconnas as he set out to find the Queen of Navarre. 
 
 Marguerite was expecting Coconnas, for the report of his 
 despair had reached her, and on hearing by what exploits his 
 grief had showed itself she almost forgave him for his some- 
 what rude treatment of her friend Madame la Duchesse de 
 Nevers, to whom he had not spoken for two or three days, 
 owing to some misunderstanding between them. Therefore as 
 soon as he was announced to the queen he was admitted. 
 
 Coconnas entered the room, unable to overcome the con- 
 straint which he had mentioned to D' Alemjon, and which he had 
 always felt in the presence of the queen. It was caused more 
 by her superior intellect than by her rank. But Marguerite 
 received him with a smile Avhich at once put him at his ease. 
 
 "Ah, madaine," said he, "give me back my friend, I beg 
 you, or at least tell me what has become of him, for without 
 him I cannot live. Imagine Euryalus without Nisus, Damon 
 without Pythias, or Orestes without Pylades, and pity my 
 grief for the sake of one of the heroes I have just mentioned, 
 whose heart, I swear, was no more tender than mine."
 
 382 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Marguerite smiled, and having made Coconuas promise not 
 to reveal the secret, she told him of La Mole's escape from 
 the window. As to his 'hiding-place, insistent as were the 
 prayers of the Piedmontese, sfre preserved the strictest silence. 
 This only half satisfied Coconnas, so he resorted to diplomatic 
 speeches of the highest order. 
 
 The result was that Marguerite saw clearly that the Due 
 d'Alenqon was partly the cause of the courtier's great desire to 
 know what had become of La Mole. 
 
 " Well," said the queen, " if you must know something 
 definite about your friend, ask King Henry of Navarre. He 
 alone has the right to speak. As to me, all I can tell you is 
 that the friend for whom you are searching is alive, and you 
 may believe what I say." 
 
 " I believe one thing still more, madame," replied Coconnas ; 
 " that is, that your beautiful eyes have not wept." 
 
 Thereupon, thinking that there was nothing to add to a 
 remark which had the double advantage of expressing his 
 thought as well as the high opinion he had of La Mole, 
 Coconnas withdrew, pondering on a reconciliation with Madame 
 de Nevers, not on her account, but in order that he might find 
 out from her what he had been unable to learn from Mar- 
 guerite. 
 
 Deep griefs are abnormal conditions in which the mind 
 shakes off the yoke as soon as possible. The thought of 
 leaving Marguerite had at first broken La Mole's heart, and it 
 was in order to save the reputation of the queen rather than 
 to preserve his own life that he had consented to run away. 
 
 Therefore, the following evening he returned to Paris to see 
 Marguerite from her balcony. As if instinct told her of the 
 young man's plan, the queen spent the whole evening at her 
 window. The result was that the lovers met again with the 
 indescribable delight which accompanies forbidden pleasures. 
 More than this, the melancholy and romantic temperament of 
 La Mole found a certain charm in the situation. But a man 
 really in love is happy only for the time being, while he sees 
 or is with the woman he loves. After he has left her he 
 suffers. Anxious to see Marguerite again, La Mole set himself 
 busily to work to bring about the event which would make it 
 possible for him to be with her ; namely, the flight of the King 
 of Navarre. 
 
 Marguerite on her part willingly gave herself up to the hap-
 
 CONFIDENCES. 383 
 
 piness of being loved with so pure a devotion. Often she was 
 angry with herself for what she regarded as a weakness. Her 
 strong mind despised the poverty of ordinary love, insensible 
 to the details which for tender souls make it the sweetest, the 
 most delicate, and the most desirable of all pleasures. So she 
 felt that the days, if not happily filled, were at least happily 
 ended. When, at about nine o'clock every evening, she stepped 
 out on her balcony in a white dressing-gown, she perceived 
 in the darkness of the quay a horseman whose hand was raised 
 first to his lips, then to his heart. Then a significant cough 
 reminded the lover of a cherished voice. Sometimes a note 
 was thrown by a little hand, and in the note was hidden some 
 costly jewel, precious not on account of its value, but because 
 it had belonged to her who threw it ; and this would fall on 
 the pavement a few feet from the young man. Then La Mole 
 would swoop down on it like a kite, press it to his heart, answer 
 in the same voice, while Marguerite stood at her balcony until 
 the sound of the horse's hoofs had died away in the dark- 
 ness. The steed, ridden at full speed when coming, on leaving 
 seemed as if made of material as lifeless as that of the famous 
 horse which lost Troy. 
 
 This was why the queen was not anxious as to the fate of 
 La Mole. But fearing that he might be watched and followed 
 she persistently refused all interviews except these clandestine 
 ones, which began immediately after La Mole's flight and con- 
 tinued every evening until the time set for the formal reception 
 of the ambassadors, a reception which by the express orders 
 of Ambroise Pare, as we have seen, was postponed for several 
 days. 
 
 The evening before this reception, at about nine o'clock, when 
 every one in the Louvre was engaged in preparations for the 
 following day, Marguerite opened her window and stepped out 
 upon her balcony. As she did so, without waiting for her 
 note, La Mole, in greater haste than usual, threw his note 
 which with his usual skill fell at the feet of his royal mis- 
 tress. 
 
 Marguerite realized that the missive contained something 
 special, and retired from the balcony to read it. The note 
 consisted of two separate sheets. 
 
 On the first page were these words : 
 
 " Madame, I must speak to the King of Navarre. The 
 matter is urgent. I will wait."
 
 384 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 On the second page were these words : 
 
 " My lady and my queen, arrange so that I may give you 
 one of the kisses I now send you. I will wait." 
 
 Marguerite had scarcely finished the second part of the 
 letter when she heard the voice of Henry of Navarre, who 
 with his usual caution had knocked on the outer door, and was 
 asking Gillonne if he might enter. 
 
 The queen at once separated the letter, put one of the sheets 
 in her robe, the other in her pocket, hurriedly closed the 
 window, and stepped to the door. 
 
 " Enter, sire," said she. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that Marguerite had been careful 
 to close the window quickly and gently, the sound had reached 
 Henry, whose acute senses, in the midst of people he greatly 
 mistrusted, had almost acquired the exquisite delicacy they 
 attain in the savage. But the King of Navarre was not one 
 of those tyrants who forbid their wives from taking the air 
 and watching the stars. 
 
 Henry was as gracious and smiling as ever. 
 
 " Madame," said he, " while every one is rehearsing the 
 coming ceremonial, I thought I would come and have a little 
 talk with you about my affairs, which you still regard as yours, 
 do you not ? " 
 
 " Certainly, monsieur," replied Marguerite ; " are not our 
 interests one and the same ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame, and that is why I wanted to ask what you 
 thought about Monsieur le Due d'Alenqon's avoiding me so for 
 the last few days. The day before yesterday he even went to 
 Saint Germain. Does it not mean either that he is planning to 
 leave by himself, for he is watched very little, or that he is 
 not going to leave at ail? Give me your opinion, madame, if 
 you please. I confess it will be a great relief to me to tell you 
 mine." 
 
 " Your majesty is right in being anxious at my brother's 
 silence. I have been thinking about it all day, and my idea 
 is that as circumstances have changed he has changed with 
 them." 
 
 " You mean, do you not, that seeing King Charles ill and 
 the Due d'Anjou King of Poland he would not be averse to 
 staying in Paris to keep watch over the crown of France ? " 
 
 Exactly."
 
 CONFIDENCES. 385 
 
 " Be it so. I ask nothing better than for him to remain," 
 said Henry ; " only that will change our entire plan. To leave 
 without him I shall need three times the guarantees I should 
 have asked for had I gone with your brother, whose name and 
 presence in the enterprise would have been my safeguard. 
 But what surprises me is that I have not heard from Monsieur 
 de Mouy. It is not like him to stay away so long. Have you 
 had any news of him, madame ? " 
 
 " I, sire ! " exclaimed Marguerite, in astonishment ; " why, how 
 could you expect " 
 
 " Why, by Heaven, my dear, nothing would be more natural. 
 In order to please me, you were kind enough to save the life 
 of young La Mole, he must have reached Nantes, and if 
 one can get to a place he can easily get away from it." 
 
 " Ah ! this explains an enigma, the answer to which I could 
 not make out," said Marguerite. " I had left my window open, 
 and found, on coming back to my room, a note on my floor." 
 
 " There now," said Henry. 
 
 " A note which at first I could not understand, and to which 
 I attached no importance whatsoever," continued Marguerite. 
 " Perhaps I was wrong, and that it comes from that quarter." 
 
 " That is possible," said Henry ; " I might even say probable. 
 Might I see this note ? " 
 
 " Certainly, sire," replied Marguerite, handing to the king 
 the missive she had put into her pocket. The king glanced 
 at it. 
 
 " Is it not Monsieur de la Mole's handwriting ? " said he. 
 
 " I do not know," replied Marguerite. " It looks to me like 
 a counterfeit." 
 
 " No matter, let us read it." And he read : 
 
 " Madame, I must speak to the King of Navarre. The mat- 
 ter is urgent. I will wait." 
 
 " So ! " said Henry " you see, he says he will wait." 
 " Certainly I see that," said Marguerite. " But what would 
 you expect ? " 
 
 " Why ! venire saint gris ! I expect that he is waiting ! " 
 " That he is waiting ! " cried Marguerite, looking at her hus- 
 band in astonishment. " How can you say such a thing, sire ? 
 A man whom the King tried to kill a man who is watched, 
 threatened waiting, you say ! Would that be possible ? 
 are the doors made for those who have been "
 
 386 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 11 Obliged to escape by the window you were going to 
 say ? ? ' 
 
 " Yes, you have finished my sentence." 
 
 " Well, but if they know the way by the window, let them 
 take it, since it is perfectly impossible for them to enter by 
 the door. It is very simple." 
 
 " Do you think so ? " said Marguerite, flashing with pleasure 
 at the thought of again being near La Mole. 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
 " But how could one reach the window ? " asked the queen. 
 
 " Did you not keep the rope ladder I sent you ? Where is 
 your usual foresight ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire, I kept it," said Marguerite. 
 
 " In that case there will be no difficulty," said Henry. 
 
 " What does your majesty wish ? " 
 
 " Why, it is very simple," said Henry. " Fasten it to your 
 balcony and let it hang down. If it is De Mouy who is waiting 
 and he wants to mount it, he will do so." 
 
 Without losing his gravity Henry took the candle to aid 
 Marguerite in her search for the ladder. They did not have 
 to look long ; it was in a wardrobe in the famous closet. 
 
 " There it is," said Henry ; " now, madame, if I am not 
 asking too much, fasten it to the balcony, I beg you." 
 
 " Why should I fasten it and not you, sire ? " said Mar- 
 guerite. 
 
 " Because the best conspirators are the most careful. Seeing 
 a man might perhaps frighten away our friend, you see." 
 Marguerite smiled and tied the ladder. 
 
 " There," said Henry, concealing himself in a corner of the 
 room, " stand so he can see you ; now drop the ladder ; good ! 
 I am sure that De Mouy will climb up." 
 
 In fact, about ten minutes later a man, mad with joy, 
 stepped over the balcony, but seeing that the queen did not 
 come to him, he hesitated a moment. Instead of Marguerite 
 it was Henry who stepped forward. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, graciously, " it is not De Mouy, but Mon- 
 sieur de la Mole. Good evening, Monsieur de la Mole. 
 Come in, I beg you." 
 
 La Mole paused a moment, overwhelmed. Had he still 
 been on the ladder instead of on the balcony he might pos- 
 sibly have fallen backward. 
 
 " You wanted to speak to the King of Navarre on matters
 
 CONFIDENCES. 387 
 
 of importance," said Marguerite. " I have told him so and 
 here he is." 
 
 Henry closed the window. 
 
 " I love you," said Marguerite, hastily pressing the young 
 man's hand. 
 
 " Well, monsieur," said Henry, placing a chair for La 
 Mole, " what is it ? " 
 
 " This, sire,'' replied La Mole. " I have left Monsieur de 
 Mouy at the city gates. He desires to know if Maurevel has 
 spoken, and if his presence in your majesty's room is known." 
 
 " Not yet, but it will be before long ; so we must make 
 haste." 
 
 " That is my opinion, sire, and if to-morrow evening Mon- 
 sieur d'Alenqon is ready to start, De Mouy will be at the Porte 
 Saint Marcel with five hundred men. These will take you to 
 Fontainebleau. Then you can easily reach Blois, Angouleme, 
 and Bordeaux." 
 
 " Madame," said Henry, turning to his wife, " I ^an be ready 
 by to-morrow ; can you ? " 
 
 La Mole's eyes were anxiously fixed on those of Marguerite. 
 
 " You have my promise," said the queen. " Wherever you 
 go, I will follow. But you know Monsieur d'Alengon must 
 leave at the same time. No half way with him ; either he 
 serves us or he betrays us. If he hesitates we do not stir." 
 
 " Does he know anything of this plan, Monsieur de la 
 Mole ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " He should have received a letter from Monsieur de Mouy 
 several days ago." 
 
 " Why," said Henry, " he said nothing to me about it ! " 
 
 " Be careful, monsieur," said Marguerite, " be careful." 
 
 " I shall be on my guard, you may be sure. How can we 
 get an answer to De Mouy ? " 
 
 " Do not worry, sire. On the right, on the left, of your 
 majesty, visible or invisible, he will be on hand to-morrow 
 during the reception of the ambassadors. One word in the 
 address of the queen will suffice for him to understand 
 whether you consent or not, whether he must leave or wait 
 for you. If the Due d'Alenqon refuses, he asks but a fort- 
 night to reorganize everything in your name." 
 
 " Really," said Henry, " De Mouy is invaluable. Can you 
 insert the necessary words in your address, madame ? " 
 
 " Nothing will be easier," replied Marguerite.
 
 388 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Then I will see Monsieur d'Alenqon to-morrow," said 
 Henry. " Let De Mouy be at his post ready to understand at 
 a word." 
 
 " He will be there, sire." 
 
 "And, Monsieur de la Mole," said Henry, " take "my answer 
 to him. You probably have a horse or a servant near by ? " 
 
 " Orthon is waiting for me at the quay." 
 
 " Go back to him, monsieur. Oh, no, not by the window, 
 which is good only for an emergency. You might be seen, 
 and as it would not be known that you had taken this risk 
 for me, it might compromise the queen." 
 
 " How shall I leave, sire ? " 
 
 "Although you may not be able to enter the Louvre by 
 yourself, you can at least leave it with me, for I have the pass- 
 word. You have your cloak, I have mine ; we will put them 
 on and can pass the gate without difficulty. Besides, I shall 
 be glad to give some special orders to Orthon. Wait here 
 while I go a*nd see if there is any one in the corridor." 
 
 With the most natural air possible Henry went out to in- 
 vestigate. La Mole was left alone with the queen. 
 
 " Ah ! when shall I see you again ? " said he. 
 
 " To-morrow evening, if we leave. Otherwise some even- 
 ing soon in the Rue Cloche Percee." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole," said Henry, returning, " you can 
 come ; there is no one here." 
 
 La Mole bowed respectfully to the queen. 
 
 " Give him your hand to kiss, madame," said Henry ; " Mon- 
 sieur de la Mole is no ordinary servitor." 
 
 Marguerite obeyed. 
 
 " By the way," said Henry, " be sure and keep the rope 
 ladder. It is a valuable instrument for conspirators ; and 
 when we least expect it we may need it. Come, Monsieur de 
 la Mole."
 
 THE AMBASSADORS. 389 
 
 CHAPTER XLIIL 
 
 THE AMBASSADORS. 
 
 THE following day the entire population of Paris rushed 
 towards the Faubourg Saint Antoine, by which it had been 
 decided that the Polish ambassadors were to enter. A line of 
 Swiss restrained the crowd, and a regiment of horse protected 
 the lords and the ladies of the court who rode ahead of the 
 procession. 
 
 Soon, near the Abbey Saint Antoine, a troop of cavaliers 
 appeared, dressed in red and yellow, with caps and furred 
 mantles, and carrying long curved sabres like Turkish cimeters. 
 
 The officers rode at the side of the lines. 
 
 Behind this troop came a second, clothed with Oriental mag- 
 nificence. They preceded the ambassadors, who, four in 
 number, represented in a gorgeous manner the most mytho- 
 logical of the chivalrous kingdoms of the sixteenth century. 
 
 One of the ambassadors was the Bishop of Cracow. His 
 costume was half ecclesiastical, half military, resplendent with 
 gold and precious stones. 
 
 His white horse, with long mane and tail, walked with 
 proud step and seemed to breathe out fire from his nostrils. 
 No one would have supposed that for a month the noble 
 animal had made fifteen leagues daily over roads which the 
 weather had rendered almost impassable. 
 
 Beside the bishop rode the Palatine Lasco, a powerful noble, 
 closely related to the royal family, as rich as a king and as 
 proud. 
 
 Behind these two chief ambassadors, who were accompanied 
 by two other palatines of high rank, came a number of Polish 
 lords, whose horses in their harness of silk, studded with golu 
 and precious stones, excited the applause of the people. The 
 French horsemen, in spite of their rich apparel, were completely 
 eclipsed by the newcomers, whom they scornfully called 
 barbarians. 
 
 Up to the last moment Catharine had hoped the reception 
 would be postponed on account of the King's illness. But 
 when the day came, and she saw Charles, as pale as a corpse, 
 put on the gorgeous royal mantle, she realized that appar- 
 ently at least she must yield to his iron will, and began to
 
 390 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 believe that after all the safest plan for Henry of Anjou was 
 to accept the magnificent exile to which he was condemned. 
 With the exception of the few words he had uttered when he 
 opened his eyes as his mother came out of the closet, Charles 
 had not spoken to Catharine since the scene which had 
 brought about the illness to which he had succumbed. Every 
 one in the Louvre knew that there had been a dreadful alterca- 
 tion between mother and son, but no one knew the cause of it, 
 and the boldest trembled before that coldness and silence, as 
 birds tremble before the calm which precedes a storm. 
 
 Everything had been prepared in the Louvre, not as though 
 there were to be a reception, but as if some funeral ceremony 
 were to occur. Every one had obeyed orders in a gloomy or 
 passive manner. It was known that Catharine had almost 
 trembled, and consequently every one else trembled. 
 
 The large reception-hall of the palace had been prepared, 
 and as such ceremonies were usually public, the guards and 
 the sentinels had received orders to admit with the ambassa- 
 dors as many people as the apartments and the courts would 
 hold. As for Paris, it presented the same aspect that every 
 large city presents under similar circumstances; that is, con- 
 fusion and curiosity. But had any one looked closely at the 
 population that day, he would have noticed, among the groups 
 of honest bourgeois with smiling faces, a considerable number 
 of men in long cloaks, who exchanged glances and signs 
 when at a distance, and when they met, a few rapid words in 
 a low tone. These men seemed greatly occupied with the pro- 
 cession, followed it closely, and appeared to receive their 
 orders from an old man, whose sharp black eyes, in spite of 
 his white beard and grayish eyebrows, showed a vigorous activ- 
 ity. This old man, either by his own efforts or by those of 
 his companions, was among the first to gain admission to the 
 Louvre, and, thanks to the kindness of the Swiss guard, suc- 
 ceeded in finding a place behind the ambassadors, opposite 
 -Marguerite and Henry of Navarre. 
 
 Henry, informed by La Mole that De Mouy would be 
 present in some disguise or other, looked round on all sides. 
 At last his eyes encountered those of the old man and held 
 them. 
 
 A sign from De Mouy had dispelled all doubt. He was 
 so changed that Henry himself was doubtful whether this 
 old man with the white beard could be the intrepid Huguenot
 
 THE AMBASSADORS. 391 
 
 chief who five or six days before had made so desperate a 
 defence. 
 
 A word from Henry whispered into Marguerite's ear called 
 the attention of the queen to De Mouy. Then her beautiful 
 eyes wandered around the great hall in search of La Mole ; 
 but in vain La Mole was not there. 
 
 The speeches began. The first was to the King. Lasco, in 
 the name of the Diet, asked him to consent that the crown of 
 Poland be offered to a prince of the house of France. 
 
 Charles's reply was short and to the point. He presented his 
 brother, the Due d'Anjou, whose courage he praised highly to 
 the Polish ambassadors. He spoke in French, and an inter- 
 preter translated his reply at the end of each sentence. While 
 the interpreter was speaking, the King was seen applying a 
 handkerchief to his lips, and each time he removed it, it was 
 covered with blood. When Charles's reply was finished, Lasco 
 turned to the Due d : Anjou, bowed, and began a Latin address, 
 in which he offered him the throne in the name of the Polish 
 nation. 
 
 The duke replied in the same language, and in a voice he 
 strove in vain to render firm, that he accepted with gratitude 
 the honor which was offered to him. While he spoke, Charles 
 remained standing, with lips compressed, and fixed on him 
 eyes as calm and threatening as those of an eagle. 
 
 When the duke had finished, Lasco took the crown of the 
 Jagellos from the red velvet cushion on which it rested, and 
 while two Polish nobles placed the royal mantle on the duke, 
 he laid the crown in Charles's hands. 
 
 Charles signed to his brother, the Due d'Anjou knelt down 
 before him, and with his own hand the King placed the crown 
 on his brother's head. Then the two kings exchanged one of 
 the most bitter kisses ever exchanged between two brothers. 
 
 At once a herald cried : 
 
 " Alexander Edward Henry of France, Due d'Anjou, is 
 crowned King of Poland. Long live the King of Poland ! " 
 
 The entire assembly repeated the cry : " Long live the King 
 of Poland ! " Then Lasco turned to Marguerite. The dis- 
 course of the beautiful queen had been reserved for the last. 
 Now, as it was a compliment accorded her in order to display 
 her brilliant talents, as they were called, every one paid great 
 attention to the reply, which was in Latin, and which, as we 
 have said, Marguerite had composed herself. Lasco's address
 
 392 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. ' 
 
 was more of a eulogy than an address. He had yielded, Sar- 
 matian that he was, to the admiration which the beautiful 
 queen of Navarre inspired in every one. He had borrowed his 
 language from Ovid ; his style was that of Ronsard. He said 
 that having left Varsovia in the middle of a very dark night, 
 neither he nor his companions would have been able to find 
 their way, had they not, like the Magi, been guided by two 
 stars which became more and more brilliant as they drew 
 nearer to France, and which now they recognized as the two 
 beautiful eyes of the Queen of Navarre. Finally, passing from 
 the Gospel to the Koran, from Syria to Arabia, from Nazareth 
 to Mecca, he concluded by saying that he was quite prepared 
 to do what the ardent votaries of the prophet did. When 
 they were fortunate enough to see his tomb, they put out 
 their eyes, feeling that after they had looked at such a sight, 
 nothing in the world Avas worth being admired. 
 
 This address was loudly applauded by those who understood 
 Latin because they were of the same opinion as the orator, and 
 by those who did not understand it because they wished to 
 appear as though they did. 
 
 Marguerite made a gracious courtesy to the gallant Sar- 
 matian ; then fixing her eyes on De Mouy, began her reply in 
 these words : 
 
 " Quod nunc hac in auld insperati adestis exultaremus, 
 ego et conjux, nisi ideo immineret calamitas, scilicet non solum 
 frairis sed etiam amid orbitas." ] 
 
 These words had a double meaning, and, while intended for 
 De Mouy, were apparently addressed to Henry of Anjou. 
 The latter, therefore, bowed in token of gratitude. 
 
 Charles did not remember having read this sentence in the 
 address which had been submitted to him some days before ; 
 but he attached no importance to Marguerite's words, which 
 he knew were merely conventional. Besides, he understood 
 Latin very imperfectly. 
 
 Marguerite continued : 
 
 " Adeo dolemur a te dividi ut tecum proficisci maluissemus. 
 Sed idem fatum quo nunc sine ulld mora Lutetia cederejuberis, 
 hac in urbe detinet. Proficiscere ergo, frater ; proficiscere, 
 
 'Your unlooked-for presence in this court would overwhelm my husband and my- 
 self with joy, did it not bring with it a great misfortune, that is, the loss not only of a 
 brother, but also that of a friend.
 
 THE AMBASSADORS. 393 
 
 amice ; proficiscere sine nobis ; proficiscentem sequuntur spes et 
 desideria nostra." l 
 
 It may easily be imagined that De Mouy listened with the 
 closest attention to these words which, although addressed to 
 the ambassadors, were intended for him alone. Two or three 
 times Henry had glanced indifferently over his shoulder to 
 intimate to the young Huguenot that D'Alenqon had refused ; 
 but the act, which appeared involuntary, would have been in- 
 sufficient for De Mouy, had not Marguerite's words confirmed it. 
 
 While looking at Marguerite and listening with his whole 
 soul, his piercing black eyes beneath their gray brows struck 
 Catharine, who started as if she had had a shock of electricity, 
 and who did not remove her eyes from him. 
 
 " What a strange face ! " thought she, continuing to change 
 her expression according as the ceremony required it. " Who is 
 this man who watches Marguerite so attentively and whom 
 Marguerite and Henry on their part look at so earnestly ? " 
 
 The Queen of Navarre went on with her address, which 
 from that point was a reply to the courtesies of the Polish am- 
 bassador. While Catharine was racking her brain to discover 
 the name of this fine old man the master of ceremonies came 
 up behind her and handed her a perfumed satin bag contain- 
 ing a folded paper. She opened the bag, drew out the paper, 
 and read these words : 
 
 " By the aid of a cordial which I have just administered to 
 him Maurevel has somewhat recovered his strength, and has 
 succeeded in 'writing the name of the man who was in the 
 apartment of the King of Navarre. This man was Monsieur 
 de Mouy." 
 
 " De Mouy ! " thought the queen ; " well, I felt it was he. 
 But this old man ah ! cospetto ! this old man is " 
 
 She leaned toward the captain of the guard. 
 
 " Look, Monsieur de Nancey," said she, ll but without attract- 
 ing attention ; look at Lasco who is speaking. Behind him 
 do you see the old man with the white beard, in the black 
 velvet suit ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame," replied the captain. 
 
 1 We are heartbroken at being separated from you, when we should have preferred 
 going with you, but the same fate which decrees that you unmt leave Purls without 
 delay, retains us in this city. Go, therefore, dear brother; go, dear friend; go without 
 us. Our hopes and our good wishes follow you.
 
 394 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Well, do not lose sight of him." 
 
 " The one to whom the King of Navarre made a sign just 
 now ? " 
 
 " Exactly. Station yourself at the door of the Louvre with 
 ten men, and when he comes out invite him in the King's 
 name to dinner. If he accepts, take him into some room in 
 which you must keep him a prisoner. If he resists, seize him, 
 dead or alive." 
 
 Fortunately Henry, who had been paying but little attention 
 to Marguerite's address, was looking at Catharine, and had not 
 lost a single expression of her face. Seeing the eyes of the 
 queen mother fixed so earnestly on De Mouy, he grew uneasy ; 
 when he saw her give an order to the captain of the guard he 
 comprehended everything. 
 
 It was at this moment that he made the sign which had 
 surprised Monsieur de Nancey, and which meant, " You are dis- 
 covered, save yourself ! " 
 
 De Mouy understood this gesture, which was a fitting climax 
 to the portion of Marguerite's address intended for him. He 
 did not delay an instant, but mingled with the crowd and 
 disappeared. 
 
 Henry, however, was not easy until Monsieur de Nancey had 
 returned to Catharine, and he saw from the frown on the 
 queen mother's face that the captain had not been in time. 
 
 The audience was over. Marguerite exchanged a few un- 
 official words with Lasco. 
 
 The King staggered to his feet, bowed, and went out, leaning 
 on the arm of Ambroise Pare, who had not left him since his 
 illness. 
 
 Catharine, pale with anger, and Henry, silent from disap- 
 pointment, followed. 
 
 As to the Due d'Alenqon, he had scarcely been noticed dur- 
 ing the ceremony, and not once had Charles, whose eyes had 
 not left the Due d'Anjou, glanced at him. 
 
 The new King of Poland felt himself lost. Far from his 
 mother, carried away by those barbarians of the north, he was 
 like Antaeus, the son of Terra, who lost his strength when 
 lifted in the arms of Hercules. Once beyond the frontier the 
 Due d'Anjou felt that he was forever excluded from the throne 
 of France. 
 
 Instead of following the King he retired to his mother's 
 apartments.
 
 ORESTES AND PYLADES. 395 
 
 He found her no less gloomy and preoccupied than himself, 
 for she was thinking of that fine mocking face she had not 
 lost sight of during the ceremony, of the Bearnais for whom 
 destiny had seemed to make way, sweeping aside kings, royal 
 assassins, enemies, and obstacles. 
 
 Seeing her beloved son pale beneath his crown, and bent 
 under his royal mantle, clasping his beautiful hands in silence, 
 and holding them out to her piteously, Catharine rose and 
 went to him. 
 
 " Oh, mother," cried the King of Poland, " I am condemned 
 to die in exile ! " 
 
 " My son," said Catharine, " have you so soon forgotten 
 Rene's prediction ? Do not worry, you will not have to stay 
 there long." 
 
 " Mother, I entreat you," said the Due d'Anjou, " if there is 
 the slightest hint, or the least suspicion, that the throne of 
 France is to be vacant, send me word." 
 
 " Do not worry, my son," said Catharine. " Until the day 
 for which both of us are waiting, there shall always be a horse 
 saddled in my stable, and in my antechamber a courier 
 ready to set out for Poland." 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 ORESTES AND PYLADES. 
 
 HENRY OF ANJOU having departed, peace and happiness 
 seemed to have returned to the Louvre, among this family of 
 the Atrides. 
 
 Charles, forgetting his melancholy, recovered his vigorous 
 health, hunting with Henry, and on days when this was not 
 possible discussing hunting affairs with him, and reproaching 
 him for only one thing, his indifference to hawking, declaring 
 that he would be faultless if he knew how to snare falcons, 
 gerfalcons, and hawks as well as he knew how to hunt brocks 
 and hounds. 
 
 Catharine had become a good mother again. Gentle to 
 Charles and D'Alenqon, affectionate to Henry and Marguerite, 
 gracious to Madame de Nevers and Madame de Sauve ; and 
 under the pretext that it was in obedience to an order from her 
 that he had been wounded, she carried her amiabilities so far
 
 396 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 as to visit Manrevel twice during his convalescence, in his 
 house in the Rue de la Cerisaie. 
 
 Marguerite continued to carry on her love affair after the 
 Spanish fashion. 
 
 Eveiy evening she opened her window and by gestures and 
 notes kept up her correspondence with La Mole, while in each 
 of his letters the young man reminded his lovely queen of her 
 promise of a few moments in the Rue Cloche Percee as a re- 
 ward for his exile. 
 
 Only one person was lonely and unhappy in the now calm 
 and peaceful Louvre. 
 
 This was our friend Count Annibal de Coconnas. 
 
 It was certainly something to know that La Mole was alive ; 
 it was much to be the favorite of Madame de Nevers, the 
 most charming and the most whimsical of women. But all 
 the pleasure of a meeting granted him by the beautiful 
 duchess, all the consolation offered by Marguerite as to the 
 fate of their common friend, did not compensate in the eyes 
 of the Piedmontese for one hour spent with La Mole at their 
 friend La Huriere's before a bottle of light wine, or for one of 
 those midnight rambles through that part of Paris in which an 
 honest man ran the risk of receiving rents in his flesh, his 
 purse, or his clothes. 
 
 To the shame of humanity it must be said that Madame de 
 Nevers bore with impatience her rivalry with La Mole. 
 
 It was not that she hated the Provincial ; on the contrary, 
 carried away by the irresistible instinct which, in spite of her- 
 self, makes every woman a coquette with another woman's 
 lover, especially when that woman is her friend, she had not 
 spared La Mole the flashes of her emerald eyes, and Coconnas 
 might have envied the frank handclasps and the amiable acts 
 done by the duchess in favor of his friend dxiring those days 
 in which the star of the Piedmontese seemed growing dim in 
 the sky of his beautiful mistress ; but Coconnas, who would 
 have strangled fifteen persons for a single glance from his 
 lady, was so little jealous of La Mole that he had often after 
 some indiscretions of the duchess whispered certain offers 
 which had made the man from the Provinces blush. 
 
 At this stage of affairs it happened that Henriette, who by 
 the absence of La Mole was deprived of all the enjoyment 
 she had had from the company of Coconnas, that is, his never- 
 ending flow of spirits and fun, came to Marguerite one day to
 
 ORESTES AND PYLADES. 397 
 
 beg her to do her this three-fold favor without which the 
 heart and the mind of Coconnas seemed to be slipping away 
 day by day. 
 
 Marguerite, always sympathetic and, besides, influenced by 
 the prayers of La Mole and the wishes of her own heart, ar- 
 ranged a meeting with Henriette for the next day in the house 
 with the double entrance, in order to discuss these matters 
 thoroughly and uninterruptedly. 
 
 Coconnas received with rather bad grace the note from Hen- 
 riette, asking him to be in the Rue Tizon at half-past nine. 
 
 Nevertheless he went to the place appointed, where he 
 found Henriette, who was provoked at having arrived first. 
 
 " Fie, Monsieur ! " she cried, " it is very bad to make I 
 will not say a princess but a lady wait in this way." 
 
 " Wait ? " said Coconnas, " what an idea ! I '11 wager, on the 
 contrary, that we are ahead of time." 
 
 " I was." 
 
 " Well ! and I too ; it cannot be more than ten o'clock at 
 the latest." 
 
 " Well ! my note said half-past nine." 
 
 " Therefore I left the Louvre at nine o'clock. I am in the 
 service of Monsieur le Due d'Alengon, be it said in passing, 
 and for this reason I shall be obliged to leave you in an hour." 
 
 " Which pleases you, no doubt ? " 
 
 " No, indeed ! considering the fact that Monsieur d'Alenqon 
 is an ill-tempered and capricious master ; moreover, if I am to 
 be found fault with, I prefer to have it done by pretty lips 
 like yours rather than by such sullen ones as his." 
 
 " Ah ! " said the duchess, " that is a little better. You 
 say, then, that you left the Louvre at nine o'clock." 
 
 " Yes, and with every idea of coming directly here, when at 
 the corner of the Eue de Grenelle I saw a man who looked 
 like La Mole." 
 
 " Good ! La Mole again." 
 
 " Always, with or without permission." 
 
 " Brutal man ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Coconnas, " we are going to begin our compli- 
 mentary speeches again." 
 
 " Not at all ; but finish your story." 
 
 " I was not the one who wanted to tell it. It was you who 
 asked me why I was late." 
 
 u Yes ; was it my place to arrive first ? "
 
 398 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Well, you are not looking for any one." 
 
 " You are growing tiresome, my dear friend ; but go on. At 
 the corner of the Rue de Grenelle you saw a man who looked 
 like La Mole But what is that on your doublet blood ? " 
 
 " Yes, and here is more which was probably sprinkled over 
 me a:s he fell." 
 
 You had a fight ? " 
 
 " I should think so." 
 
 " On account of your La Mole ? " 
 
 " On whose account do you think I would fight ? For a 
 woman ? " 
 
 " I thank you ! " 
 
 " So I followed this man who had the impudence to look like 
 rny friend. I joined him in the Rue Coquilliere, I overtook 
 him, and stared into his face under the light from a shop. 
 But it was not La Mole." 
 
 " Good ! that was well done." 
 
 " Yes, but he did not think so. ' Monsieur,' said I to him, 
 ' you are an ass to take it upon yourself to resemble from afar 
 my friend Monsieur de la Mole, who is an accomplished cava- 
 lier ; while on nearer view one can easily perceive that you are 
 nothing but a vagrant.' Whereupon he drew his sword, and 
 I mine. At the third pass he fell down, sprinkling me with 
 his blood." 
 
 " But you assisted him at least ? " 
 
 " I was about to do so when a horseman rode by. Ah ! this 
 time, duchess, I was sure that it was La Mole. Unfortunately 
 he was galloping. I ran after him as hard as I could, and 
 those who collected around to see the fight ran behind me. 
 Now as I might easily have been mistaken for a thief, fol- 
 lowed as I was by all that rabble shouting at my heels, I was 
 obliged to turn back to scatter them, which made me lose a lit- 
 tle time. In the meanwhile the rider disappeared ; I followed, 
 inquired of every one, gave the color of the horse ; but it was 
 useless ; no one had noticed him. At last, tired out from the 
 chase, I came here." 
 
 " Tired of the chase ! " said the duchess. " How flattering 
 you are ! " 
 
 " Listen, dear friend," said Coconnas, turning nonchalantly 
 in his chair. " You are going to bother me again on account of 
 poor La Mole. Now, you are wrong, for friendship, you see, 
 I wish I had his wit or knowledge, I would then find
 
 ORESTES AND PY LADES. 399 
 
 some comparison which would make you understand how I 
 feel friendship, you see, is a star, while love love 
 wait ! I have it ! love is only a candle. You will tell me 
 there are several varieties " 
 
 " Of love ? " 
 
 " No ! of candles, and that some are better than others. 
 The rose, for instance, is the best ; but rose as it is, the 
 candle burns out, while the star shines forever. You will 
 answer this by saying that when the candle is burned out, 
 another is put in its place." 
 
 " Monsieur de Coconnas, you are a goose." 
 
 " Indeed ! " 
 
 " Monsieur de Coconnas, you are impertinent." 
 
 Ah ? " 
 
 "Monsieur de Coconnas, you are a scoundrel." 
 
 " Madame, I warn you that you will make me trebly regret 
 La Mole." 
 
 " You 110 longer love me." 
 
 " On the contrary, duchess, you do not know it, but I idolize 
 you. But I can love and cherish and idolize you, and yet in 
 my spare moments praise my friend." 
 
 " So you call the time spent with me spare moments, do 
 you ? " 
 
 " What can you expect ? Poor La Mole is constantly in my 
 thoughts." 
 
 " You prefer him to me ; that is shameful ! and I detest you, 
 Annibal ! Why not be frank, and tell me you prefer him to 
 me ? Annibal, I warn you of one thing : if you prefer anything 
 in the world to me " 
 
 " Henriette, the loveliest of duchesses ! For your own 
 peace of mind, believe me, do not ask such unwise questions. 
 I love you more than any woman, and I love La Mole more 
 than any man." 
 
 " Well answered ! " said a strange voice suddenly. A dam- 
 ask curtain was raised in front of a great panel, which, sliding 
 back into the wall, opened a passage between the two rooms, 
 and showed La Mole in the doorway, like one of Titian's fine 
 portraits in its gilded frame. 
 
 " La Mole ! " exclaimed Coconnas, without paying any at- 
 tention to Marguerite or taking the time to thank her for the 
 surprise she had arranged for him ; " La Mole, my friend, my 
 dear La Mole ! " and he rushed into the arms of his friend,
 
 400 MARGUERITE DE VALOTS. 
 
 upsetting the armchair in which he had been sitting and the 
 table that stood in his way. 
 
 La Mole returned his embrace with effusion ; then, turning 
 to the Duchesse de Nevers : 
 
 " Pardon me, madame, if the mention of my name has 
 sometimes disturbed your happiness." " Certainly," he added, 
 glancing at Marguerite with a look of ineffable tenderness, 
 " it has not been my fault that I have not seen you sooner." 
 
 " You see, Henriette," said Marguerite, " I have kept my 
 word ; here he is ! " 
 
 " Is it, then, to the prayers of Madame la Duchesse that 
 I owe this happiness ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " To her prayers alone," replied Marguerite. 
 
 Then, turning to La Mole, she continued : 
 
 "La Mole, I will allow you not to believe one word of what 
 I say." 
 
 Meanwhile Coconnas pressed his friend to his heart over 
 and over again, walked round him a dozen times, and even 
 held a candelabrum to his face the better to see him; then 
 suddenly turning, he knelt down before Marguerite and kissed 
 the hem of her robe. 
 
 " Ah ! that is pleasant ! " said the Duchesse de Nevers. " I 
 suppose now you will find me bearable." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas, " I shall find you as ador- 
 able as ever ; only now I can tell you so with a lighter heart., 
 and were there any number of Poles, Sarmatians, and other 
 hyperborean barbarians present I should make them all admit 
 that you were the queen of beauties." 
 
 " Gently, gently, Coconnas," said La Mole, " Madame 
 Marguerite is here ! " 
 
 "Oh! I cannot help that," cried Coconnas, with the half- 
 comic air which belonged to him alone, " I still assert that 
 Madame Henriette is the queen of beauties and Madame 
 Marguerite is the beauty of queens." 
 
 But whatever he might say or do, the Piedmontese, com- 
 pletely carried away by the joy of having found his dear La 
 Mole, had neither eyes nor ears for any one but him. 
 
 " Come, my beautiful queen," said Madame de Nevers, 
 " come, let us leave these dear friends to chat awhile alone. 
 They have a thousand things to say to each other which 
 would be interrupted by our conversation. It is hard for us, 
 but it is the only way, I am sure, to make Monsieur Annibal
 
 ORESTES AND PYLADES. 401 
 
 perfectly sane. Do this for me, my queen ! since I am foolish 
 enough to love this worthless fellow, as his friend La Mole 
 calls him." 
 
 Marguerite whispered a few words to La Mole, who, anxious 
 as he had been to see his friend, would have been glad had the 
 affection of Coconnas for him been less exacting. Meanwhile 
 Coconnas was endeavoring to bring back a smile and a gentle 
 word to Henrietta's lips, a result which was easily attained. 
 Then the two women passed into the next room, where supper 
 was awaiting them. 
 
 The young men were alone. The first questions Coconnas 
 asked his friend were about that fatal evening which had 
 almost cost him his life. As La Mole proceeded in his story 
 the Piedmontese, who, however, was not easily moved, trembled 
 in every limb. 
 
 " But why," said he, " instead of running about the country 
 as you have done, and causing me such uneasiness, did you 
 not seek refuge with our master ? The duke who had de- 
 fended you would have hidden you. I should have been near 
 you and my grief, although feigned, would nevertheless have 
 disturbed every simpleton at court." 
 
 " Our master ! " said La Mole, in a low voice, " the Due 
 d'Alenqon ? " 
 
 " Yes. According to what he told me, I supposed it was to 
 him you owed your life." 
 
 " I owe my life to the King of Navarre," replied La Mole. 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Coconnas, " are you sure ? " 
 
 " Beyond a doubt." 
 
 " Oh ! what a good, kind king ! But what part did the Due 
 d'Alenqon play in it all ? " 
 
 " He held the rope to strangle me." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconuas, " are you sure of what you 
 say, La Mole ? What ! this pale-faced, pitiful-looking cur 
 strangle my friend ! Ah ! by Heaven, by to-morrow I will let 
 him know what I think of him." 
 
 " Are you mad ? " 
 
 "That is true, he would begin again. But what does it 
 matter ? Things cannot go on like this." 
 
 " Come, come, Coconnas, calm yourself and try and remem- 
 ber that it is half-past eleven o'clock and that you are on duty 
 to-night." 
 
 u What do I care about my duty to him ! Bah ! Let him
 
 402 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 wait ! My attendance ! I serve a man who has held a rope ? 
 You are joking ! No ! This is providential ; it is said that I 
 should find you to leave you no more. I shall stay here." 
 
 " Why, man alive, think what you are saying. You are not 
 drunk, I hope." 
 
 " No, fortunately ; if I were I would set fire to the Louvre." 
 
 " Come, Annibal," said La Mole, " be reasonable. Return 
 to your duties. Service is a sacred thing." 
 
 " Will you return with me ? " 
 
 " Impossible." 
 
 " Are they still thinking of killing you ? " 
 
 " I think not. I am of too little importance for them to 
 have any plot on hand about me. For an instant they wanted 
 to kill me, but that was all. The princes were on a frolic that 
 night." 
 
 " What are you going to do, then ? " 
 
 " Nothing ; wander about or take a walk." 
 
 " Well, I will walk, too, and wander with you. That will 
 be charming. Then, if you are attacked, there will be two of 
 us, and we will give them no end of trouble. Let him come, 
 your duke ! I will pin him. to the wall like a butterfly ! " 
 
 " But, at least, say that you are going to leave his service ! " 
 
 " Yes, I am." 
 
 " In that case, tell him so." 
 
 " Well, that seems only right. I will do so. I will write 
 to him." 
 
 " Write to him ! That would be discourteous, Cocoiinas, to a 
 prince of the blood." 
 
 " Yes, of the blood ! of the blood of my friend. Take care," 
 cried Coconnas, rolling his large, tragic eyes, " lest I trifle with 
 points of etiquette ! " 
 
 " Probably," said La Mole to himself, " in a few days he will 
 need neither the prince nor any one else, for if he wants to 
 come with us, we will take him." 
 
 Thereupon Coconnas took the pen without further opposi- 
 tion from his friend and hastily composed the following speci- 
 men of eloquence : 
 
 " Monseigneur : There can be no doubt but that your high- 
 ness, versed as you are in the writings of all authors of antiq- 
 uity, must know the touching story of Orestes and Pylades, 
 why were two heroes celebrated for their misfortunes and
 
 ORESTES AND PYLADES. 403 
 
 their friendship. My friend La Mole is no less unfortunate 
 than was Orestes, while I am no less tender than Pylades. 
 At present he has affairs of importance which demand my aid. 
 It is therefore impossible for me to leave him. So with the 
 consent of your highness I will take a short vacation, deter- 
 mined as I am to attach myself to my friend's fortune, whither- 
 soever it may lead me. It is with the deepest grief that I tear 
 myself away from the service of your hiyhness, but for this 1 
 trust I may obtain your pardon. I venture to subscribe my- 
 self with respect, my lord, 
 
 " Your highnesses very humble and very obedient servant, 
 " ANNIBAL, COMTE DE COCONNAS, 
 
 " The inseparable friend of Monsieur de la Mole." 
 
 This masterpiece finished, Coconnas read it aloud to La 
 Mole, who merely shrugged his shoulders. 
 
 " Well ! what do you say to it ? " asked Coconnas, who had 
 not seen the shrug, or who had pretended not to see it. 
 
 " I say," replied La Mole, " that Monsieur d'Alenqon will 
 laugh at us." 
 
 " At us ? " 
 
 Both of us." 
 
 " That will be better, it seems to me, than to strangle each of 
 us separately." 
 
 " Bah ! " said La Mole, laughing, " the one will not necessa- 
 rily prevent the other." 
 
 " Well ! so much the worse. Come what may, I will send 
 the letter to-morrow morning. Where shall we sleep when 
 we leave here ? " 
 
 " At Maitre la Huriere's, in that little room in which you 
 tried to stab me before we were Orestes and Pylades ! " 
 
 " Very well, I will send my letter to the Louvre by our host." 
 
 Just then the panel moved. 
 
 " Well ! " asked both princesses at once, " where are Orestes 
 and Pylades ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! madame," replied Coconnas, " Pylades and 
 Orestes are dying of hunger and love." 
 
 It was Maitre la Huriere himself who, at nine o'clock the 
 following morning, carried to the Louvre the respectful missive 
 of Count Annibal de Coconnas.
 
 404 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 OKTHON. 
 
 AFTER the refusal of the Due d'Alenqon, which left every- 
 thing in peril, even his life, Henry became more intimate with 
 the prince thaii ever, if that were possible. Catharine con- 
 cluded from the intimacy that the two princes not only under- 
 stood each other perfectly, but also that they were planning 
 some mutual conspiracy. She questioned Marguerite on the 
 subject, but Marguerite was worthy of her mother, and the 
 Queen of Navarre, whose chief talent lay in avoiding ex- 
 planations, parried her mother's questions so cleverly that 
 although replying to all she left Catharine more mystified 
 than ever. 
 
 The Florentine, therefore, had nothing to guide her except 
 the spirit of intrigue she had brought with her from Tuscany, 
 the most interesting of the small states of that period, and the 
 feeling of hatred she had imbibed from the court of France, 
 which was more divided in its interests and opinions than any 
 court at that time. 
 
 She realized that a part of the strength of the Bearnais 
 came from his alliance with the Due d'Alengon, and she 
 determined to separate them. 
 
 From the moment she formed this resolution she beset her 
 son with the patience and the wiles of an angler, who, when 
 he has dropped his bait near the fish, unconsciously draws it in 
 until his prey is caught. 
 
 Francois perceived this increase of affection on the part 
 of his mother and made advances to her. As for Henry, he 
 pretended to see nothing, but kept a closer watch on his ally 
 than he had yet done. 
 
 Every one was waiting for some event. 
 
 During this state of things, one morning when the sun rose 
 clear, giving out that gentle warmth and sweet odor which 
 announce a beautiful day, a pale man, leaning on a cane, and 
 walking with difficulty, came out of a small house situated 
 behind the arsenal, and walked slowly along the Rue du Petit 
 Muse. 
 
 At the Porte Saint Antoine he turned into the street which 
 encircles the moat of the Bastille like a marsh, left the boule-
 
 ORTHON. 405 
 
 vard on his left and entered the Archery Garden, where the 
 gatekeeper received him with every mark of respect. 
 
 There was no one in the garden, which, as its name implies, 
 belonged to a particular society called the Taxopholites. Had 
 there been any strollers there the pale man would have merited 
 their sympathy, for his long mustache, his military step and 
 bearing, though weakened by suffering, sufficiently indicated 
 that he was an officer who had been recently wounded, and 
 who was endeavoring to regain his strength by moderate exer- 
 cise in the open air. 
 
 Yet, strange to say, when the cloak opened in which, in 
 spite of the increasing heat, this apparently harmless man 
 was wrapped, it displayed a pair of long pistols suspended 
 from the silver clasps of his belt. This belt also sustained a 
 dagger and a sword so enormously long that it seemed almost 
 impossible to be handled, and which, completing this living 
 arsenal, clattered against his shrunken and trembling legs. 
 
 As an additional precaution the lonely soldier glanced 
 around at every step as though to question each turn of the 
 path, each bush and ditch. 
 
 Having entered the garden without being molested, the man 
 reached a sort of small arbor, facing the boulevard, from 
 which it was separated by a thick hedge and a small ditch 
 which formed a double inclosure. He threw himself upon a 
 grassy bank within reach of a table on which the host of the 
 establishment, who combined with his duties as gatekeeper the 
 vocation of cook, at once placed a bottle of cordial. 
 
 The invalid had been there about ten minutes and had 
 several times raised the china cup to his lips, taking little 
 sips of its contents, when suddenly his countenance, in spite 
 of its interesting pallor, assumed a startled expression. From 
 the Croix Faubin, along a path which to-day is the Hue de 
 Naples, he had perceived a cavalier, wrapped in a great cloak, 
 stop near the moat. 
 
 Not more than five minutes had elapsed, during which the 
 man of the pale face, whom the reader has perhaps already 
 recognized as Maurevel, had scarcely had time to recover from 
 the emotion caused by his unexpected presence, when the 
 horseman was joined by a man in a close-fitting coat, like that 
 of a page, who came by the road which is since known as the 
 Rue des Fosses Saint Nicholas. 
 
 Hidden in his leafy arbor, Maurevel could easily see and
 
 406 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 hear everything, and when it is known that the cavalier was 
 De Mouy and the young man iii the tight-fitting cloak Orthon, 
 one may imagine whether Maurevel's eyes and ears were not 
 on the alert. 
 
 Both men looked very carefully around. Maurevel held his 
 breath. 
 
 " You may speak, monsieur," said Orthon, who being the 
 younger was the more confident ; " no one can either see or 
 hear us." 
 
 " That is well," said De Mouy, " you are to go to Madame 
 de Sauve, and if you find her in her rooms give her this note. 
 If she is not there, you will place it behind the mirror where 
 the king is in the habit of putting his letters. Then you will 
 wait in the Louvre. If you receive an answer, you will bring 
 it you know where ; if no reply is sent, you will meet me this 
 evening with a petronel at the spot I showed you, and from 
 which I have just come." 
 
 " Very well," said Orthon, " I understand." 
 
 " I will now leave you. I have much to do to-day. You 
 need make no haste there is no use in it, for you do not need 
 to reach the Louvre until he is there, and I think he is taking 
 a lesson in hawking this morning. Now go, and show me 
 what you can do. You have recovered, and you apparently 
 are going to thank Madame de Sauve for her kindness to you 
 during your illness. Now go, my boy." 
 
 Maurevel listened, his eyes fixed, his hair on end, his fore- 
 head covered with perspiration. His first impulse had been 
 to detach one of his pistols from his belt and aim at De Mouy ; 
 but a movement of the latter had opened his cloak and dis- 
 played a firm and solid cuirass. Therefore in all probability the 
 ball would flatten itself against this cuirass or strike some part 
 of the body wherein the wound would not be fatal. Besides, he 
 reflected that De Mouy, strong and well armed, would have an 
 advantage over him, wounded as he was. So with a sigh he 
 drew back the weapon which he had pointed at the Huguenot. 
 
 " How unfortunate," he murmured, " that I am unable to 
 stretch him dead on the spot, without other witness than that 
 young varlet who would have been such a good mark for my 
 second ball ! " 
 
 But Maurevel thought that the note given to Orthon and 
 which he was to deliver to Madame de Sauve might perhaps 
 be of more importance than the life of the Huguenot chief.
 
 ORTHON. 407 
 
 " Well ! " said he, " you have escaped me again this morn- 
 ing ; be it so. To-morrow I will have my turn at you if I have 
 to follow you into that hell from which you have come to ruin 
 me, unless I destroy you. 
 
 De Mouy raised his cloak over his face, and set out rapidly 
 in the direction of the Temple. Orthon took the road along 
 the moat which led to the banks of the river. 
 
 Then Maurevel, rising with more energy and vigor than he 
 had dared to hope for, regained the Rue de la Cerisaie, reached 
 his home, ordered a horse to be saddled, and weak as he was 
 and at the risk of opening his wounds again, set off at a gallop 
 to the Rue Saint Antoine, reached the quays, and entered the 
 Louvre. 
 
 Five minutes after he had passed under the gate Catharine 
 knew all that had just taken place, and Maurevel had received 
 the thousand golden crowns promised him for the arrest of 
 the King of Navarre. 
 
 " Oh ! " said Catharine, " either I arn mistaken or this De 
 Mouy is the black spot that was discovered by Rene in the 
 horoscope of the accursed Bearnais." 
 
 A quarter of an hour after Maurevel Orthon entered the 
 Louvre, showed himself as De Mouy had directed, and went 
 to the apartments of Madame de Sauve, after having spoken 
 to several attendants of the palace. 
 
 Dariole was the only one in her mistress's rooms. Catharine 
 had asked the latter to write certain important letters, and 
 she had been with the queen for the last five minutes. 
 
 " No matter,'' said Orthon, " I will wait." 
 
 Taking advantage of his intimacy in the house, the young 
 man went into the sleeping-room of the baroness, and, having 
 assured himself that he was alone, he laid the note behind the 
 mirror. Just as he was removing his hand Catharine entered. 
 
 Orthon turned pale, for it seemed to him that the quick, 
 searching glance of the queen mother was first directed to the 
 mirror. 
 
 " What are you doing here, my little man ? " asked Catharine ; 
 " looking for Madame de Sauve ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame ; it is a long time since I saw her, and if I 
 delay any longer in thanking her I fear she will think me 
 ungrateful." 
 
 " You love this dear Charlotte very much, do you not ? " 
 
 " With all my heart, madame ! "
 
 408 MARGUERITE DE VALO1S. 
 
 " And you are faithful, from what I hear." 
 
 " Your majesty will understand that this is very natural 
 when you know that Madame de Sauve took more care of me 
 than I, being only an humble servant, deserved." 
 
 " And upon what occasion did she bestow all this care on 
 you ? " asked Catharine, pretending to be ignorant of what 
 had happened to the youth. 
 
 " When I was wounded, madame." 
 
 " Ah, poor boy ! " said Catharine, " you were wounded ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " When was that ? " 
 
 " The night they tried to arrest the King of Navarre. I was 
 so terrified at sight of the soldiers that I called and shouted ; 
 and one of the men gave me a blow on the head which knocked 
 nie senseless." 
 
 " Poor boy ! And are you quite recovered now ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " So that you are trying to get back into the service of the 
 King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " No, madame. When the King of Navarre learned that I 
 had dared to resist your majesty's order he dismissed me at 
 once." 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Catharine, in a tone full of interest ; " well, 
 I will see to that affair. But if you are waiting for Madame 
 de Sauve you will wait in vain, for she is occupied in my 
 apartments." 
 
 Whereupon, thinking that Orthon perhaps had not had time 
 to hide his note behind the mirror, Catharine stepped into the 
 adjoining room in order to give him the necessary opportunity. 
 
 But just as Orthon, anxious at the unexpected arrival of the 
 queen mother, was wondering whether her coming did not for- 
 bode some plot against his master, he heard three gentle taps 
 against the ceiling. This was the signal which he himself was 
 in the habit of giving his master in case of danger when the 
 latter was with Madame de Sauve and Orthon was keeping 
 guard. 
 
 He started at the sound ; a light broke upon his mind ; he 
 fancied that this time the warning had been given to him. 
 Springing to the mirror, he removed the note he had just 
 placed there. 
 
 Through an opening in the tapestry Catharine had followed 
 every movement of the boy. She saw him dart to the mirror,
 
 ORTHON. 409 
 
 but she did not know whether it was to hide the note or take 
 it away. 
 
 " Well ! " murmured the impatient Florentine ; " why does 
 he not leave now ? " 
 
 And she returned to the room smiling. 
 
 " Still here, my boy ? " said she ; " why, what do you want ? 
 Did I not tell you that I would look after your fortune ? 
 When I say a thing you do not doubt it, do you ? " 
 
 " Oh, madame, God forbid ! " replied Orthon. 
 
 And approaching the queen, he bent his knee, kissed the 
 hem of her robe, and at once withdrew. 
 
 As he went through the antechamber he saw the captain of 
 the guards, who was waiting for Catharine. The sight of this 
 man, instead of allaying his suspicions, augmented them. 
 
 On her part, no sooner had she seen the curtains fall behind 
 Orthon than Catharine sprang to the mirror. But in vain she 
 sought behind it with hands trembling with impatience. She 
 found no note. 
 
 And yet she was sure that she had seen the boy approach 
 the mirror. It was to remove the note, therefore, and not to 
 leave it. Fate had given to her enemies a strength equal to 
 her own. 
 
 A child had become a man the moment he fought with her. 
 
 She moved the mirror, looked behind it, tapped it ; nothing 
 was there ! 
 
 " Oh ! unhappy boy ! " cried she, " I wished him no ill and 
 now by removing the note he hastens his destiny. Ho, 
 there, Monsieur de Nancey ! " 
 
 The vibrating tones of the queen mother rang through the 
 salon and penetrated into the anteroom, where, as we have said, 
 Monsieur de Kancey was waiting. 
 
 The captain of the guards hastened to the queen. 
 
 " Here I am, madame," said he, " what is your majesty's 
 will ? " 
 
 " Have you been in the antechamber ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Did you see a young man, a child, pass through ? " 
 
 " Just now." 
 
 " He cannot have gone far, can he ? " 
 
 " Scarcely to the stairway." 
 
 Call him back." 
 
 " What is his name ? "
 
 410 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Orthon. If he refuses to come bring him back by force ; 
 but do not frighten him unless he resists. I must speak to 
 him at once." 
 
 The captain of the guards hurriedly withdrew. 
 
 As he had said, Orthon was scarcely half way down the 
 stairs, for he was descending slowly, hoping to meet or see the 
 King of Navarre or Madame de Sauve somewhere. 
 
 He heard his name and gave a start. 
 
 His first impulse was to run, but with forethought beyond 
 his years he realized that by doing so all would be lost. 
 
 He stopped therefore. 
 
 Who calls me ? " 
 
 " I, Monsieur de Nancey," replied the captain of the guards, 
 hurrying down the stairs. 
 
 " But I am in haste,''* said Orthon. 
 
 " By order of her majesty the queen mother," said Monsieur 
 de Nancey, as he came up to him. 
 
 The youth wiped the perspiration from his brow and turned 
 back. 
 
 The captain followed. 
 
 Catharine's first idea had been to stop the young man, have 
 him searched, and take possession of the note which she knew 
 he had. She had planned to accuse him of theft, and with 
 this end in view she had removed from the toilet table a 
 diamond clasp which she was going to say he had taken. 
 
 But on reflection she concluded that this would be dangerous, 
 in that it would arouse the boy's suspicions and he would in- 
 form his master, who would then begin to mistrust something, 
 and so her enemy would gain an advantage over her. 
 
 She could, no doubt, have the young man taken to some dun- 
 geon, but the rumor of the arrest, however secretly it might be 
 done, would spread through the Louvre, and the slightest ink- 
 ling of it would put Henry on his guard. However, she must 
 have the note, for a note from Monsieur de Mouy to the King 
 of Navarre, a note sent with such precautions, surely meant con- 
 spiracy. 
 
 She put back the clasp from where she had taken it. 
 
 " No, no," said she, " that would be the method of a guard ; 
 it is poor. But for a note which perhaps after all is not 
 worth the trouble," she continued, frowning, and speaking so 
 low that she herself could scarcely hear the sound of her 
 words. " Well, it is not my fault, but his. Why did not the
 
 ORTHON. 411 
 
 little scoundrel put the note where he should have put it ? I 
 must have this letter." 
 
 Just then Orthon entered. 
 
 Catharine's face wore such a terrible expression that the 
 youth stopped on the threshold pale as death. He was still 
 too young to be perfect master of himself. 
 
 " Madame," said he, " you have done me the honor of calling 
 me back. In what can I serve your majesty?" 
 
 Catharine's face lighted up as if a ray of sunlight had 
 touched it. 
 
 " I called you back, my child," said she, " because your face 
 pleases me, and having promised to help you I am anxious to 
 do so without delay. We queens are sometimes accused of 
 being forgetful. But this is not on account of our hearts, but 
 because our minds are filled with business. Now I remem- 
 bered that kings hold men's fortunes in their hands, and so I 
 called you back. Follow me, my child." 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey, who was taking the affair seriously, 
 was greatly surprised at Catharine's affectionate manner. 
 
 " Can you ride, my child ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " Yes, madame." 
 
 " Then come into my room. I want to give you a message 
 to carry to Saint Germain." 
 
 " I am at your majesty's command." 
 
 " Order a horse to be saddled, De Nancey." 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey disappeared. 
 
 " Come, boy," said Catharine, leading the way. 
 
 Orthon followed. The queen mother descended to the next 
 floor, entered the corridor in which were the apartments of the 
 king and the Due d'Alenqon, reached the winding staircase, 
 again descended a flight of stairs, and opened a door leading 
 to a circular gallery to which none but the king and herself 
 possessed the key. Bidding Orthon pass in first, she entered 
 after him and locked the door. This gallery formed a sort of 
 rampart to a certain portion of the apartments of the king and 
 the queen mother, and, like the corridor of the castle of Saint 
 Angelo at Rome, or that of the Pitti Palace at Florence, was 
 a safe place in case of danger. The door locked, Catharine 
 was alone with the young man in the dark corridor. Each 
 advanced a few steps, the queen leading the way, Orthon 
 following. 
 
 Suddenly Catharine turned and Orthon again saw on her
 
 412 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 face the same sinister expression which he had seen on it a 
 few minutes before. Her eyes were as round as those of a 
 cat or a panther and seemed to dart forth fire in the darkness. 
 
 " Stop ! " she cried. 
 
 Orthon felt a shiver run through him ; a deathly cold like 
 an icy cloak seemed to fall from the ceiling. The floor felt 
 like the covering of a tomb. Catharine's glance was so sharp 
 that it seemed to penetrate to the very soul of the page. He 
 recoiled and leaned against the wall, trembling from head to 
 foot. 
 
 " Where is the note you were charged to give to the King 
 of Navarre ? " 
 
 " The note ? " stammered Orthon. 
 
 " Yes ; which, if you did not find him, you were to place 
 behind the mirror ? " 
 
 " I, madame," said Orthon, " I do not know what you mean." 
 
 " The note which De Mouy gave you an hour ago, behind 
 the Archery Garden." 
 
 " I have no note," said Orthon ; " your majesty must be 
 mistaken." 
 
 " You lie," said Catharine ; " give me the note, and I will 
 keep the promise I made you." 
 
 " What promise, madame ? " 
 
 " I will make your fortune." 
 
 " I have no note, madame," repeated the child. 
 
 Catharine ground her teeth ; then assuming a smile : 
 
 " Give it to me," said she, " and you shall have a thousand 
 golden crowns." 
 
 " I have no note, madame." 
 
 " Two thousand crowns." 
 
 " Impossible ; since I have no note, how can I give it to 
 you ? " 
 
 " Ten thousand crowns, Orthon." 
 
 Orthon, who saw the anger of the queen rising, felt that there 
 was only one way of saving his master, and that was to swal- 
 low the note. He put his hand to his pocket, but Catharine 
 guessed his intention and stopped him. 
 
 " There, my child," said she, laughing, " you are certainly 
 faithful. When kings wish to attach a follower to them there 
 is no harm in their making sure of his trustworthiness. Here, 
 take this purse as a first reward. Go and carry your note to 
 your master, and tell him that from to-day you are in my ser-
 
 CATHARINE SEIZED THE LETTER AND MADE SURE THAT IT WAS THE 
 ONE SHE DESIRED.
 
 ORTHON. 413 
 
 vice. You can get out without me by the door we entered. 
 It opens from within." 
 
 And giving the purse to the astonished youth Catharine 
 walked on a few steps and placed her hand against the wall. 
 
 But the young man stood still, hesitating. He could not 
 believe that the danger he had felt hovering over him was 
 gone. 
 
 " Come, do not tremble so/' said Catharine. " Have I not 
 told you that you were free to go, and that if you wish to 
 come back your fortune is made ? " 
 
 " Thank you, madarne," said Orthon. " Then you pardon 
 me?" 
 
 " I do more, I reward you ; you are a faithful bearer of 
 notes, a gentle messenger of love. But you forget your master 
 is waiting for you." 
 
 " Ah ! that is true," said the young man, springing towards 
 the door. 
 
 But scarcely had he advanced three steps before the floor 
 gave way beneath his feet. He stumbled, extended both 
 hands, gave a fearful cry, and disappeared in the dungeon of 
 the Louvre, the spring of which Catharine had just touched. 
 
 " So," murmured the queen, " thanks to the fellow's obstinacy 
 I shall have to descend a hundred and fifty steps." 
 
 The queen mother returned to her apartments, lighted a 
 dark lantern, came back to the corridor, closed the spring, and 
 opened the door of a spiral staircase which seemed to lead to 
 the bowels of the earth. Urged on by the insatiable thirst of 
 a curiosity which was but the minister of her hatred, she 
 reached an iron door which turned on its hinges and admitted 
 her to the depths of the dungeon. Bleeding, crushed, and 
 mutilated by a fall of a hundred feet or more, but still breath- 
 ing, lay poor Orthon. 
 
 Beyond the thick wall the waters of the Seine were heard 
 roaring, brought to the foot of the stairs by a subterranean 
 channel. 
 
 Catharine entered the damp and unwholesome place, which 
 during her reign had witnessed many a fall similar to the one 
 it had just seen, searched the body, seized the letter, made 
 sure that it was the one she desired, then pushing aside the 
 body with her foot she pressed a spring, the bottom of the 
 dungeon sank, and the corpse, carried down by its own weight, 
 disappeared in the direction of the river.
 
 414 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Closing the door again, Catharine ascended, shut herself 
 in her closet, and read the note, which contained these words : 
 
 " This evening at ten o'clock, Hue de VArbre Sec, Hotel de 
 la Belle Etoile. If you come send no reply ; otherwise send 
 back NO by the bearer. 
 
 " DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE." 
 
 As Catharine read this note a smile came to her lips. She 
 was thinking of the victory she was to gain, forgetting the 
 price at which she had bought it. But after all what was 
 Orthon ? A faithful, devoted follower, a handsome young boy ; 
 that was all. 
 
 That, one may well imagine, would not for an instant have 
 turned the scales on which the fate of empires had been 
 weighed. 
 
 The note read, Catharine at once went to Madame de Sauve's 
 and placed it behind the mirror. 
 
 As she came down she found the captain of the guards at 
 the entrance of the corridor. 
 
 " Madame," said Monsieur de Nancey, " according to your 
 majesty's orders the horse is ready." 
 
 " My dear baron," said Catharine, " we shall not need it. 
 I have made the boy speak, and he is really too stupid to be 
 charged with the errand I wanted to entrust to him. I thought 
 he was a lackey, but he is nothing but a groom at best. I gave 
 him some money and dismissed him by the private gate." 
 
 "But," said Monsieur de Nancey, "the errand?" 
 
 " The errand ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " The one on which he was to go to Saint Germain. Does 
 your majesty wish me to undertake it, or shall I have one of 
 my men attend to it ? " 
 
 " No, no," said Catharine, " this evening you and your men 
 will have something else to do." 
 
 Whereupon the queen mother returned to her room, hoping 
 that evening to hold in her hands the fate of the accursed 
 King of Navarre.
 
 THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE. 415 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE. 
 
 Two hours after the event we have described, no trace of 
 which remained on Catharine's face, Madame de Sauve, having 
 finished her work for the queen, returned to her own rooms. 
 Henry followed her, and learning from Dariole that Orthon 
 had been there he went directly to the mirror and found the 
 note. 
 
 It was, as we have said, couched in these terms : 
 
 " This evening at ten o'clock, Rue de I'Arbre Sec, Hotel de 
 la Belle Etoile. If you come send no reply ; otherwise send 
 back NO by the bearer." 
 
 There was no address. 
 
 " Henry will not fail to keep the appointment," said Catha- 
 rine, " for even had he not wished to do so there is no longer 
 a messenger to take back his answer." 
 
 Catharine was not mistaken. 
 
 Henry inquired for Orthon. Dariole said that he had gone 
 out with the queen mother ; but as the note had been found in 
 its place, and as the poor boy was known to be incapable of 
 treason, Henry felt no anxiety. 
 
 He dined as usual at the table of the King, who joked him 
 greatly on the mistakes he had made while hawking that 
 morning. 
 
 Henry made excuses for himself, saying that he came from 
 the mountains and not the plain, but he promised Charles 
 to study the art. Catharine was charming, and on leaving the 
 table begged Marguerite to pass the evening with her. 
 
 At eight o'clock Henry took two attendants, left by the 
 Porte Saint Honore, made a long circuit, returned by the Tour 
 de Bois, and crossing the Seine at the ferry of Xesle, rode up 
 the Rue Saint Jacques, where he dismissed his gentlemen, as if 
 he were going to keep some love appointment. At the corner 
 of the Rue des Mathurins he found a man on horseback, 
 wrapped in a cloak. He approached him. 
 
 " Mantes ! " said the man. 
 
 " Pau ! " replied the king.
 
 416 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The man at once dismounted. Henry put on his splashed 
 mantle, mounted the horse, which was covered with foam, re- 
 turned by the Rue de la Harpe, crossed the Pont Saint Michel, 
 passed down the Rue Barthelemy, again crossed the river at 
 the Pont aux Meuniers, descended the quays, took the Rue de 
 1'Arbre Sec, and knocked at the door of Maitre la Huriere's. 
 
 La Mole was in a room writing a long love-letter to whom 
 may easily be imagined. 
 
 Coconnas was in the kitchen with La Huriere, watching half 
 a dozen partridges roasting, and disputing with his friend 
 the host as to when they should be removed from the spit. 
 At this moment Henry knocked. Gregoire opened the door and 
 led the horse to the stable, while the traveller entered, stamp- 
 ing on the floor as if to warm his benumbed feet. 
 
 " Maitre La Huriere," said La Mole, as he continued to 
 write, " here is a gentleman asking for you." 
 
 La Huriere advanced, looked at Henry from head to foot, 
 and as his thick cloth mantle did not inspire the innkeeper 
 with very great veneration : 
 
 "Who are you ?'" he asked. 
 
 " Well, by Heaven ! " said Henry, pointing to La Mole, 
 " monsieur has just told you ; I am a gentleman from Gascony 
 come to court." 
 
 " What do you want ? " 
 
 " A room and supper." 
 
 " Humph ! " said La Huriere, " have you a lackey ? " 
 
 This was the question usually asked, as is well known. 
 
 " No," replied Henry, " but I hope to have one when I make 
 my fortune." 
 
 " I do not let rooms to any one unless he has a lackey," said 
 La Huriere. 
 
 " Even if I offered to pay you double for your supper ? " 
 
 " Oh ! you are very generous, worthy sir ! " said La Huriere, 
 looking suspiciously at Henry. 
 
 " Not at all, but, hoping to pass the night in your hotel, 
 which has been highly recommended by a nobleman from my 
 county who has been here, I invited a friend to sup with me. 
 Have you any good wine of Arbois ? " 
 
 " I have some which is better than the King of Navarre 
 drinks." 
 
 " Good ! I will pay well for it. Ah ! here is my friend." 
 
 Just then the door opened and a gentleman entered older by
 
 THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE. 417 
 
 a few years than the first, and dragging a long rapier at- his 
 side. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, " you are prompt, my young friend. For 
 a man who has just made two hundred leagues it is something 
 to be so punctual." 
 
 " Is this your guest ? " asked La Huriere. 
 
 " Yes," said the first, going up to the young man with the 
 rapier and shaking him by the hand, " we will have our sup- 
 per now." 
 
 " Here or in your room ? " 
 
 " Wherever you please." 
 
 " Maitre," said La Mole to La Huriere, " rid us of these 
 Huguenot fellows. Coconnas and I cannot say a word before 
 them." 
 
 " Carry the supper to room No. 2, on the third floor. Up- 
 stairs, gentlemen." 
 
 The two travellers followed Gregoire, who preceded them 
 with lights. 
 
 La Mole watched them until they had disappeared. Then 
 turning round he saw Coconnas, whose head was thrust out of 
 the kitchen door. Two great eyes and an open mouth gave to 
 the latter's face a remarkable expression of astonishment. 
 
 La Mole stepped up to him. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " said Coconnas, " did you see ? " 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " Those two gentlemen." 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " I would swear that it was "- 
 
 Who ? " 
 
 " Why the King of Navarre and the man in the red cloak." 
 
 " Swear if you will, but not too loud." 
 
 " Did you recognize them too ? " 
 
 Certainly." 
 
 " What are they here for ? " 
 
 " Some love affair." 
 
 " You think so ? " 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
 " La Mole, I prefer sword-thrusts to these love affairs. I 
 would have sworn a moment ago, now I will bet." 
 
 " What will you bet ? " 
 
 " That there is some plot on hand." 
 
 " You are mad."
 
 418 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " I tell you " - 
 
 " I tell you that even if they are plotting it is their own 
 affair." 
 
 " That is true. However," said Coconnas, " I no longer be- 
 long to Monsieur d'Alen^on. So let them do as they see fit." 
 
 As the partridges had apparently reached the state in which 
 Coconnas liked them, the Piedmontese, who counted on making 
 the most of his dinner of them, called Maitre la Huriere to 
 remove them from the spit. 
 
 Meantime Henry and De Mouy were installed in their 
 chamber. 
 
 " Well, sire," said De Mouy, when Gregoire had set the 
 table, " have you seen Orthon ? " 
 
 " No ; but I found the note he left behind the mirror. The 
 boy must have become frightened, I suppose, for Queen Catha- 
 rine came in while he was there, so he went away without 
 waiting for my answer." 
 
 " For a moment I felt somewhat anxious about him, as Da- 
 riole told me that the queen mother had had a long talk with 
 him." 
 
 " Oh ! there is no danger. The boy is clever, and although 
 the queen mother knows his profession he will not let her find 
 out much from him, I am sure." 
 
 " But have you seen him, De Mouy ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " No, but I expect to this evening. At midnight he is to 
 come here for me with a good petronel. He will tell me what 
 happened as we walk along." 
 
 " And the man at the corner of the Rue des Mathurins ? " 
 
 " What man ? " 
 
 " The man who gave me his horse and cloak. Are you sure 
 of him ? " 
 
 " He is one of our most devoted followers. Besides, he 
 neither knows your majesty nor why he himself was there." 
 
 " Can we discuss our affairs without fear, then ? " 
 
 " Certainly. Besides, La Mole is on the watch." 
 
 " Well, sire, what says Monsieur d'Alen^on ? " 
 
 "Monsieur d'Alengon will not go, De Mouy. He said so 
 positively. The election of D'Anjou to the throne of Poland 
 and the 'king's illness have changed his mind." . 
 
 " So he is the one who spoiled our plan ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Has he betrayed us ? "
 
 THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE. 419 
 
 " Not yet ; but he will do so at the first opportunity." 
 
 " Coward ! traitor ! Why did he not answer my letters ? " 
 
 " In order to have proofs against you, and none against him- 
 self. Meantime, all is lost, is it not, De Mouy ? " 
 
 " On the contrary, sire, all is won. You know that the 
 whole party, except the faction of the Prince de Conde, was 
 for you, and used the duke, with whom it seemed to have 
 relations, only as a safeguard. Well, since the day of the 
 ceremony I have arranged so that everything is for you. One 
 hundred men were enough to escape with the Due d'Alen- 
 qon ; I have raised fifteen hundred. In one week they will be 
 ready and dvawn up on the road to Pau. It will not be a 
 flight but a retreat. Fifteen hundred men will suffice, sire, 
 will they not ? Shall you feel safe with such an army ? " 
 
 Henry smiled and touched him on the shoulder. 
 
 " You know, De Mouy/' said he, " and you alone know it, that 
 Henry of Navarre is not naturally such a coward as is sup- 
 posed." 
 
 " Yes, I know that, sire ; and I trust before long that all 
 France will know it too." 
 
 " But where one plots one must succeed. The first condi- 
 tion of success is decision ; and for decision to be rapid, frank, 
 and to the point, one must be sure of success." 
 
 " Well, sire, what days do you hunt ? " 
 
 " Every week or ten days we either hunt or hawk." 
 
 " When did you hunt last ? " 
 
 " To-day." 
 
 " Then a week or ten days from now you will hunt again ? " 
 
 " No doubt ; possibly before then." 
 
 " Listen, sire ; everything seems perfectly quiet. The Due 
 d' Anjou has left ; no one thinks of him. The King is getting 
 better every day. The persecution against us has almost 
 ceased. Play the amiable with the queen mother and Mon- 
 sieur d'Alenqon ; keep telling him that you cannot go with- 
 out him, and try to make him believe you, which is more 
 difficult." 
 
 " Do not worry, he will believe me." 
 
 " Do you think he has such confidence in you ? " 
 
 " No, God forbid, but he believes everything the queen says." 
 
 " And is the queen true to us ? " 
 
 " Oh ! I have proof of it. Besides, she is ambitious and is 
 dying for this far-off crown of Navarre."
 
 420 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Well ! three days before the hunt send me word where it 
 will take place whether it is to be at Bondy, at Saint Ger- 
 main, or at E-ambouillet. Monsieur de la Mole will ride ahead 
 of you ; follow him, and ride fast. Once out of the forest if 
 the queen mother wants you she will have to run after you ; 
 and I trust that her Norman horses will not see even the 
 hoofs of our Barbary steeds and our Spanish ponies." 
 
 " Agreed, De Mouy." 
 
 " Have you any money, sire ? " 
 
 Henry made the same grimace he made all his life at this 
 question. 
 
 "Not much," said he ; "but I think Margot has some." 
 
 " Well ! whether it is yours or hers, bring as much as you 
 can." 
 
 " And in the meantime what are you going to do ? " 
 
 " Having paid some attention to your majesty's affairs, as 
 you see, will your majesty permit me to devote a little time 
 to my own ? " 
 
 " Certainly, De Mouy, certainly, but what are yours ? " 
 
 " Yesterday Orthon told me (he is a very intelligent boy, 
 whom I recommend to your majesty) that he met that scoun- 
 drel of a Maurevel near the arsenal, that thanks to Rene he 
 has recovered, and that he was warming himself in the sun 
 like the snake that he is." 
 
 " Ah, yes, I understand," said Henry. 
 
 " Very good, then. You will be king some day, sire, and 
 if you have anything such as I have to avenge you can do so 
 in a kingly way. I am a soldier and must avenge myself like 
 a soldier. So while all our little affairs are being arranged, 
 which will give that scoundrel five or six days in which to 
 recover more fully, I too shall take a stroll around the arsenal, 
 and I will pin him to the grass with four blows of my rapier, 
 after which I shall leave Paris with a lighter heart." 
 
 " Attend to your affairs, my friend, by all means," said the 
 Bearnais. " By the way, you are pleased with La Mole, are you 
 not ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he is a charming fellow, devoted to you body and 
 soul, sire, and on whom you can depend as you can on me 
 brave " 
 
 " And above all, discreet. So he must follow us to Navarre, 
 De Mouy ; once there we will look about and see what we can 
 do to recompense him."
 
 THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE. 421 
 
 As Henry concluded these words with a sly smile, the door 
 opened or rather was broken in, and the man they had just 
 been praising appeared, pale and agitated. 
 
 " Quick, sire," cried he ; " quick, the house is surrounded." 
 
 " Surrounded ! " cried Henry, rising ; " by whom ? " 
 
 "By the King's guards." 
 
 " Oh ! " said De Mouy, drawing his pistols from his belt, 
 " we are to have a battle, apparently." 
 
 " Well," said La Mole, " you may well talk of pistols and 
 battle, but what can you do against fifty men ? " 
 
 " He is right," said the king ; " and if there were any 
 means of escape " 
 
 " There is one which has already been of use to me, and if 
 your majesty will follow me " 
 
 " And De Mouy ? " 
 
 " And De Mouy too if he wishes, but you must be quick." 
 
 Steps were heard on the stairs. 
 
 " It is too late," said Henry. 
 
 " Ah ! if any one would only engage them for five minutes," 
 cried La Mole, " I would save the king." 
 
 " Save him, then, monsieur," said De Mouy ; " I will look 
 after them. Go, sire, go." 
 
 " But what shall you do ? " 
 
 " Do not fear, sire, but go." 
 
 And De Mouy began by hiding the king's plate, napkin, and 
 goblet, so that it might seem as though he had been alone at 
 table. 
 
 " Come, sire, come," cried La Mole, seizing the king by the 
 arm and dragging him towards the stairway. 
 
 " De Mouy, my brave De Mouy ! " exclaimed Henry, holding 
 out his hand to the young man. 
 
 De Mouy kissed the hand, pushed Henry from the room, and 
 closed and bolted the door after him. 
 
 " Yes, I understand," said Henry, " he will be caught, 
 while we escape ; but who the devil can have betrayed 
 us?" 
 
 " Come, sire, come. They are on the stairs." 
 
 In fact, the light of the torches was beginning to be seen on 
 the wall, while at the foot of the stairs sounds like the clank- 
 ing of swords were heard. 
 
 " Quick, quick, sire ! " cried La Mole. 
 
 And, guiding the king in the darkness, he ascended two flights,
 
 422 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 pushed open a door, which he locked behind him, and, opening 
 the window of a closet : 
 
 " Sire," said he, " is your majesty very much afraid of a walk 
 across the roofs ? " 
 
 " I ? " said Henry, " come, now ; am I not a chamois hunter ? " 
 
 " Well, your majesty must follow me. I know the way and 
 will guide you." 
 
 " Go on," said Henry, " I will follow." 
 
 La Mole stepped out, went along the ledge, which formed a 
 sort of gutter, at the end of which they came to a depression 
 between two roofs. In this way they reached an open window 
 leading to an empty garret. 
 
 " Sire," said La Mole, " here we are at the opening." 
 
 " Ah ! so much the better," said Henry, wiping the perspira- 
 tion from his pale face. 
 
 " Now," said La Mole, " it will be easier : this garret opens 
 on to a stairway, the stairway leads to an alley, and the alley 
 to the street. I travelled the same road, sire, on a much more 
 terrible night than this." 
 
 " Go on, go on," said Henry. 
 
 La Mole sprang through the open window, reached the un- 
 locked door, opened it, came to a winding stairway, and placing 
 in the king's hand the cord that served as a baluster : 
 
 "Come, sire," said he. 
 
 Half way down the stairs Henry stopped. He was before 
 a window which overlooked the courtyard of the Belle Etoile. 
 On the opposite stairway soldiers were seen running, some 
 carrying swords, others torches. 
 
 Suddenly in the midst of a group the King of Navarre per- 
 ceived De Mouy. He had surrendered his sword and was 
 quietly descending the stairs. 
 
 " Poor fellow," said Henry, " so brave and devoted ! " 
 
 " Faith, sire," said La Mole, " your majesty is right. He 
 certainly does seem calm ; and see, he even laughs ! It must 
 be that he is planning some scheme, for you know he seldom 
 laughs." 
 
 " And the young man who was with you ? " 
 
 " Monsieur de Coconnas ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " Yes; what has become of him ? " 
 
 " Oh ! sire, I am not anxious about him. On seeing the 
 soldiers he said only one word to me : ' Do we risk anything ? ' 
 
 " ( Our heads,' I answered.
 
 DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE. 423 
 
 " ' Can you escape ? ' 
 
 " ' I hope so.' 
 
 " l Well, I can too,' he replied. And I promise you he will ! 
 Sire, when Coconnas is caught it will be because he wishes to 
 be caught." 
 
 " Then," said Henry, " all is well. Let us try to get back 
 to the Louvre." 
 
 " That will be easy enough, sire," said La Mole. " Let us 
 wrap ourselves in our cloaks and start. The street is full of 
 people running to see the commotion, and we shall be taken 
 for spectators." 
 
 The gate was open and Henry and La Mole encountered no 
 obstacle beyond the crowds in the street. 
 
 They reached the Rue d'Avernon ; but in passing by the 
 Rue Poulies they saw De Mouy and his escort cross the Place 
 Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois, led by the captain of the guards, 
 Monsieur de Nancey. 
 
 " Ah ! " said Henry, " they are taking him to the Louvre, ap- 
 parently. The devil ! the gates will be closed. They will 
 take the names of all those who enter, and if I am seen return- 
 ing after him they will think I have been with him." 
 
 " Well ! but, sire," said La Mole, " enter some other way 
 than by the gate." 
 
 " How the devil do you mean ? " 
 
 " Well, sire, there is the Queen of Navarre's window." 
 
 " Venire saint gris, Monsieur de la Mole," said Henry, 
 " you are right. I never thought of that ! But how can I at- 
 tract the attention of the queen ? " 
 
 " Oh," said La Mole, bowing with an air of respectful grati- 
 tude, "your majesty throws stones so well !" 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE. 
 
 THIS time Catharine had taken such precautions that she 
 felt sure of her object. 
 
 Consequently, about ten o'clock she sent away Marguerite, 
 thoroughly convinced, as was the case, that the Queen of Na- 
 varre was ignorant of the plot against her husband, and went 
 to the King, begging him not to retire so early.
 
 424 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Mystified by the air of triumph which, in spite of her usual 
 dissimulation, appeared on his mother's face, Charles ques- 
 tioned Catharine, who merely answered : 
 
 " I can say only one thing to your Majesty : that this even- 
 ing you will be freed from two of your bitterest enemies." 
 
 Charles raised his eyebrows like a man who says to himself : 
 
 " That is well ; we shall see ; " and whistling to his great 
 boar-hound, who came to him dragging his belly along the 
 ground like a serpent to lay his fine and intelligent head on 
 his master's knee, he waited. At the end of a few minutes, 
 during which Catharine sat with eyes and ears alert, a pistol- 
 shot was heard in the courtyard of the Louvre. 
 
 " What is that noise ? " asked Charles, frowning, while the 
 hound sprang up and pricked his ears. 
 
 "Nothing except a signal," said Catharine ; "that is all." 
 
 " And what is the meaning of the signal ? " 
 
 " It means that from this moment, sire, your one real enemy 
 can no longer injure you." 
 
 " Have they killed a man ? " asked Charles, looking at 
 his mother with that look of command which signifies that 
 assassination and mercy are two inherent attributes of royal 
 power. 
 
 " No, sire, they have only arrested two." 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Charles, " always hidden plots, always 
 conspiracies around the King. And yet, the devil ! mother, I 
 am grown up, and big enough to look out for myself. I need 
 neither leading-strings nor padded caps. Go to Poland with 
 your son Henry if you wish to reign ; I tell you you are 
 wrong to play this kind of game here." 
 
 " My son," said Catharine, " this is the last time I shall med- 
 dle with your affairs. But the enterprise in which you have 
 always thwarted me was begun long ago, and I have earnestly 
 endeavored to prove to your Majesty that I am right." 
 
 At that moment several men stopped in the outer hall and 
 the butt-ends of muskets were heard on the pavement. Almost 
 at the same instant Monsieur de Nancey begged an audience 
 of the King. 
 
 " Let him enter," said Charles, hastily. 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey appeared, saluted the King, and turn- 
 ing to Catharine said : 
 
 " Madame, your majesty's orders are executed ; he is cap- 
 tured."
 
 DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE. 425 
 
 " What he ? " cried Catharine, greatly troubled. " Have you 
 arrested only one ? " 
 
 " He was alone, madame ? " 
 
 Did he defend himself ? " 
 
 " No, he was supping quietly in a room, and gave up his 
 sword the moment it was demanded." 
 
 " Who ? " asked the King. 
 
 " You shall see," said Catharine. " Bring in the prisoner, 
 Monsieur de Nancey." 
 
 Five minutes later De Mouy was there. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " cried the King ; " what is the matter now, 
 monsieur ? " 
 
 " Well, sire," said De Mouy, with perfect composure, " if 
 your Majesty will allow me the liberty, I will ask the same 
 of you." 
 
 " Instead of asking this question of the King," said 
 Catharine, " have the kindness, Monsieur de Mouy, to tell rny 
 sou who was the man found in the chamber of the King of 
 Navarre a certain night, and who on that night resisted the 
 orders of his Majesty like the rebel that he is, killed two 
 guards, and wounded Monsieur de Maurevel ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, frowning, " do you know the name of 
 that man, Monsieur de Mouy ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire ; does your Majesty wish to hear it ? " 
 
 " That will please me, I admit." 
 
 " Well, sire, he is called De Mouy de Saint Phale." 
 
 " It was you ? " 
 
 " It was I." 
 
 Catharine, astonished at this audacity, recoiled a step. 
 
 " How did you dare resist the orders of the King ? " asked 
 Charles. 
 
 " In the first place, sire, I did not know that there was an 
 order from your Majesty ; then I saw only one thing, or rather 
 one man, Monsieur de Maurevel, the assassin of my father and 
 of the admiral. I remembered that a year and a half ago, in 
 the very room in which we now are, on the evening of the 24th 
 of August, your Majesty promised me to avenge us on the 
 murderer, and as since that time very grave events have 
 occurred I thought that in spite of himself the King had 
 changed his mind. Seeing Maurevel within reach, I believed 
 Heaven had sent him to me. Your Majesty knows the rest.
 
 426 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Sire, I sprang upon him as upon an assassin and fired at his 
 men as I would have fired at bandits." 
 
 Charles made no reply. His friendship for Henry had for 
 some time made him look at many things in a different light 
 from which he had at first seen them, and more than once 
 with terror. 
 
 In regard to Saint Bartholomew the queen mother had 
 registered in her memory remarks which had fallen from her 
 son's lips and which resembled remorse. 
 
 " But," observed Catharine, " what were you doing at that 
 hour in the apartments of the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " replied De Mouy, " it is a long story, but if his 
 Majesty has the patience to listen" 
 
 " Yes," said Charles ; " speak, I wish to hear it." 
 
 " I will obey, sire," said De Mouy, bowing. 
 
 Catharine sat down, fixing an anxious look on the young 
 chief. 
 
 " We are listening," said Charles. " Here, Acteon ! " 
 
 The dog resumed the place he had occupied before the 
 prisoner had been admitted. 
 
 " Sire," said De Mouy, " I came to his majesty the King of 
 Navarre as the deputy of our brethren, your faithful subjects 
 of the reformed religion." 
 
 Catharine signed to Charles IX. 
 
 " Be quiet, mother," said the latter. " I do not lose a word. 
 Go on, Monsieur de Mouy, go on ; why did you come ? " 
 
 " To inform the King of Navarre," continued Monsieur de 
 Mouy, " that his abjuration had lost for him the confidence of 
 the Huguenot party ; but that, nevertheless, in remembrance 
 of his father, Antoine de Bourbon, and especially on account 
 of his mother, the courageous Jeanne d'Albret, whose name is 
 dear among us, the followers of the reformed religion owed 
 him this mark of deference, to beg him to desist from his 
 claims to the crown of Navarre." 
 
 " What did he say ? " asked Catharine, unable in spite of 
 her self-control to receive this unexpected blow calmly. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " said Charles, " and yet this crown of Navarre, 
 which without my permission has been made to jump from 
 head to head, seems to belong a little to me." 
 
 " The Huguenots, sire, recognize better than any one the 
 principle of sovereignty to which your Majesty has just re-
 
 DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE, 427 
 
 ferred. Therefore they hope to induce your Majesty to place 
 the crown on a head that is dear to you." 
 
 " To me ! " said Charles ; " on a head that is dear to me ! 
 The devil ! what head do you mean, monsieur ? I do not 
 understand." 
 
 " On the head of Monsieur le Due d'Alenqon." 
 
 Catharine became as pale as death, and gave De Mouy a 
 flashing glance. 
 
 " Did my brother D'Alenqon know this ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " And did he accept the crown ? " 
 
 " Subject to the consent of your Majesty, to whom he 
 referred us." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Charles, " it is a crown which would suit our 
 brother D'Alenqon wonderfully well. And I never thought of 
 it ! Thanks, De Mouy, thanks ! When you have such ideas 
 you will always be welcome at the Louvre." 
 
 " Sire, you would long since have been informed of this 
 project had it not been for that unfortunate affair of Mau- 
 revel's, which made me afraid I had fallen into disgrace with 
 your Majesty." 
 
 " Yes, but what did Henry say to this plan ? " asked 
 Catharine. 
 
 " The King of Navarre, madame, yielded to the desire of 
 his brethren, and his renunciation was ready." 
 
 " In that case," said Catharine, " you must have the renun- 
 ciation." 
 
 " It happens that I have it with me, madame, signed by 
 him and dated." 
 
 " Dated previous to the affair in the Louvre ? " said Cath- 
 arine. 
 
 " Yes, the evening before, I think." 
 
 De Mouy drew from his pocket an abdication in favor of 
 the Due d'Alenqon, written and signed in Henry's hand, and 
 bearing the date indicated. 
 
 " Faith, yes," said Charles, " and all is in due form." 
 
 " What did Henry demand in return for this renuncia- 
 tion ? " 
 
 " Nothing, madame ; the friendship of King Charles, he 
 told us, would amply repay him for the loss of a crown." 
 
 Catharine bit her lips in anger and wrung her beautiful hands. 
 
 All this is perfectly correct, De Mouy," said the King.
 
 428 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Then," said the queen mother, " if everything was settled 
 between you and the King of Navarre, what was the object of 
 your interview with him this evening ? " 
 
 " I, madame ! with the King of Navarre ? " said De Mouy. 
 " Monsieur de Nancey, who arrested me, will bear witness that 
 I was alone. Your majesty can ask him." 
 
 " Monsieur de Nancey ! " called the King. 
 
 The captain of the guards entered. 
 
 " Monsieur de Nancey," said Catharine, quickly, " was 
 Monsieur de Mouy entirely alone at the inn of the Belle 
 Etoile ? " 
 
 " In the room, yes, madame ; in the hostelry, no." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Catharine*" who was his companion ? " 
 
 " I do not know if he was the companion of Monsieur de 
 Mouy, madame, but I know that a man escaped by a back 
 door after having stretched two of my men on the floor." 
 
 " And you recognized this gentleman, no doubt ? " 
 
 " No, I did not, but my guards did." 
 
 Who was he ? " asked Charles IX. 
 
 " Monsieur le Comte Annibal de Coconnas." 
 
 " Anhibal de Coconnas ! " exclaimed the King, gloomy 
 and thoughtful ; " the one who made such a terrible slaugh- 
 ter of the Huguenots during the massacre of Saint Bartholo- 
 mew ? " 
 
 " Monsieur de Coconnas, a gentleman in the suite of Mon- 
 sieur d'Alenqon," said Monsieur de Nancey. 
 
 " Very good," said Charles IX. " You may go, Monsieur 
 de Nancey, and another time, remember one thing." 
 
 " What is it, sire ? " 
 
 " That you are in my service, and that you are to obey no 
 one but me." 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey withdrew backwards, bowing respect- 
 fully. 
 
 De Mouy smiled ironically at Catharine. 
 
 There was an instant's silence. The queen twisted the 
 tassels of her girdle ; Charles caressed his dog. 
 
 " But what was your intention, monsieur ? " continued 
 Charles ; " were you acting violently ? " 
 
 " Against whom, sire ? " 
 
 " Why, against Henry, or Francois, or myself." 
 
 " Sire, we have the renunciation of your brother-in-law, the 
 consent of your brother ; and, as I have had the honor of tell-
 
 DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE. 429 
 
 ing you, we were on the point of soliciting your Majesty's 
 sanction when that unfortunate affair occurred at the Louvre." 
 
 " Well, mother," said Charles, " I see nothing wrong in all 
 this. You were right, Monsieur de Mouy, in asking for a 
 king. Yes, Navarre may and ought to be a separate king- 
 dom. Moreover, it seems made expressly to give to my 
 brother D'Alenqon, who has always had so great a desire for 
 a crown that when we wear ours he cannot keep his eyes off 
 of it. The only thing which stood in the way of this coro- 
 nation was Henriot's rights ; but since Henriot voluntarily 
 abdicates " 
 
 " Voluntarily, sire." 
 
 " It seems that it is the will of God ! Monsieur de Mouy, 
 you are free to return to your brethren, whom I have chastised 
 somewhat roughly, perhaps, but that is between God and 
 myself. Tell them that since they desire to have my brother 
 d'AlenQon for King of Navarre the King of France accedes to 
 their wishes. From this moment Navarre is a kingdom, and 
 its sovereign is called Francois. I ask only eight days for my 
 brother to leave Paris with the brilliancy and pomp befitting 
 a king. Now go, Monsieur de Mouy, go ! Monsieur oTe Nan- 
 cey, allow Monsieur de Mouy to pass ; he is free." 
 
 " Sire," said De Mouy, advancing a step, "will your Majesty 
 permit me ? " 
 
 " Yes," said the King, and he extended his hand to the 
 young Huguenot. 
 
 De Mouy knelt and kissed the King's hand. 
 
 " By the way," said Charles, detaining him as he was about 
 to rise, " did you not demand from me justice on that scoun- 
 drel of a Maurevel ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " I do not know where he is, as he is hiding ; but if you 
 meet him, take justice into your own hands. I authorize you 
 to do this and gladly." 
 
 " Ah ! sire," cried De Mouy, "your Majesty overwhelms me. 
 Your Majesty may rely on me. I have no idea Avhere he is, 
 but I will find him, you may rest assured." 
 
 De Mouy respectfully saluted King Charles and Queen 
 Catharine, and withdrew without hindrance from the guards 
 who had brought him thither. He passed rapidly through the 
 corridors, reached the gate, and once outside hurried to the 
 Place Saint Germain 1'Auxerrois, to the inn of the Belle
 
 430 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 Etoile. Here he found his horse, thanks to which, three hours 
 after the scene we have just described, the young man breathed 
 in safety behind the walls of Mantes. 
 
 Catharine, consumed with rage, returned to her apartments, 
 whence she passed into those of Marguerite. 
 
 She found Henry there in his dressing-gown, apparently 
 ready for bed. 
 
 " Satan ! " she murmured, " aid a poor queen for whom God 
 will do nothing more ! " 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 
 
 " ASK Monsieur d'Alenqon to come to me," said Charles as 
 he dismissed his mother. 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey, in accordance with the remark of the 
 King that henceforth he was to obey him alone, hastened to 
 the duke's apartments and delivered word for word the order 
 he had just received. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon gave a start. He had always feared 
 Charles, and now more than ever since by conspiring he had 
 reason to be afraid. 
 
 Nevertheless, he went to his brother in all haste. 
 
 Charles was standing up, whistling a hunting-song. 
 
 As he entered, the Due d'Alengon caught from the glassy 
 eye of the King one of those bitter looks of hatred which he 
 knew so well. 
 
 "Your Majesty has sent for me," said he. "Here I am; 
 what does your Majesty desire ? " 
 
 " I desire to tell you, my good brother, that as a reward for 
 the great friendship you bear me I have decided to-day to do 
 for you the thing you most want." 
 
 For me ? " 
 
 " Yes, for you. Think what for some time you have been 
 dreaming of, without daring to ask it of me, and I will give it 
 to you." 
 
 " Sire," said Franqois, " I swear to you that I desire nothing 
 but the continued good health of the King." 
 
 " In that case you will be glad to know, D'Alenqon, that the 
 indisposition I experienced at the time the Poles arrived has
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 431 
 
 passed by. Thanks to Henriot, I escaped a furious wild boar, 
 which would have ripped me open, and I am so well that I do 
 not envy the most healthy man in my kingdom. Without being 
 an unkind brother you can, therefore, ask for something 
 besides the continuation of my health, which is excellent." 
 
 " I want nothing, sire." 
 
 " Yes, yes, Francois/' said Charles, impatiently, " you desire 
 the crown of Navarre, since you have had an understanding 
 with Henriot and De Mouy, with the first, that he would 
 abdicate ; with the second, that he would give it to you. Well ! 
 Henriot renounces it ! De Mouy has told me of your wish, and 
 this crown for which you are ambitious " 
 
 " Well ? " asked D' Aienqon in a trembling voice. 
 
 " Well, the devil ! it is yours." 
 
 D'Alencon turned frightfully pale ; then suddenly the blood 
 rushed from his heart, which almost burst, flowed to his face, 
 and his cheeks became suffused with a burning flush. The favor 
 the King granted him at that moment threw him into despair. 
 
 " But, sire," said he, trembling with emotion and trying in 
 vain to recover his self-possession, " I never desired and 
 certainly never asked for such a thing." 
 
 " That is possible," said the King, " for you are very dis- 
 creet, brother ; but it has been desired and asked for you." 
 
 " Sire, I swear to you that never " 
 
 " Do not swear." 
 
 " But, sire, are you going to exile me, then ? " 
 
 " Do you call this exile, Francois ? Plague it, you are hard 
 to please ! What better do you hope for ? " 
 
 D'Alencon bit his lips in despair. 
 
 " Faith ! " continued Charles, affecting kindness, " I did not 
 think you were so popular, Francois, especially with the Hu- 
 guenots. But they have sought you, and I have to confess to 
 myself that I was mistaken. Besides, I could ask nothing 
 better than to have one of my family my brother who loves 
 me and who is incapable of betraying me at the head of a 
 party which for thirty years has made war against us. This 
 will quell everything as if by enchantment, to say nothing of 
 the fact that we shall all be kings in the family. There will 
 be no one except poor Henriot who will be nothing but my 
 friend. But he is not ambitious and he shall take this title 
 which no one else claims." 
 
 " Oh, sire ! you are mistaken. I claim this title, and who
 
 432 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 has a better right to it than I ? Henry is only your brother 
 by marriage. I am your brother by blood, and more than this, 
 my love Sire, I beg you, keep me near you." 
 
 "No, no, FranQois," replied Charles; "that would be to 
 your unhappiness." 
 
 " How so ? " 
 
 "For many reasons." 
 
 " But, sire, shall you ever find as faithful a companion as I 
 am ? From my childhood I have never left your Majesty." 
 
 " I know that very well ; and sometimes I have wished you 
 farther away." 
 
 " What does your Majesty mean ? " 
 
 " Nothing, nothing ; I understand myself. Oh, what fine 
 hunts you will have there, Francois ! How I envy you ! Do you 
 know that in those devilish mountains they hunt the bear as 
 here we do the wild boar ? You will send us all such magnifi- 
 cent skins ! They hunt there with a dagger, you know ; they 
 wait for the animal, excite him, irritate him ; he advances 
 towards the hunter, and when within four feet of him he rises 
 on his hind legs. It is then that they plunge the steel into 
 his heart as Henry did to the boar at our last hunt. It is 
 dangerous sport, but you are brave, Frangois, and the danger 
 will be a real pleasure for you." 
 
 " Ah ! your Majesty increases my grief, for I shall hunt 
 with you no more." 
 
 " By Heaven ! so much the better ! " said the King. " It 
 helps neither of us to hunt together." 
 
 " What does your Majesty mean ? " 
 
 " That hunting with me causes you such pleasure and rouses 
 in you such emotion that you who are the personification of 
 skill, you who with any musket can bring down a magpie a 
 hundred feet away, the last time we hunted together failed at 
 twenty paces to hit a wild boar; but with your weapon, a 
 weapon, too, with which you are familiar, you broke the leg of 
 my best horse. The devil, Francois, that makes one reflect, 
 you know ! " 
 
 " Oh ! sire, pardon me, it was from emotion," said D'Alenqon, 
 who had become livid. 
 
 " Yes," replied Charles, " I can well imagine what the 
 emotion was ; and it is on account of this emotion that I 
 realize all that it means when I say to you : < Believe me, 
 Francois, when one has such emotions it is best for us to
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 433 
 
 hunt at a distance from each other. Think about it, brother, 
 not while you are with me, because I can see my presence 
 troubles you, but when you are alone, and you will see that I 
 have every reason to fear that in another hunt you might be 
 seized with another emotion. There is nothing like emotion 
 for causing the hand to rise, and you might kill the rider 
 instead of the horse, the king instead of the beast. Plague it, 
 a bullet aimed too high or too low changes an entire govern- 
 ment. We have an example of this in our own family. When 
 Montgommery killed our father, Henry II., by accident emo- 
 tion, perhaps the blow placed our brother, Francois II., on 
 the throne and sent our father Henry to Saint Denis. So 
 little is necessary for Providence to effect much ! " 
 
 The duke felt the perspiration running down his face at 
 this attack, as formidable as it was unforeseen. 
 
 It would have been impossible for the King to show more 
 clearly that he had surmised all. Veiling his anger under a 
 jesting manner, Charles was perhaps more terrible than as if 
 he had let himself pour forth the lava of hate which was con- 
 suming his heart ; his vengeance seemed in proportion to his 
 rancor. As the one grew sharper, the other increased, and for 
 the first time D'Alenqon felt remorse, or rather regret for 
 having meditated a crime which had not succeeded. He had 
 sustained the struggle as long as he could, but at this final 
 blow he bent his head, and Charles saw dawning in his eyes 
 that devouring fire which in beings of a tender nature ploughs 
 the furrow from which spring tears. 
 
 But D'Aleuqon was one of those who weep only from anger. 
 Charles fixed on him his vulture gaze, watching the feelings 
 which succeeded one another across the face of the young man, 
 and all those sensations appeared to him as accurately, thanks 
 to the deep study he had made of his family, as if the heart 
 of the duke had been an open book. 
 
 He left him a moment, crushed, motionless, and mute ; then 
 in a voice stamped with the firmness of hatred : 
 
 " Brother," said he, " we have declared to you our resolution ; 
 it is immutable. You will go." 
 
 D'Alenqon gave a start, but Charles did not appear to notice 
 it, and continued : 
 
 " I wish Navarre to be proud of having for king a brother 
 of the King of France. Gold, power, honor, all that belongs 
 to your birth you shall have, as your brother Henry had,
 
 434 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 and like him," he added, smiling, "you will bless me from 
 afar. But no matter, blessings know no distance." 
 
 Sire " 
 
 " Accept my decision, or rather, resign yourself. Once king, 
 we shall find a wife for you worthy of a son of France, and 
 she, perhaps, may bring you another throne." 
 
 " But," said the Due d'AlenQon, " your Majesty forgets your 
 good friend Henry." 
 
 " Henry ! but I told you that he did not want the throne of 
 Navarre ! I told you he had abdicated in favor of you ! Henry 
 is a jovial fellow, and not a pale-face like you. He likes to 
 laugh and amuse himself at his ease, and not mope, as we 
 who wear crowns are condemned to do." 
 
 D'Alenqon heaved a sigh. 
 
 "Your Majesty orders me then to occupy myself" 
 
 " No, not at all. Do not disturb yourself at all ; I will ar- 
 range everything; rely on me, as on a good brother. And 
 now that everything is settled, go. However, not a word of 
 our conversation to your friends. I will take measures to give 
 publicity to the affair very soon. Go now, Francois." 
 
 There was nothing further to be said, so the duke bowed 
 and withdrew, rage in his heart. 
 
 He was very anxious to find Henry and talk with him 
 about all that had just taken place ; but he found only Catha- 
 rine. As a matter of fact, Henry wished to avoid the inter- 
 view, whereas the latter sought for it. 
 
 On seeing Catharine the duke swallowed his anger and 
 strove to smile. Less fortunate than Henry of Anjou, it was 
 not a mother he sought in Catharine, but merely an ally. He 
 began therefore by dissimulation, for in order to make good 
 alliances it is necessary for each party to be somewhat de- 
 ceived. 
 
 He met Catharine with a face on which there remained only 
 a slight trace of anxiety. 
 
 " Well, madame," said he, " here is great news ; have you 
 heard it ? " 
 
 " I know that there is a plan on hand to make a king of 
 you, monsieur." 
 
 " It is a great kindness on the part of my brother, madame.'' 
 " Is it not ? " 
 
 " And I am almost tempted to believe that I owe a part of 
 my gratitude to you; for it was really you who advised
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 435 
 
 Charles to make me the present of a throne ; it is to you I owe 
 it. However, I will confess that, at heart, it gives me pain 
 thus to rob the King of Navarre." 
 
 "You love Henriot very much, apparently." 
 
 " Why, yes ; we have been intimate for some time." 
 
 " Do you think he loves you as much as you love him ? " 
 
 " I hope so, madame." 
 
 " Such a friendship is very edifying ; do you know it ? 
 especially between princes. Court friendships mean very little, 
 Franqois." 
 
 " Mother, you must remember we are not only friends, but 
 almost brothers." 
 
 Catharine smiled a strange smile. 
 
 " Ah," said she, " are there brothers among kings ? " 
 
 " Oh ! as to that, neither of us was a king, mother, when our 
 intimacy began. Moreover, we never expected to be kings ; 
 that is why we loved each other." 
 
 " Yes, but things are changed." 
 
 "How changed?"' 
 
 " Why, who can say now whether both of you will not be 
 kings ? " 
 
 From the nervous start of the duke and the flush which 
 rose to his brow Catharine saw that the arrow aimed by her 
 had hit the mark. 
 
 " He ? " said he, " Henriot king ? And of what kingdom, 
 mother ? " 
 
 " One of the most magnificent kingdoms in Christendom, my 
 son." 
 
 " Oh ! mother," said D'Alengon, growing pale, " what are 
 you saying ? " 
 
 " What a good mother ought to say to her son, and what 
 you have thought of more than once, Francois." 
 
 " I ? " said the duke ; " I have thought of nothing, madame, 
 I swear to you." 
 
 " I can well believe you, for your friend, your brother 
 Henry, as you call him, is, under his apparent frankness, a 
 very clever and wily person, who keeps his secrets better than 
 you keep yours, Franqois. For instance, did he ever tell you 
 that De Mouy was his man of business ? " 
 
 As she spoke, Catharine turned a glance upon Francois as 
 though it were a dagger aimed at his very soul.
 
 436 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 But the latter had but one virtue, or rather vice, the art 
 of dissimulation ; and he bore her look unflinchingly. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " said he in surprise, as if it were the first time 
 he had heard the name mentioned in that connection. 
 
 " Yes, the Huguenot De Mouy de Saint Phale ; the one 
 who nearly killed Monsieur de Maurevel, and who, secretly 
 and in Various disguises, is running all over France and the 
 capital, intriguing and raising an army to support your brother 
 Henry against your family." 
 
 Catharine, ignorant that on this point her son Francois knew 
 as much if not more than she, rose at these words and started 
 majestically to leave the room, but Franqois detained her. 
 
 " Mother," said he, " another word, if you please. Since 
 you deign to initiate me into your politics, tell me how, with 
 his feeble resources, and being so slightly known, Henry could 
 succeed in carrying on a war serious enough to disturb my 
 family ? " 
 
 " Child," said the queen, smiling, " he is supported by per- 
 haps more than thirty thousand men ; he has but to say the 
 word and these thirty thousand men will appear as suddenly 
 as if they sprang from the ground ; and these thirty thousand 
 men are Huguenots, remember, that is, the bravest soldiers in 
 the world, and then he has a protector whom you neither 
 could nor would conciliate." 
 
 " Who is that ? " 
 
 " He has the King, the King, who loves him and who urges 
 him on ; the King, who from jealousy of your brother of 
 Poland, and from spite against you, is looking about for a 
 successor. But, blind man that you are if you do not see it, 
 he seeks somewhere else besides in his own family." 
 
 " The King ! you think so, mother ? " 
 
 " Have you not noticed how he loves Henriot, his Henriot ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother, yes." 
 
 " And how he is repaid, for this same Henriot, forgetting 
 that his brother-in-law would have shot him at the massacre 
 of Saint Bartholomew, grovels to the earth like a dog which 
 licks the hand that has beaten him." 
 
 " Yes, yes," murmured Franqois, " I have already noticed 
 that Henry is very humble with my brother Charles." 
 
 " Clever in trying to please him in everything." 
 
 " So much so that because of being always rallied by the 
 King as to his ignorance of hawking he has begun to study it ;
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 437 
 
 and yesterday, yes, it was only yesterday, he asked me if I 
 had not some books on that sport." 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, whose eyes sparkled as if an idea 
 had suddenly come to her, " what did you answer him ? " 
 
 " That I would look in my library." 
 
 " Good," said Catharine, " he must have this book." 
 
 " But I looked, madame, and found nothing." 
 
 " I will find one and you shall give it to him as though it 
 came from you." 
 
 " And what will come of this ? " 
 
 " Have you confidence in me, D' Alencon ? " 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " Will you obey me blindly so far as Henry is concerned ? 
 For whatever you may have said you do not love him." 
 
 D'Alenqon smiled. 
 
 " And I detest him," continued Catharine. 
 
 " Yes, I will obey you." 
 
 " Well, the day after to-morrow come here for the book ; 
 I will give it to you, you shall take it to Henry, and " 
 
 And ? " 
 
 " Leave the rest to Providence or to chance." 
 
 Francois knew his mother well enough to realize that she 
 was not in the habit of leaving to Providence or to chance the 
 care of friendships or hatreds. But he said nothing, and bow- 
 ing like a man who accepts the commission with which he is 
 charged, he returned to his own apartments. 
 
 " What does she mean ? " thought the young man as he 
 mounted the stairs. "I cannot see. But what I do under- 
 stand in all this is that she acts like our common enemy. 
 Well, let her go ahead." 
 
 Meantime Marguerite, through La Mole, had received a letter 
 from De Mouy to the King of Navarre. As in politics the 
 two illustrious allies had no secrets, she opened the letter and 
 read it. 
 
 The letter must have interested her, for, taking advantage 
 of the darkness which was beginning to overshadow the walls 
 of the Louvre, Marguerite at once hurried along the secret 
 corridor, ascended the winding stairway, and, having looke'd 
 carefully about on all sides, glided on like a shadow and dis- 
 appeared within the antechamber of the King of Navarre. 
 
 This room had been unguarded since the disappearance of 
 Orthon.
 
 438 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 This circumstance, of which we have not spoken since the 
 reader learned of the tragic fate of poor Orthon, had greatly 
 troubled Henry. He had spoken of it to Madame de Sauve 
 and to his wife, but neither of them knew any more about it 
 than he did. Madame de Sauve had given him some informa- 
 tion from which it was perfectly clear to Henry's mind that 
 the poor boy had been a victim of some machination of the 
 queen mother, and that this was why he himself had^been 
 interrupted with De Mouy in the inn of the Belle Etoile. 
 Any other than Henry would have kept silence, fearing to 
 speak, but Henry calculated everything. He realized that his 
 silence would betray him. One does not as a rule lose one's 
 servitor and confidant thus, without making inquiries about 
 him and looking for him. So Henry asked and searched even 
 in the presence of the King and the queen mother, and of 
 every one, from the sentinel who walked before the gate of the 
 Louvre to the captain of the guards, keeping watch in the 
 antechamber of the King; but all inquiry and search was in 
 vain, and Henry seemed so affected by the circumstance and 
 so attached to the poor absent servitor that he said he would 
 not put another in his place until he was perfectly sure that 
 Orthon had disappeared forever. 
 
 So the antechamber, as we have said, was empty when Mar- 
 guerite reached it. 
 
 Light as were the steps of the queen, Henry heard them 
 and turned round. 
 
 " You, madame ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " Yes," said Marguerite. " Quick ! Read this ! " and she 
 handed him the open letter. 
 
 It contained these lines : 
 
 " Sire : The moment has come for putting our plan of flight 
 into execution. The day after to-morrow there ivill be hunting 
 along the Seine, from Saint Germain to Maisons, that is, .all 
 long the forest. 
 
 " Go to the hunt, although it is hawking ; wear a good coat 
 of mail under your suit ; take your best sword and ride the 
 best horse in your stable. About noon, when the chase is at its 
 height, and the King is galloping after the falcon, escape alone 
 if you come alone ; with the Queen of Navarre if the queen 
 will follow you. 
 
 " Fifty of our men will be hidden in the Pavilion of Francois
 
 TWO HEADS FOR ONE CROWN. 439 
 
 /., of which we have the key ; no one will know that they will 
 be there, for they will have come at night, and the shutters 
 will be closed. 
 
 " You will jjass by the Alley of the Violettes, at the end of 
 which I shall be watching ; at the right of this alley in an open 
 space will be Messieurs de la Mole and Coconnas, with two 
 horses. These horses are intended to replace yours and that 
 of her majesty the Queen of Navarre, if necessary. 
 
 " Adieu, sire ; be ready, as we shall be." 
 
 " You will be," said Marguerite, uttering after sixteen hun- 
 dred years the same words that Caesar spoke on the banks of 
 the Rubicon. 
 
 " Be it so, madame," replied Henry ; " I will not fail you." 
 
 " Now, sire, be a hero ; it is not difficult. You have but to 
 follow the path that is indicated, and make a beautiful throne 
 for me," said the daughter of Henry II. 
 
 An imperceptible smile rose to the thin lips of the Bearnais. 
 He kissed Marguerite's hand, and went out to explore the cor- 
 ridor, whistling the refrain of an old song : 
 
 " Cil qui mieux battit la muraille 
 N'entra pas dedans le chasteau." * 
 
 The precaution was wise, for just as he opened the door of 
 his sleeping-room the Due d'Alemjon opened that of his ante- 
 chamber. Henry motioned to Marguerite, and then, aloud, said : 
 
 " Ah ! is it you, brother ? Welcome." 
 
 At the sign from her husband the queen had understood 
 everything, and stepped hurriedly into a dressing-closet, in 
 front of the door of which hung a thick tapestry. The Due 
 d'Alenqon entered with a timorous step and looked around him. 
 
 " Are we alone, brother ? " asked he in a whisper. 
 
 " Entirely. But what is the matter ? You seem disturbed." 
 
 ( f We are discovered, Henry." 
 
 " How ? discovered ? " 
 
 " Yes, De Mouy has been arrested." 
 
 I know it." 
 
 Well, De Mouy has told the King all." 
 
 " What has he told him ? " 
 
 " He has told him that I desire the throne of Navarre, and 
 that I have conspired to obtain it." 
 
 1 He who beats on the wall will never get into the castle.
 
 440 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 11 Ah, the stupid ! " cried Henry, " so that now you are com- 
 promised, my poor brother ! How is it, then, that you have 
 not been arrested ? " 
 
 " I do not know. The King joked with me by pretending 
 to offer me the throne of Navarre. He hoped, no doubt, to 
 draw some confession from me, but I said nothing." 
 
 " And you did well, venire saint gris ! " said the Bearnais. 
 " Stand firm, for our lives depend on that." 
 
 " Yes," said Francois, " the position is unsafe, I know. 
 That is why I came to ask your advice, brother ; what do you 
 think I ought to do run or stay ? " 
 
 " You must have seen the King, since he spoke to you ? " 
 
 " Yes, of course." 
 
 " Well ! you must have read his thoughts. So follow your 
 inspiration." 
 
 " I prefer to remain," replied Francois. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that he was almost thorough 
 master of himself, Henry could not prevent a movement of joy 
 from escaping him, and slight as it was, Francois saw it. 
 
 " Remain, then," said Henry. 
 
 " But you ? " 
 
 "Why!" replied Henry, "if you remain, I have no motive 
 for leaving. I was going only to follow you from devotion, in 
 order not to be separated from my brother." 
 
 " So," said D'Alenc^on, " there is an end to all our plans ; 
 you give up without a struggle at the first stroke of ill luck ? " 
 
 "I do not look upon it as a stroke of ill luck to remain 
 here," said Henry. " Thanks to my careless disposition, I am 
 contented everywhere." 
 
 " Well, then," said D'Alenqon, " we need say no more about 
 it, only in case you decide anything different let me know." 
 
 " By Heaven ! I shall not fail to do that, you may be sure," 
 replied Henry. "Was it not agreed that we were to have no 
 secrets from each other ? " 
 
 D'Alenqon said no more, but withdrew, pondering, however ; 
 for at one time he thought he had seen the tapestry in front 
 of the closet move. 
 
 Scarcely was the duke gone when the curtain was raised and 
 Marguerite reappeared. 
 
 " What do you think of this visit ? " asked Henry. 
 
 "That there is something new and important on hand." 
 
 " What do you think it is ? "
 
 THE TREATISE ON HUNTING. 441 
 
 " I do not know yet ; but I will find out." 
 
 " In the meanwhile ? " 
 
 " In the meanwhile do not fail to come to my room to- 
 morrow evening." 
 
 " Indeed I will not fail, madame ! " said Henry, gallantly 
 kissing the hand of his wife. 
 
 With the same caution she had used in coming Marguerite 
 returned to her own apartments. 
 
 CHAPTEK XLIX. 
 
 THE TREATISE ON HUNTING. 
 
 THREE days had elapsed since the events we have just 
 related. Day was beginning to dawn, but every one was 
 already up and awake at the Louvre as usual on hunting 
 days, when the Due d'Alenqon entered the apartments of the 
 queen mother in answer to the invitation he had received. 
 Catharine was not in her bedroom ; but she had left orders 
 that if her son came he was to wait for her. 
 
 At the end of a few minutes she came out of a private closet, 
 to which no one but herself had admission, and in which she 
 carried on her experiments in chemistry. As Catharine 
 entered the room there came either from the closet or from 
 her clothes the penetrating odor of some acrid perfume, and 
 through the open door D'Alenqon perceived a thick vapor, as 
 of some burnt aromatic substance, floating in the laboratory 
 like a white cloud. 
 
 The duke could not repress a glance of curiosity. 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine de Medicis, " I have been burning 
 several old parchments which gave out such an offensive smell 
 that I put some juniper into the brazier, hence this odor." 
 
 D'Alenqon bowed. 
 
 " Well," said the queen, concealing under the wide sleeves of 
 her dressing-gown her hands, which here and there were stained 
 with reddish spots, " is there anything new since yesterday ? " 
 
 "Nothing, mother." 
 
 " Have you seen Henry ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Does he still refuse to leave ? "
 
 442 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Absolutely." 
 
 The knave ! " 
 
 " What do you say, madame ? " 
 
 " I say that he will go." 
 
 " You think so ? " 
 
 " I am sure of it." 
 
 " Then he will escape us ? " 
 
 " Yes," said Catharine. 
 
 " And shall you let him go ? " 
 
 " Not only that, but I tell you he must go." 
 
 " I do not understand, mother." 
 
 " Listen well to what I am about to tell you, Franqois. A very 
 skilful physician, the one who let me take the book on hunt- 
 ing which you are to give him, has told me that the King 
 of Navarre is on the point of being attacked with consumption, 
 one of those incurable diseases for which science has no 
 remedy. Now, you understand that if he has to die from 
 such a cruel malady it would be better for him to die away 
 from iis than among us here at court." 
 
 " In fact," said the duke, " that would cause us too much 
 pain." 
 
 " Especially your brother Charles," said Catharine ; " where- 
 as, if he dies after having betrayed him the King will regard 
 his death as a punishment from Heaven." 
 
 " You are right, mother," said Francois in admiration, " he 
 must leave. But are you sure that he will ? " 
 
 " All his plans are made. The meeting-place is in the forest 
 of Saint Germain. Fifty Huguenots are to escort him as far 
 as Fontainebleau, where five hundred others will await him." 
 
 " And," said D'Alenqon, with a slight hesitation and visible 
 pallor, " will my sister Margot accompany him ? " 
 
 " Yes," replied Catharine, " that is agreed on. But at 
 Henry's death Margot is to return to court a widow and free." 
 
 " And Henry will die, madame ? Are you sure of this ? " 
 
 " The physician who gave me the book assured me of it." 
 
 " Where is this book, madame ? " 
 
 Catharine went slowly towards the mysterious closet, opened 
 the door, entered, and a moment later appeared with the book 
 in her hand. 
 
 " Here it is," said she. 
 
 D'Alenqon looked at the volume with a certain feeling of 
 terror.
 
 THE TREATISE ON HUNTING. 443 
 
 " What is this book, madame ? " he asked, shuddering. 
 
 " I have already told you, my sou. It is a treatise on the 
 art of raising and training falcons, gerfalcons, and hawks, 
 written by a very learned scholar for Lord Castruccio Castra- 
 cani, tyrant of Lucca." 
 
 " What must I do with it ? " 
 
 " Take it to your good friend Henriot, who you told me had 
 asked you for a treatise on the art of hunting. As he is 
 going hawking to-day with the King he will not fail to read 
 some of it, in order to prove to Charles that he has followed 
 his advice and taken a lesson or two. The main thing is to 
 give it into Henry's own hands." 
 
 " Oh ! I do not dare ! " said D'Alencon, shuddering. 
 
 " Why not ? " asked Catharine ; " it is a book like any other 
 except that it has been packed away for so long that the leaves 
 stick together. Do not attempt to read it, Francois, for it can 
 be read only by wetting the finger and turning over each leaf, 
 and this takes time and trouble." 
 
 " So that only a man who is very anxious to be instructed 
 in the sport of hawking would waste his time and go to this 
 trouble ? " asked D'Alencon. 
 
 " Exactly, my son ; you understand." 
 
 " Oh ! " said D'Alenqon ; " there is Henriot in the court-yard. 
 Give me the book, madame. I will take advantage of his absence 
 and go to his room with it. On his return he will find it." 
 
 " I should prefer you to give it to him yourself, Francois, 
 that would be surer." 
 
 " I have already said that I do not dare, madame," replied 
 the duke. 
 
 " Very well ; but at least put it where he can see it." 
 
 " Open ? Is there any reason why it should not be open ? " 
 
 None." 
 
 " Then give it to me." 
 
 D'Alenqon tremblingly took the book, which Catharine with 
 a firm hand held out to him. 
 
 "Take it," said the queen, "there is no danger I touch it; 
 besides ; you have gloves on." 
 
 This precaution was not enough for D'Alenqon, who wrapped 
 the volume in his cloak. 
 
 " Make haste," said Catharine ; " Henry may return at any 
 moment." 
 
 " You are right, madame. I will go at once."
 
 444 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The duke went out, trembling with fright. 
 
 We have often introduced the reader into the apartments of 
 the King of Navarre, and he has been present at the events 
 which have taken place in them, events bright or gloomy, 
 according to the smile or frown of the protecting genius of the 
 future king of France. 
 
 But perhaps never had these walls, stained with the blood 
 of murders, sprinkled with the wine of orgies, scented with 
 the perfumes of love, perhaps never had this corner of the 
 Louvre seen a paler face than that of the Due d'Alengon, as 
 with book in hand he opened the door of the bedchamber of 
 the King of Navarre. And no one, as the duke had expected, 
 was in the room to question with curious or anxious glances 
 what he was about to do. The first rays of the morning sun 
 alone were lighting up the vacant chamber. 
 
 On the wall in readiness hung the sword which Monsieur de 
 Mouy had advised Henry to take with him. Some links of a 
 coat of mail were scattered on the floor. A well-filled purse 
 and a small dagger lay on a table, and some light ashes in the 
 fireplace, joined to the other evidence, clearly showed 
 D'Alenqon that the King of Navarre had put on the shirt of 
 mail, collected some money from his treasurer, and burned all 
 papers that might compromise him. 
 
 " My mother was not mistaken," said D'Alenqon " the knave 
 would have betrayed me." 
 
 Doubtless this conviction gave added strength to the young 
 man. He sounded the corners of the room at a glance, raised 
 the portieres, and realizing from the loud noise in the court- 
 yard below and the dense silence in the apartments that no 
 one was there to spy on him, he drew the book from under 
 his cloak, hastily laid it on the table, near the purse, propping 
 it up against a desk of sculptured oak ; then drawing back, 
 he reached out his arm, and, with a hesitation which betrayed 
 his fears, with his gloved hand he opened the volume to an 
 engraving of a hunt. This done, D'Alenqon again stepped 
 back, and drawing off his glove threw it into the still warm 
 fire, which had just consumed the papers. The supple leather 
 crackled over the coals, twisted and flattened itself out like 
 the body of a great reptile, leaving nothing but a burned and 
 blackened lump. 
 
 D'Alenqon waited until the flame had consumed the glove, 
 then rolling up the cloak which had been wrapped around
 
 THE TREATISE ON HUNTING. 445 
 
 the book, he put it under his arm, and hastily returned to 
 his own apartments. As he entered with beating heart, he 
 heard steps on the winding stairs, and not doubting but that it 
 was Henry he quickly closed his door. Then he stepped to 
 the window, but he could see only a part of the court-yard of 
 the Louvre. Henry was not there, however, and he felt con- 
 vinced that it was the King of Navarre who had just returned. 
 
 The duke sat down, opened a book, and tried to read. It 
 was a history of France from Pharamond to Henry II., for 
 which, a few days after his accession to the throne, Henry 
 had given a license. 
 
 But the duke's thoughts were not on what he was reading ; 
 the fever of expectation burned in his veins. His temples 
 throbbed clear to his brain, and as in a dream or some mag- 
 netic trance, it seemed to Franqois that he could see through 
 the walls. His eyes appeared to probe into Henry's chamber, 
 in spite of the obstacles between. 
 
 In order to drive away the terrible object before his mind's 
 eye the duke strove to fix his attention on something besides 
 the terrible book opened on the oak desk; but in vain he 
 looked at his weapons, his ornaments ; in vain he gazed a 
 hundred times at the same spot on the floor ; every detail of 
 the picture at which he had merely glanced remained graven 
 on his memory. It consisted of a gentleman on horseback 
 fulfilling the duties of a beater of hawking, throwing the bait, 
 calling to the falcon, and galloping through the deep grass of a 
 swamp. Strong as was the duke's will, his memory triumphed 
 over it. 
 
 Then it was not only the book he saw, but the King of 
 Navarre approaching it, looking at the picture, trying to turn 
 the pages, finally wetting his thumb and forcing the leaves 
 apart. At this sight, fictitious and imaginary as it was, 
 D'Alenqon staggered and was forced to lean one hand against 
 a table, while with the other he covered his eyes, as if by so 
 doing he did not see more clearly than before the vision he 
 wished to escape. This vision was in his own thoughts. 
 
 Suddenly D'Alenqou saw Henry cross the court; he stopped 
 a few moments before the men who were loading two mules 
 with the provisions for the chase none other than the 
 money and other things he wished to take with him ; then, 
 having given his orders, he crossed the court diagonally and 
 advanced towards the door.
 
 446 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 D'AletiQon stood motionless. It was not Henry, then, who 
 had mounted the secret staircase. All the agony he had 
 undergone during the last quarter of an hour had been use- 
 less. What he thought was over or almost over was only 
 beginning. 
 
 Francois opened the door of his chamber, then holding it so 
 he listened. This time he could not be mistaken, it was Henry 
 himself; he recognized his step and the peculiar jingle of his 
 spurs. 
 
 Henry's door opened and closed. 
 
 D'Alenqon returned to his room and sank into an armchair. 
 
 " Good ! " said he, " this is what is now taking place : he 
 has passed through the antechamber, the first room, the sleep- 
 ing-room ; then he glances to see if his sword, his purse, his 
 dagger are there ; at last he finds the book open on his table. 
 
 " ' What book is this ? ' he asks himself. ' Who has brought 
 it?' 
 
 " Then he draws nearer, sees the picture of the horseman 
 calling his falcon, wants to read, tries to turn the leaves." 
 
 A cold perspiration started to the brow of Francois. 
 
 " Will he call ? Is the effect of the poison sudden ? No, no, 
 for my mother said he would die of slow consumption." 
 
 This thought somewhat reassured him. 
 
 Ten minutes passed thus, a century of agony, dragging by 
 second after second, each supplying all that the imagination 
 could invent in the way of maddening terror, a world of 
 visions. 
 
 D'Alenqon could stand it no longer. He rose and crossed 
 the antechamber, which was beginning to fill with gentlemen. 
 
 " Good morning, gentlemen," said he, " I am going to the 
 King." 
 
 And to distract his consuming anxiety, and perhaps to pre- 
 pare an alibi, D'Alenqon descended to his brother's apart- 
 ments. Why did he go there ? He did not know. What had 
 he to say ? Nothing ! It was not Charles he sought it was 
 Henry he fled. 
 
 He took the winding staircase and found the door of the 
 King's apartments half opened. The guards let the duke 
 enter without opposition. On hunting days there was neither 
 etiquette nor orders. 
 
 Francois traversed successively the antechamber, the salon, 
 and the bedroom without meeting any one. He thought
 
 THE TREATISE ON HUNTING. 447 
 
 Charles must be in the armory and opened the door leading 
 thither. 
 
 The King was seated before a table, in a deep carved arm- 
 chair. He had his back to the door, and appeared to be 
 absorbed in what he was doing. 
 
 The duke approached on tiptoe ; Charles was reading. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried he, suddenly, " this is a fine book. I 
 had heard of it, but I did not know it could be had in France." 
 
 D'AlenQon listened and advanced a step. 
 
 " Cursed leaves ! " said the King, Avetting his thumb and 
 applying it to the pages ; " it looks as though they had been 
 stuck together on purpose to conceal the wonders they contain 
 from the eyes of man." 
 
 D'Alenqon bounded forward. The book over which Charles 
 was bending was the one he had left in Henry's room. A 
 dull cry broke from him. 
 
 " Ah, is it you, Francois ? " said Charles, " you are wel- 
 come ; come and see the finest book on hunting which ever 
 came from the pen of man." 
 
 D'AleiiQon's first impulse was to snatch the volume from 
 the hands of his brother ; but an infernal thought restrained 
 him ; a frightful smile passed over his pallid lips, and he rubbed 
 his hand across his eyes like a man dazed. Then recovering 
 himself by degrees, but without moving : 
 
 " Sire," he asked, " how did this book come into your 
 Majesty's possession ? " 
 
 " I went into Henriot's I'ooni this morning to see if he was 
 ready ; he was not there, he was probably strolling about the 
 kennels or the stables ; at any rate, instead of him I found 
 this treasure, which I brought here to read at my leisure." 
 
 And the King again moistened his thumb, and again turned 
 over an obstinate page. 
 
 " Sire," stammered D'Alenqon, whose hair stood on end, and 
 whose whole body was seized with a terrible agony. " Sire, I 
 came to tell you " 
 
 " Let me finish this chapter, Francois," said Charles, " and 
 then you shall tell me anything you wish. I have read or 
 rather devoured fifty pages." 
 
 " He has tasted the poison twenty-five times," murmured 
 Francois ; " my brother is a dead man ! " 
 
 Then the thought came to him that there was a God in 
 heaven who perhaps after all was not chance.
 
 448 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 With trembling hand the duke wiped away the cold per- 
 spiration which stood in drops on his brow, and waited in 
 silence, as his brother had bade him do, until the chapter was 
 finished. 
 
 CHAPTER L. 
 
 HAWKING. 
 
 CHARLES still read. In his curiosity he seemed to devour 
 the pages, and each page, as we have said, either because of 
 the dampness to which it had been exposed for so long or 
 from some other cause, adhered to the next. 
 
 With haggard eyes D'Alenqon gazed at this terrible spec- 
 tacle, the end of which he alone could see. 
 
 " Oh ! " he murmured, " what will happen ? I shall go 
 away, into exile, and seek an imaginary throne, while at the 
 first news of Charles's illness Henry will return to some forti- 
 fied town near the capital, and watch this prey sent us by 
 chance, able at a single stride to reach Paris ; so that before 
 the King of Poland even hears the news of my brother's 
 death the dynasty will be changed. This cannot be ! " 
 
 Such were the thoughts which dominated the first invol- 
 untary feeling of horror that had urged Franqois to warn 
 Charles. It was the never-failing fatality which seemed to 
 preserve Henry and follow the Valois which the duke was 
 again going to try to thwart. In an instant his whole plan 
 with regard to Henry was altered. It was Charles and not 
 Henry who had read the poisoned book. Henry was to have 
 gone, and gone condemned to die. The moment fate had again 
 saved him, Henry must remain ; for Henry was less to be feared 
 in the Bastille or as prisoner at Vincennes than as the King of 
 Navarre at the head of thirty thousand men. 
 
 The Due d'Alenqon let Charles finish his chapter, and when 
 the King had raised his head : 
 
 " Brother," said the duke, " I have waited because your 
 Majesty ordered me to do so, but I regret it, because I have 
 something of the greatest importance to say to you." 
 
 " Go to the devil ! " said Charles, whose cheeks were slowly 
 turning a dull red, either because he had been too much en- 
 grossed in his reading or because the poison had begun to act.
 
 HA WRING. 449 
 
 " Go to the devil ! If you have come to discuss that same 
 subject again, you shall leave as did the King of Poland. 
 I rid myself of him, and I will do the same to you without 
 further talk about it." 
 
 " It is not about my leaving, brother, that I want to speak to 
 you, but about some one else who is going away. Your Majesty 
 has touched me in my most sensitive point, my love for you as 
 a brother, my devotion to you as a subject ; and I hope to 
 prove to you that I am no traitor." 
 
 " Well," said Charles, as he leaned his elbow on the book, 
 crossed his legs, and looked at D'Alenqon like a man who is 
 trying to be patient. " Some fresh report, some accusation ? " 
 
 " No, sire, a certainty, a plot, which my foolish scruples 
 alone prevented my revealing to you before." 
 
 " A plot ? " said Charles, " well, let us hear about it." 
 
 " Sire," said Francois, " while your Majesty hawks near the 
 river in the plain of Vesinet the King of Navarre will escape 
 to the forest of Saint Germain, where a troop of friends will 
 be waiting to flee with him." 
 
 "Ah, I knew it," said Charles, " another calumny against 
 my poor Henry ! When will you be through with him ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty need not wait long at least to find out 
 whether or not what I have just had the honor of telling you 
 is a calumny." 
 
 " How so ? " 
 
 " Because this evening our brother-in-law will be gone." 
 
 Charles rose. 
 
 " Listen," said he, " I will try for the last time to believe 
 you ; but I warn you, both you and your mother, that it will 
 be the last time." 
 
 Then raising his voice : 
 
 " Summon the King of Navarre ! " he cried. 
 
 A guard started to obey, but Franqois stopped him with a 
 gesture. 
 
 " This is a poor way, brother, to learn anything," said he. 
 '' Henry will deny, will give a signal, his accomplices will be 
 Avarned and will disappear. Then my mother and myself will 
 be accused not only of being visionary but of being calumnia- 
 tors." 
 
 " What do you want, then ? " 
 
 " In the name of our brotherly love I ask your Majesty to 
 listen to me, in the name of my devotion, which you will real-
 
 450 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 ize, I want you to do nothing hastily. Act so that the real 
 culprit, who for two years has been betraying your Majesty in 
 will as well as in deed, may at last be recognized as guilty by 
 an infallible proof, and punished as he deserves." 
 
 Charles did not answer, but going to a window raised it. 
 The blood was rushing to his head. 
 
 Then turning round quickly : 
 
 " Well ! " said he, " what would you do ? Speak, Frangois." 
 
 " Sire," said D'Alenqon, " I would surround the forest of 
 Saint Germain with three detachments of light horse, who at a 
 given hour, eleven o'clock, for instance, should start out and 
 drive every one in the forest to the Pavilion of Francis I., 
 which I would, as if by chance, have indicated as the meeting- 
 place. Then I would spur on, as if following my falcon, to 
 the meeting-place, where Henry should be captured with his 
 companions." 
 
 " The idea is good," said the King ; " summon the captain 
 of the guards." 
 
 D'Alenqon drew from his doublet a silver whistle, sus- 
 pended from a gold chain, and raised it to his lips. 
 
 De ISTancey appeared. 
 
 Charles gave him some orders in a low tone. 
 
 Meanwhile Acteon, the great greyhound, had dragged a 
 book from the table, and was tossing it about the room, mak- 
 ing great bounds after it. , 
 
 Charles turned round and uttered a terrible oath. The book 
 was the precious treatise on hunting, of which there existed 
 only three copies in the world. 
 
 The punishment was proportionate to the offence. 
 
 Charles seized a whip and gave the dog three whistling blows. 
 
 Acteon uttered a howl, and fled under a table covered with 
 a large cloth which served him as a hiding-place. 
 
 Charles picked up the book and saw with joy that only one 
 leaf was gone, and that was not a page of the text, but an 
 engraving. He placed the volume carefully away on a shelf 
 where Acteon could not reach it. D'Alencjon looked anxiously 
 at him. Now that the book had fulfilled its dread mission he 
 would have liked to see it out of Charles's hands. 
 
 Six o'clock struck. It was time for the King to descend to 
 the court-yard, already filled with horses richly caparisoned, 
 and elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen. The hunters 
 held on their wrists their hooded falcons ; some outriders car-
 
 HA WK1NG. 451 
 
 ried horns wound with scarfs, in case the King, as sometimes 
 happened, grew weary of hawking, and wished to hunt a deer 
 or a chamois. 
 
 Charles closed the door of his armory and descended. 
 D'Aleuqon watched each movement closely, and saw him put 
 the key in his pocket. 
 
 As he went down the stairs Charles stopped and raised his 
 hand to his head. 
 
 The limbs of the Due d'Alenc.on trembled no less than did 
 those of the King. 
 
 " It seems to me," said the duke, u that there is going to be a 
 storm." 
 
 "A storm in January ! " said Charles ; "you are mad. No, 
 I am dizzy, my skin is dry, I am weak, that is all." 
 
 Then in a low tone : 
 
 " They will kill me," he murmured, " with their hatred and 
 their plots." 
 
 But on reaching the court the fresh morning air, the shouts 
 of the hunters, the loud greetings of the hundred people 
 gathered there, produced their usual effect on Charles. 
 
 He breathed freely and happily. His first thought was for 
 Henry, who was beside Marguerite. 
 
 This excellent couple seemed to care so much for each other 
 that they were unable to be apart. 
 
 On perceiving Charles, Henry spurred his horse, and in 
 three bounds was beside him. 
 
 " Ah, ah ! " said Charles, " you are mounted as if you were 
 going to hunt the stag, Henriot ; but you know we are going 
 hawking to-day." 
 
 Then without waiting for a reply : 
 
 " Forward, gentlemen, forward ! we must be hunting by 
 nine o'clock ! " and Charles frowned and spoke in an almost 
 threatening tone. 
 
 Catharine was watching everything from a window, behind 
 which a curtain was drawn back, showing her pale face. She 
 herself was dressed in black and was hidden from view. 
 
 At the order from Charles all this gilded, embroidered, per- 
 fumed crowd, with the King at its head, lengthened out to 
 pass through the gate of the Louvre, and swept like an ava- 
 lanche along the road to Saint Germain, amid the shouts of 
 the people, who saluted the young King as he rode by, thought- 
 ful and pensive, on his white horse.
 
 452 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " What did he say to you ? " asked Marguerite of Henry. 
 
 " He congratulated me on the speed of my horse." 
 
 Was that all ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Then he suspects something." 
 
 " I fear so." 
 
 " Let us be cautious." 
 
 Henry's face lighted up with one of his beautiful smiles, 
 which meant especially to Marguerite, " Be easy, my love." 
 As to Catharine, scarcely had the cortege left the court of the 
 Louvre before she dropped the curtain. 
 
 But she had not failed to see one thing, namely, Henry's 
 pallor, his nervousness, and his low-toned conversation with 
 Marguerite. 
 
 Henry was pale because, not having physical courage, his 
 blood, under all circumstances in which his life was at stake, 
 instead of rushing to his head, as is usually the case, flowed to 
 his heart. He was nervous because the manner in which he 
 had been received by Charles, so different from usual, had 
 made a deep impression on him. Finally, he had conferred 
 with Marguerite because, as we know, the husband and wife 
 had formed, so far as politics were concerned, an alliance 
 offensive and defensive. 
 
 But Catharine had interpreted these facts differently. 
 
 " This time," she murmured, with her Florentine smile, " I 
 think I may rely on my dear Henriot." 
 
 Then to satisfy herself, having waited a quarter of an hour 
 to give the party time to leave Paris, she went out of her 
 room, mounted the winding staircase, and with the help of her 
 pass-key opened the door of the apartments of the King of 
 Navarre. She searched, but in vain, for the book. In vain 
 she looked on every table, shelf, and in every closet ; nowhere 
 could she find it. 
 
 " D'Alenc/m must have taken it away," said she, " that was 
 wise." 
 
 And she descended to her own chamber, quite sure this time 
 that her plan would succeed. 
 
 The King went on towards Saint Germain, which he reached 
 after a rapid ride of an hour and a half. They did not ascend 
 to the old castle, which rose dark and majestic in the midst of 
 the houses scattered over the mountain. They crossed the 
 wooden bridge, which at that time was opposite the tree
 
 V 
 
 '- 
 
 AS THOUGH IT UNDERSTOOD THE WORDS, THE NOBLE BIRD ROSE 
 LIKE AN ARROW.
 
 HA WRING. 453 
 
 to-day called the " Sully Oak." Then they signed for the boats 
 adorned with flags which followed the hunting-party to aid the 
 King and his suite in crossing the river. This was done. In- 
 stantly all the joyous procession, animated by such varied in- 
 terests, again began to move, led by the King, over the magni- 
 ficent plain which stretched from the wooded summit of Saint 
 Germain, and which suddenly assumed the appearance of a 
 great carpet covered with people, dotted with a thousand 
 colors, and of which the river foaming along its banks seemed 
 a silver fringe. 
 
 Ahead of the King, still on his white horse and holding his 
 favorite falcon, rode the beaters, in their long green close- 
 fitting coats and high boots, calling now and then to the half 
 dozen great dogs, and beating, with their whips, the reeds 
 which grew along the river banks. 
 
 At that moment the sun, until then hidden behind a cloud, 
 suddenly burst forth and lighted with one of its rays all that 
 procession of gold, all the ornaments, all the glowing eyes, and 
 turned everything into a torrent of flame. Then, as if it had 
 waited for that moment so that the sun might shine on its 
 defeat, a heron rose from the midst of the reeds with a pro- 
 longed and plaintiff cry. 
 
 " Haw ! Haw"! " cried Charles, unhooding his falcon and 
 sending it after the fugitive. 
 
 " Haw ! Haw ! " cried every voice to encourage the bird. 
 
 The falcon, dazzled for an instant by the light, turned, 
 described a circle, then suddenly perceiving the heron, dashed 
 after it. 
 
 But the heron, like a prudent bird, had risen a hundred 
 yards before the beaters, and while the King had been unhood- 
 ing his falcon, and while the latter had been growing accus- 
 tomed to the light, it had gained a considerable height, so that 
 by the time its enemy saw it, it had risen more than five 
 hundred feet, and finding in the higher zones the air necessary 
 for its powerful wings, continued to mount rapidly. 
 
 " Haw ! Haw ! Iron Beak ! " cried Charles, cheering his 
 falcon. " Show us that you are a thoroughbred I Haw ! 
 Haw ! " 
 
 As if it understood the words the noble bird rose like an 
 arrow, described a diagonal line, then a vertical one, as the 
 heron had done, and mounted higher and higher as though it 
 would soon disappear in the upper air.
 
 454 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Ah ! coward ! " cried Charles, as if the fugitive could hear 
 him, and, spurring his horse, he followed the flight of the birds 
 as far as he could, his head thrown back so as not to lose sight 
 of them for an instant. " Ah ! double coward ! You run ! My 
 Iron Beak is a thoroughbred ; on ! on ! Haw, Iron Beak ! 
 Haw ! " 
 
 The contest was growing exciting. The birds were begin- 
 ning to approach each other, or rather the falcon was near- 
 ing the heron. The only question was which could rise the 
 higher. 
 
 Fear had stronger wings than courage. The falcon passed 
 under the heron, and the latter, profiting by its advantage, 
 dealt a blow with its long beak. 
 
 The falcon, as though hit by a dagger, described three circles, 
 apparently overcome, and for an instant it looked as if the 
 bird would fall. But like a warrior, who when wounded 
 rises more terrible than before, it uttered a sharp and threaten- 
 ing cry, and went after the heron. The latter, making the 
 most of its advantage, had changed the direction of its flight 
 and turned toward the forest, trying this time to gain in dis- 
 tance instead of in height, and so escape. But the falcon was 
 indeed a thoroughbred, with the eye of a gerfalcon. 
 
 It repeated the same manoeuvre, rose diagonally after the 
 heron, which gave two or three cries of distress and strove to 
 rise perpendicularly as at first. 
 
 At the end of a few seconds the two birds seemed again 
 about to disappear. The heron looked no larger than a lark, 
 and the falcon was a black speck which every moment grew 
 smaller. 
 
 Neither Charles nor his suite any longer followed the flight 
 of the birds. Each one stopped, his eyes fixed on the clouds. 
 
 " Bravo ! Bravo ! Iron-beak ! " cried Charles, suddenly. 
 " See, see, gentlemen, he is uppermost ! Haw ! haw ! " 
 
 " Faith, I can see neither of them," said Henry. 
 
 " Nor I," said Marguerite. 
 
 " Well, but if you cannot see them, Henry, you can hear 
 them," said Charles, " at least the heron. Listen ! listen ! he 
 asks quarter ! " 
 
 Two or three plaintive cries were heard which a practised ear 
 alone could detect. 
 
 " Listen ! " cried Charles, " and you will see them come 
 down more quickly than they went up."
 
 HA WK1NG. 455 
 
 As the King spoke, the two birds reappeared. They were 
 still only two black dots, but from the size of the dots the 
 falcon seemed to be uppermost. 
 
 " See ! see ! " cried Charles, " Iron Beak has him ! " 
 
 The heron, outwitted by the bird of prey, no longer strove to 
 defend itself. It descended rapidly, constantly struck at by 
 the falcon, and answered only by its cries. Suddenly it 
 folded its wings and dropped like a stone ; but its adversary 
 did the same, and when the fugitive again strove to resume its 
 flight a last blow of the beak finished it ; it continued to fall, 
 turning over and over, and as it touched the earth the falcon 
 swooped down and uttered a cry of victory which drowned the 
 cry of defeat of the vanquished. 
 
 " To the falcon ! the falcon ! " shouted Charles, spurring his 
 horse to the place where the birds had fallen. But suddenly 
 he reined in his steed, uttered a cry, dropped his bridle, and 
 grasping his horse's mane with one hand pressed the other to 
 his stomach as though he would tear out his very vitals. 
 
 All the courtiers hastened to him. 
 
 " It is nothing, nothing," said Charles, with inflamed face 
 and haggard eye ; " it seemed as if a red-hot iron were passing 
 through me just now ; but forward ! it is nothing." 
 
 And Charles galloped on. 
 
 D'AlenQon turned pale. 
 
 " What now ? " asked Henry of Marguerite. 
 
 " I do not know," replied she ; " but did you see ? My 
 brother was purple in the face." 
 
 " He is not usually so," said Henry. 
 
 The courtiers glanced at one another in surprise and fol- 
 lowed the King. 
 
 They arrived at the scene of combat. The falcon had 
 already begun to peck at the head of the heron. 
 
 Charles sprang from his horse to obtain a nearer view ; but 
 on alighting he was obliged to seize hold of the saddle. The 
 ground seemed to spin under him. He felt very sleepy. 
 
 " Brother ! Brother ! " cried Marguerite ; " what is the 
 matter ? " 
 
 " I feel," said Charles, " as Portia must have felt when she 
 swallowed her burning coals. I am burning up and my breath 
 seems on fire." 
 
 Charles exhaled his breath and seemed surprised not to see 
 fine issue from his lips.
 
 456 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 The falcon had been caught and hooded again, and every 
 one had gathered around the King. 
 
 " Why, what does it mean ? Great Heavens ! It cannot be 
 anything, or if it is it must be the sun which is affecting my 
 head and blinding my eyes. So on, on, to the hunt, gentle- 
 men ! There is a whole flight of herons. Unhood the falcons, 
 all of them, by Heaven ! now for some sport ! " 
 
 Instantly five or six falcons were unhooded and let loose. 
 They rose in the direction of the prey, while the entire party, 
 the King at their head, reached the bank of the river. 
 
 " Well ! what do you say, rnadame ? " asked Henry of 
 Marguerite. 
 
 11 That the moment is favorable, and that if the King does 
 not look back we can easily reach the forest from here." 
 
 Henry called the attendant who was carrying the heron, and 
 while the noisy, gilded avalanche swept along the road which 
 to-day is a terrace he remained behind as if to examine the 
 dead bird. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 THE PAVILION OF FRANCOIS I. 
 
 HAWKING was a beautiful sport as carried on by kings, when 
 kings were almost demi-gods, and when the chase was not only 
 a pastime but an art. 
 
 Nevertheless we must leave the royal spectacle to enter a 
 part of the forest where the actors in the scene we have just 
 described will soon join us. 
 
 The Allee des Violettes was a long, leafy arcade and mossy 
 retreat in which, among lavender and heather, a startled hare 
 now and then pricked up its ears, and a wandering stag 
 raised its head heavy with horns, opened its nostrils, and 
 listened. To the right of this alley was an open space far 
 enough from the road to be invisible, but not so far but that 
 the road could be seen from it. 
 
 In the middle of the clearing two men were lying on the 
 grass. Under them were travellers' cloaks, at their sides long 
 swords, and near each of them a musketoon (then called a 
 petronel) with the muzzle turned from them. In the richness 
 of their costume they resembled the joyous characters of the
 
 THE PAVILION OF FRANCOIS I. 457 
 
 " Decameron ; " on closer view, by the threatening aspect of their 
 weapons, they seemed like those forest robbers whom a hundred 
 years later Salvator Rosa painted from nature in his landscapes. 
 One of them was leaning on his hand and on one knee, listen- 
 ing as attentively as the hare or deer we mentioned above. 
 
 " It seems to me," said this one, " that the hunt was very 
 near us just now. I heard the cries of the hunters cheering 
 the falcon." 
 
 " And now," said the other, who seemed to await events with 
 much more philosophy than his companion, "now I hear noth- 
 ing more ; they must have gone away. I told you this was a 
 poor place from which to see anything. We cannot be seen, 
 it is true ; but we cannot see, either." 
 
 " The devil ! my dear Annibal," said the first speaker, " we 
 had to put our horses somewhere, as well as the mules, which, 
 by the way, are so heavily laden that I do not see how they 
 can follow us. Now I know that these old beeches and oaks 
 are perfectly suited to this difficult task. I should venture to 
 say that far from blaming Monsieur de Mouy as you are doing, 
 I recognize in every detail of the enterprise he is directing 
 the common sense of a true conspirator." 
 
 " Good ! " said the second gentleman, whom no doubt our 
 reader has already recognized as Coconnas ; " good ! that is the 
 word ! I expected it ! I relied on you for it ! So we are con- 
 spiring ? " 
 
 " We are not conspiring ; we are serving the king and the 
 queen." 
 
 " Who are conspiring and which amounts to the same for us." 
 
 " Coconnas. I have told you," said La Mole, " that I do not 
 in the least fo?ce you to follow me in this affair. I have under- 
 taken it oi>ly because of a particular sentiment, which you 
 can neither feel nor share." 
 
 "Well- by Heaven! Who said that you were forcing me? 
 In the first place, I know of no one who couid compel Coconnas, 
 to do what he did not wish to do ; but do you suppose that I 
 would let you go without following you, especially when I see 
 that- you are going to the devil ? " 
 
 " Annibal ! Annibal ! " said La Mole, " I think that I see 
 her white palfrey in the distance. Oh ! it is strange how my 
 heart throbs at the mere thought of her coming ! " 
 
 " Yes, it is strange," said Coconnas, yawning ; " my heart 
 does not throb in the least."
 
 458 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " It is not she," said La Mole. " What can have happened? 
 They were to be here at noon, I thought." 
 
 "It happens that it is not noon," said Coconnas, "that is 
 all, and, apparently, we still have time to take a nap." 
 
 So saying, Coconnas stretched himself on his cloak like a 
 man who is about to add practice to precept ; but as his ear 
 touched the ground he raised his finger and motioned La Mole 
 to be silent. 
 
 " What is it ? " asked the latter. 
 
 " Hush ! this time I am sure I hear something." 
 
 " That is singular ; I have listened, but I hear nothing." 
 
 " Nothing ? " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Well ! " said Coconnas, rising and laying his hand on La 
 Mole's arm, " look at that deer." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " Yonder." 
 
 Coconnas pointed to the animal. 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well, you will see." 
 
 La Mole watched the deer. With head bent forward as 
 though about to browse it listened without stirring. Soon it 
 turned its head, covered with magnificent branching horns, in 
 the direction from which no doubt the sound carne. Then 
 suddenly, without apparent cause, it disappeared like a flash 
 of lightning. 
 
 " Oh ! " said La Mole, " I believe you are right, for the deer 
 has fled." 
 
 " Because of that," said Coconnas, " it must have heard what 
 you have not heard." 
 
 In short, a faint, scarcely perceptible sound quivered vaguely 
 through the passes ; to less practised ears it would have seemed 
 like the breeze ; for the two men it was the far-off galloping of 
 horses. In an instant La Mole was on his feet. 
 
 " Here they are ! " said he ; " quick." 
 
 Coconnas rose, but more calmly. The energy of the Pied- 
 montese seemed to have passed into the heart of La Mole, 
 while on the other hand the indolence of the latter seemed to 
 have taken possession of his friend. One acted with enthusi- 
 asm ; the other with reluctance. Soon a regular and measured 
 sound struck the ear of the two friends. The neighing of a 
 horse made the coursers they had tied ten paces away prick up
 
 THE PAVILION OF FRANCOIS I. 459 
 
 their ears, as through the alley there passed like a white 
 shadow a woman who, turning towards them, made a strange 
 sign and disappeared. 
 
 " The queen ! " they exclaimed together. 
 
 " What can it mean ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " She made a sign," said La Mole, " which meant ' pres- 
 ently.' " 
 
 " She made a sign," said Coconnas, " which meant ' flee ! ' ' 
 
 " The signal meant ' wait for me.' ' ; 
 
 " The signal meant ' save yourself.' ' : 
 
 " Well," said La Mole, " let each act on his own conviction ; 
 you leave and I will remain." 
 
 Coconnas shrugged his shoulders and lay down again. 
 
 At that moment in the opposite direction from that in 
 which the queen was going, but in the same alley, there 
 passed at full speed a troop of horsemen whom the two 
 friends recognized as ardent, almost rabid Protestants. Their 
 steeds bounded like the locusts of which Job said, ' They came 
 and went.' " 
 
 . " The deuce ! the affair is growing serious," said Coconnas, 
 rising. "Let us go to the pavilion of Francois I." 
 
 " No," said La Mole ; " if we are discovered it will be 
 towards the pavilion that the attention of the King will be at 
 first directed, since that is the general meeting-place." 
 
 " You may be right, this time," grumbled Coconnas. 
 
 Scarcely had Coconnas uttered these words before a horse- 
 man passed among the trees like a flash of lightning, and 
 leaping ditches, bushes, and all barriers reached the two 
 gentlemen. 
 
 He held a pistol in each hand and with his knees alone 
 guided his horse in its furious chase. 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy ! " exclaimed Coconnas, uneasy and 
 now more on the alert than La Mole ; " Monsieur de Mouy 
 running away ! Every one for himself, then ! " 
 
 " Quick ! quick ! " cried the Huguenot ; " away ! all is lost ! 
 j have come around to tell you so. Away! " 
 
 As if he had not stopped to utter these words, he was 
 gone almost before they were spoken, and before La Mole and 
 Coconnas realized their meaning. 
 
 " And the queen ? " cried La Mole. 
 
 But the young man's voice was lost in the distance ; De 
 Mouy was too far away either to hear or to answer him.
 
 460 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Coconnas had speedily made up his mind. While La Mole 
 stood motionless, gazing after De Mouy, who had disappeared 
 among the trees, he ran to the horses, led them out, sprang on 
 his own, and, throwing the bridle of the other to La Mole, pre- 
 pared to gallop off. 
 
 " Come ! come ! " cried he ; " I repeat what De Mouy said : 
 Let us be off! De Mouy knows what he is doing. Come, 
 La Mole, quick ! " 
 
 " One moment," said La Mole ; " we came here for some- 
 thing." 
 
 " Unless it is to be hanged," replied Coconnas, " I advise 
 you to lose no more time. I know you are going to parse some 
 rhetoric, paraphrase the word ' flee,' speak of Horace, who hurled 
 his buckler, and Epaminondas, who was brought back on his. 
 But I tell you one thing, when Monsieur de Mouy de Saint 
 Phale flees all the world may run too." 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy de Saint Phale," said La Mole, " was 
 not charged to carry off Queen Marguerite ! Nor does Mon- 
 sieur de Mouy de Saint Phale love Queen Marguerite ! " 
 
 " By Heaven ! he is right if this love would make him do 
 such foolish things as you plan doing. May five hundred 
 thousand devils from hell take away the love which may cost 
 two brave gentlemen their heads ! By Heaven ! as King 
 Charles says, we are conspiring, my dear fellow ; and when 
 plans fail one must run. Mount ! mount, La Mole ! " 
 
 " Mount yourself, my dear fellow, I will not prevent you. I 
 even urge you to do so. Your life is more precious than mine. 
 Defend it, therefore." 
 
 " You must say to me : ' Coconnas, let vis be hanged together,' 
 and not ' Coconnas, save yourself.' ' : 
 
 " Bah ! my friend," replied La Mole, " the rope is made for 
 clowns, not for gentlemen like ourselves." 
 
 " I am beginning to think," said Coconnas, " that the pre- 
 caution I took is not bad." 
 
 " What precaution ? " 
 
 " To have made friends with the hangman." 
 
 " You are sinister, my dear Coconnas." 
 
 " Well, what are we going to do ? " cried the latter, impa- 
 tiently. 
 
 " Set out and find the queen." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " I do not know seek the king."
 
 THE PAVILION OF FRANCOIS L 461 
 
 Where ? " 
 
 " I have not the least idea ; but we must find him, and we 
 two by ourselves can do what fifty others neither could nor 
 would dare to do." 
 
 " You appeal to my pride, Hyacinthe ; that is a bad sign." 
 
 " Well ! come ; to horse and away ! " 
 
 " A good suggestion ! " 
 
 La Mole turned to seize the pommel of his saddle, but just 
 as he put his foot in the stirrup an imperious voice was 
 heard : 
 
 " Halt there ! surrender ! " 
 
 At the same moment the figure of a man appeared behind 
 an oak, then another, then thirty. They were the light-horse, 
 who, dismounted, had glided on all fours in and out among the 
 bushes, searching the forest. 
 
 " What did I tell you ? " murmured Coconnas, in a low tone. 
 
 A dull groan was La Mole's only answer. 
 
 The light-horse were still thirty paces away from the two 
 friends. 
 
 " Well ! " continued the Piedmontese, in a loud tone, to the 
 lieutenant of the dragoons. " What is it, gentlemen ? " 
 
 The lieutenant ordered his men to aim. 
 
 Coconnas continued under breath : 
 
 " Mount, La Mole, there is still time. Spring into your 
 saddle as I have seen you do hundreds of times, and let us be 
 off." 
 
 Then turning to the light-horse : 
 
 " The devil, gentlemen, do not fire ; you would kill friends." 
 
 Then to La Mole : 
 
 " Between the trees they cannot aim well ; they will fire 
 and miss us." 
 
 " Impossible," said La Mole, " we cannot take Marguerite's 
 horse with us or the two mules. They would compromise us, 
 whereas by my replies I can avert all suspicion. Go, my 
 friend, go ! " 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Coconnas, drawing his sword and rais- 
 ing it, " gentlemen, we surrender." 
 
 The light-horse dropped their muskets. 
 
 " But first tell us why we must do so ? " 
 
 " You must ask that of the King of Navarre." 
 
 " What crime have we committed ? " 
 
 " Monsieur d'AleiiQon will inform you."
 
 462 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 Coconnas and La Mole looked at each other. The name of 
 their enemy at such a moment did not greatly reassure them. 
 
 Yet neither of them made any resistance. Coconnas was 
 asked to dismount, a manoeuvre which he executed without a 
 word. Then both were placed in the centre of the light-horse 
 and took the road to the pavilion. 
 
 " You always wanted to see the pavilion of Franqois I.," 
 said Coconnas to La Mole, perceiving through the trees the 
 walls of a beautiful Gothic structure ; " now it seems you will." 
 
 La Mole made no reply, but merely extended his hand to 
 Coconnas. 
 
 By the side of this lovely pavilion, built in the time of Louis 
 XII., and named after Franqois I., because the latter always 
 chose it as a meeting-place when he hunted, was a kind of 
 hut built for prickers, partly hidden behind the muskets, hal- 
 berds, and shining swords like an ant-hill under a whiten- 
 ing harvest. 
 
 The prisoners were conducted to this hut. 
 
 We will now relate what had happened and so throw some 
 light on the situation, which looked very dark, especially for 
 the tvv^o friends. 
 
 The Protestant gentlemen had assembled, as had been 
 agreed on, in the pavilion of Francois I., of which, as we know, 
 De Mouy had the key. 
 
 Masters of the forest, or at least so they had believed, they 
 had placed sentinels here and there whom the light-horse, 
 having exchanged their white scarfs for red ones (a pre- 
 caution due to the ingenious zeal of Monsieur de Nancey), 
 had surprised and carried away without a blow. 
 
 The light-horse had continued their search surrounding the 
 pavilion ; but De Mouy, who, as we know, was waiting for the 
 king at the end of the Allee des Violettes, had perceived the 
 red scarfs stealing along and had instantly suspected them. 
 He sprang to one side so as not to be seen, and noticed that the 
 vast circle was narrowing in such a way as to beat the forest 
 and surround the meeting-place. At the same time, at the end 
 of the principal alley, he had caught a glimpse of the white 
 aigrettes and the shining arquebuses of the King's bodyguard. 
 
 Finally he saw the King himself, while in the opposite di- 
 rection he perceived the King of Navarre. 
 
 Then with his hat he had made a sign of the cross, which 
 was the signal agreed on to indicate that all was lost.
 
 THE .PAVILION OF FRANCOIS I. 463 
 
 At this signal the king had turned back and disappeared. 
 De Mouy at once dug the two wide rowels of his spurs into 
 the sides of his horse and galloped away, shouting as he went 
 the words of warning which we have mentioned, to La Mole 
 and Coconnas. 
 
 Now the King, who had noticed the absence of Henry and 
 Marguerite, arrived, escorted by Monsieur d'Alencon, just as 
 the two men came out of the hut to which he had said that all 
 those found, not only in the pavilion but in the forest, were to 
 be conducted. 
 
 D'Alencon, full of confidence, galloped close by the King, 
 whose sharp pains were augmenting his ill humor. Two or 
 three times he had nearly fainted and once he had vomited 
 blood. 
 
 " Come," said he on arriving, " let us make haste ; I want 
 to return to the Louvre. Bring out all these rascals from 
 their hole. This is Saint Blaise's day ; he was cousin to Saint 
 Bartholomew." 
 
 At these words of the King the entire mass of pikes and 
 muskets began to move, and one by one the Huguenots were 
 forced out not only from the forest and the pavilion but from 
 the hut. 
 
 But the King of Navarre, Marguerite, and De Mouy were 
 not there. 
 
 " Well," said the King, " where is Henry ? Where is Mar- 
 got ? You promised them to me, D'Alenqon, and, by Heaven, 
 they will have to be found ! " 
 
 " Sire, we have not even seen the King and the Queen of 
 Navarre." 
 
 " But here they are," said Madame de Nevers. 
 
 At that moment, at the end of an alley leading to the river, 
 Henry and Margot came in sight, both as calm as if nothing 
 had happened ; both with their falcons on their wrists, riding 
 lovingly side by side, so that as they galloped along their 
 horses, like themselves, seemed to be caressing each other. 
 
 It was then that D'AlenQon, furious, commanded the forest 
 to be searched, and that La Mole and Coconnas were found 
 within their ivy bower. They, too, in brotherly proximity 
 entered the circle formed by the guards ; only, as they were 
 not sovereigns, they could not assume so calm a manner as 
 Henry and Marguerite. La Mole was too pale and Coconnas 
 too red.
 
 464 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER LIT. 
 
 THE EXAMINATION. 
 
 THE spectacle which struck the young men as they entered 
 the circle, although seen but for a few moments, was one never 
 to be forgotten. 
 
 As we have said, Charles IX. had watched the gentlemen as 
 the guards led them one by one from the pricker's hut. 
 
 Both he and D'Alencon anxiously followed every movement, 
 waiting to see the King of Navarre come out. Both, however, 
 were doomed to disappointment. But it was not enough to 
 know that the king was not there, it was necessary to find out 
 what had become of him. 
 
 Therefore when the young couple were seen approaching 
 from the end of the alley, D'Alenqon turned pale, while 
 Charles felt his heart grow glad ; he instinctively desired that 
 everything his brother had forced him to do should fall back 
 on the duke. 
 
 " He will outwit us again," murmured Francois, growing 
 still paler. 
 
 At that moment the King was seized with such violent pains 
 that he dropped his bridle, pressed both hands to his sides, and 
 shrieked like a madman. 
 
 Henry hastily approached him, but by the time he had 
 traversed the few hundred feet which separated them, Charles 
 had recovered. 
 
 " Whence do you come, monsieur ? " said the King, with 
 a sternness that frightened Marguerite. 
 
 " Why, from the hunt, brother," replied she. 
 
 " The hunt was along the river bank, and not in the forest." 
 
 " My falcon swooped down on a pheasant just as we stopped 
 behind every one to look at the heron." 
 
 " Where is the pheasant ? " 
 
 " Here ; a beautiful bird, is it not ? " 
 
 And Henry, in perfect innocence, held up his bird of purple, 
 blue, and gold plumage. 
 
 " Ah ! " said Charles, " and this pheasant caught, why did 
 you not rejoin me ? " 
 
 " Because the bird had directed its flight towards the park, 
 sire, and when we returned to the river bank we saw you half
 
 THE EXAMINATION. 465 
 
 a mile ahead of us, riding towards the forest. We set out to 
 gallop after you, therefore, for being in your Majesty's hunting- 
 party we did not wish to lose you." 
 
 " And were all these gentlemen invited also ? " said Charles. 
 
 " What gentlemen ? " asked Henry, casting an inquiring 
 look about. 
 
 " Why, your Huguenots, by Heaven ! " said Charles ; " at 
 all events if they were invited it was not by me." 
 
 "No, sire," replied Henry, "but possibly Monsieur d'Alen- 
 c.on asked them." 
 
 " Monsieur d'Alenc/ra ? How so ? " 
 
 " I ? " said the duke. 
 
 " Why, yes, brother," said Henry ; " did you not announce 
 yesterday that you were King of Navarre ? The Huguenots 
 who demanded you for their king have come to thank you for 
 having accepted the crown, and the King for having given it. 
 Is it not so, gentlemen ? " 
 
 " Yes ! yes ! " cried twenty voices. " Long live the Due 
 d'AlenQon ! Long live King Charles ! " 
 
 " I am not king of the Huguenots," said Fraugois, white 
 with anger ; then, glancing stealthily at Charles, " and I sin- 
 cerely trust I never shall be ! " 
 
 " No matter ! " said Charles, " but you must know, Henry, 
 that I consider all this very strange." 
 
 " Sire," said the King of Navarre, firmly, " God forgive me, 
 but one would say that I were undergoing an examination." 
 
 " And if I should tell you that you were, what would you 
 answer ? " 
 
 " That I am a king like yourself, sire," replied Henry, 
 proudly, " for it is not the crown but birth that makes royalty, 
 and that I would gladly answer any questions from my brother 
 and my friend, but never from my judge." 
 
 "And yet," murmured Charles, " I should really like to know 
 for once in my life how to act." 
 
 " Let Monsieur de Mouy be brought out," said D'Alenqou, 
 " and then you will know. Monsieur de Mouy must be among 
 the prisoners." 
 
 " Is Monsieur de Mouy here ? " asked the King. 
 
 Henry felt a moment's anxiety and exchanged glances with 
 Marguerite ; but his uneasiness was of short duration. 
 
 No voice replied. 
 
 " Monsieur de Mouy is not among the prisoners," said Mon-
 
 466 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 sieur de Nancey ; " some of our men think they saw him, but no 
 one is sure of it." 
 
 D'Alengon uttered an oath. 
 
 " Well ! " said Marguerite, pointing to La Mole and Cocon- 
 nas, who had heard all that had passed, and on whose intelli- 
 gence she felt she could depend, " there are two gentlemen in 
 the service of Monsieur d'Alenqon ; question them ; they will 
 answer." 
 
 The duke felt the blow. 
 
 " I had them arrested on purpose to prove that they do not 
 belong to me," said he. 
 
 The King looked at the two friends and started on seeing 
 La Mole again. 
 
 " Ah ! that Provencal here ? " said he. 
 
 Coconnas bowed graciously. 
 
 "What were you doing when you were arrested?" asked 
 the King. 
 
 " Sire, we were planning deeds of war and of love." 
 
 " On horseback, armed to the teeth, ready for flight ! " 
 
 " No, sire," said Coconnas ; "your Majesty is misinformed. 
 We were lying under the shade of a beech tree sub tegmine 
 fagi" 
 
 " Ah ! so you were lying under the shade of a beech tree ? " 
 
 " And we might easily have escaped had we thought that in 
 any way we had roused your Majesty's anger. Now, gentle- 
 men, on your honor as soldiers," continued Coconnas, turning 
 to the light-horse, " do you not think that had we so wished 
 we could have escaped ? " 
 
 " The fact is," said the lieutenant, " that these gentlemen 
 did not even attempt to run." 
 
 " Because their horses were too far away," said the Due 
 d'AlenQon. 
 
 " I humbly beg monseigneur's pardon," said Coconnas ; 
 " but I was on mine, and my friend the Comte Lerac de la 
 Mole was holding his by the bridle." 
 
 " Is this true, gentlemen ? " said the King. 
 
 " Yes, sire," replied the lieutenant ; " on seeing us Monsieur 
 de Coconnas even dismounted." 
 
 Coconnas smiled in a way which signified, " You see, sire ! " 
 
 " But the other horses, the mules, and the boxes with which 
 they were laden ? " asked Frangois.
 
 THE EXAMINATION. 467 
 
 " Well," said Coconnas, " are we stable boys ? Send for the 
 grooiu who had charge of them." 
 
 " He is not here,'' exclaimed the duke, furious. 
 
 " Then he must have become frightened and run away," said 
 Coconnas ; " one cannot expect a clown to have the manners 
 of a gentleman." 
 
 "Always the same system," said D'Alenqon, gnashing his 
 teeth. " Fortunately, sire, I told you that for some time these 
 gentlemen have not been in my service." 
 
 " I ! " exclaimed Coconnas, " am I unfortunate enough no 
 longer to belong to your highness ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! monsieur, you ought to know that better than 
 any one, since you yourself gave me your dismissal, in a letter 
 so impertinent that, thank God, I kept it, and fortunately 
 have it with me." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Coconnas, " I had hoped that your high- 
 ness would forgive me for a letter written under the first im- 
 pulse of anger. I had been told that your highness had tried 
 to strangle my friend La Mole in one of the corridors of the 
 Louvre." 
 
 " What is he saying ? " interrupted the King. 
 
 " At first I thought your highness was alone," continued 
 Coconnas, ingenuously, " but afterwards I learned that three 
 others " 
 
 " Silence ! " exclaimed Charles ; " we have heard enough. 
 Henry," said he to the King of Navarre, " your word not to try 
 to escape." 
 
 " I give it to your Majesty, sire." 
 
 " Return to Paris with Monsieur de Nancey, and remain in 
 your chamber under arrest. You, gentlemen," continued he, 
 addressing the two friends, " give up your swords." 
 
 La Mole looked at Marguerite. She smiled. La Mole at 
 once handed his sword to the nearest officer. Coconnas did 
 the same. 
 
 " Has Monsieur de Mouy been found ? " asked the King. 
 
 " No, sire," said Monsieur de Nancey ; " either he was not 
 in the forest or he escaped." 
 
 " So much the worse," said the King ; " but let us return. 
 I am cold and dizzy." 
 
 " Sire, it is from anger, probably," said Franqois. 
 
 " Possibly ; but my eyes trouble me. Where are the pris- 

 
 468 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 oners ? I cannot see them. Is it night already ? Oh ! 
 mercy ! I am burning up ! Help ! Help ! " 
 
 The unfortunate King dropped the bridle of his horse, 
 stretched out his arms, and fell backward. The courtiers, 
 frightened at this second attack, caught him as he fell. 
 
 Francois, standing apart, wiped the perspiration from his 
 brow, for he alone knew the cause of the trouble from which 
 kis brother was suffering. 
 
 On the other side the King of Navarre, already under the 
 guard of Monsieur de Nancey, looked upon the scene with 
 growing astonishment. 
 
 " Well ! well ! " murmured he, with that wonderful intuition 
 which at times made him seem inspired, " was I perhaps for- 
 tunate in having been stopped in my flight ? " 
 
 He glanced at Margot, whose great eyes, wide open with 
 surprise, were looking first at him and then at the King. 
 
 This time Charles was unconscious. A litter was brought 
 and he was laid on it. They covered him with a cloak, taken 
 from the shoulders of one of the courtiers. The procession 
 silently set out in the direction of Paris, whence that morning 
 light-hearted conspirators and a happy King had started forth, 
 and to which now a dying King was returning, surrounded by 
 rebel prisoners. 
 
 Marguerite, who throughout all this had lost neither the 
 control of her mind nor body, gave her husband a look of intel- 
 ligence ; then, passing so close to La Mole that the latter was 
 able to catch the following two Greek words, she said : 
 
 " Me deide" which meant, " Fear nothing." 
 
 " What did she say ? " asked Coconnas. 
 
 " She told me to fear nothing," replied La Mole. 
 
 " So much the worse," murmured the Piedmontese, " so much 
 the worse ; that means that it is not good for us to be here. 
 Every time that word has been said to me in an encouraging 
 tone I have either received a bullet or a sword-thrust in my 
 body, or a flower pot on my head. ' Fear nothing,' whether in 
 Hebrew, Greek, Latin, or French, has always meant for me : 
 < Take care ! ' ' 
 
 " Forward, gentlemen ! " said the lieutenant of the light- 
 horse. 
 
 " Without being indiscreet, monsieur," said Coconnas, " may 
 we know where we are going ? " 
 
 " To Vincennes, I think," said the lieutenant.
 
 THE EXAMINATION. 469 
 
 " I would rather go elsewhere," said Coconnas ; " but one 
 does not always go just where one wishes." 
 
 On the way the King recovered consciousness and some 
 strength. 
 
 At Nanterre he even wanted to ride, but this was not 
 allowed. 
 
 " Summon Maitre Ambroise Pare," said Charles, on reach- 
 ing the Louvre. 
 
 He descended from his litter, ascended the stairs, leaning on 
 the arm of Tavannes, and entered his apartment, giving orders 
 that no one be allowed to follow him. 
 
 Every one had noticed that he seemed very grave. During 
 the journey he had been in a deep study, not addressing a 
 word to any one, concerned neither with conspiracy nor con- 
 spirators. It was evident that he was occupied with his ill- 
 ness; a malady so sudden, so strange, so severe, some of the 
 symptoms of which had been noticed in his brother Franqois 
 II. a short time before his death. 
 
 So the order to admit no one whomsoever to his rooms, 
 except Maitre Pare, caused no surprise. It was well known 
 that the prince was a misanthrope. Charles entered his sleep- 
 ing-room, seated himself in a folding-chair, and leaned his head 
 against the cushions. Then reflecting that Maitre Ambroise 
 Pare might not be at home, and that there might be some 
 delay before he saw him, he decided to employ the intervening 
 time. 
 
 He clapped his hands, thus summoning a guard. 
 
 " Say to the King of Navarre that I wish to speak with 
 him," said Charles. 
 
 The man bowed and withdrew. 
 
 Just then Charles's head fell back, a great weight seemed to 
 oppress him ; his ideas grew confused ; it was as if a sort of 
 bloody vapor were floating before his eyes ; his mouth was dry, 
 although he had already swallowed a whole carafe of water. 
 
 While he was in this drowsy state the door opened and 
 Henry appeared. Monsieur de Nancey had followed him, but 
 stopped in the antechamber. 
 
 The King of Navarre waited until the door was closed. 
 Then he advanced. 
 
 " Sire," said he, " you sent for me ; I am here." 
 
 The King started at the voice and mechanically extended 
 his hand.
 
 470 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, letting his arms hang at his side, " your 
 Majesty forgets that I arn no longer your brother but your 
 prisoner." 
 
 " Ah ! that is true," said Charles. " Thank you for having 
 reminded me of it. Moreover, it seems to me that when we 
 last spoke together you promised to answer frankly what I 
 might ask you." 
 
 " I am ready to keep my word, sire. Ask your questions." 
 
 The King poured some cold water into his hand and applied 
 it to his forehead. 
 
 " Tell me, Henry, how much truth is there in the accusa- 
 tion brought against you by the Due d'Alengon ? " 
 
 " Only a little. It was Monsieur d'Alencon who was to have 
 fled, and I who was to have accompanied him." 
 
 " And why should you have gone with him ? Are you dis- 
 satisfied with me, Henry ? " 
 
 " No, sire ; on the contrary, I have only praise for your 
 majesty ; and God, who reads our hearts, knows how deeply I 
 love my brother and my King." 
 
 " It seems to me," said Charles, " that it is not natural to 
 flee from those we love and who love us." 
 
 " I was not fleeing from those who love me ; I was fleeing 
 from those who hate me. Will your Majesty permit me to 
 speak openly ? " 
 
 " Speak, monsieur." 
 
 " Those who hate me, sire, are Monsieur d'Alenqon and the 
 queen mother." 
 
 " As for Monsieur d'Alenqon I will not answer ; but the 
 queen mother overwhelms you with attentions." 
 
 " That is just why I mistrust her, sire. And I do well to 
 do so." 
 
 " Mistrust her ? " 
 
 " Her, or those about her. You know, sire, that the misfor- 
 tune of kings is not always that they are too little but that 
 they are too well served." 
 
 " Explain yourself ; you promised to tell me everything." 
 
 " Your Majesty will see that I will do so." 
 
 "Continue." 
 , " Your Majesty loves me, you have said." 
 
 " I loved you before your treason, Henry." 
 
 " Pretend that you still love me, sire." 
 
 " Very well."
 
 THE EXAMINATION. 471 
 
 " If you love me you must want me to live, do you not ? " 
 
 " I should be wretched were any harm to befall you." 
 
 " Well, sire, twice your Majesty has just escaped being 
 wretched." 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 " Twice Providence has saved my life. It is true that the 
 second time Providence assumed the features of your Maj- 
 esty ? " 
 
 " What form did it assume the first time ? " 
 
 " That of a man who would be greatly surprised to see him- 
 self mistaken for Providence; 1 mean Rene. You, sire, saved 
 me from steel." 
 
 Charles frowned, for he remembered the night when he had 
 taken Henry to the Rue des Barres. 
 
 " And Rene ? " said he. 
 
 " Rene saved me from poison." 
 
 " The deuce, Henriot, you have luck," said the King, trying 
 to smile. But a quick spasm of pain changed the effort into 
 a nervous contraction of the lips. " That is not his pro- 
 fession." 
 
 " Two miracles saved me, sire. A miracle of repentance on 
 the part of the Florentine, and a miracle of goodness on your 
 part. Well ! I will confess to your Majesty that I am afraid 
 Heaven will grow weary of working miracles, and I tried to 
 run away, because of the proverb : ' Heaven helps those who 
 help themselves.' " 
 
 " Why did you not tell me this sooner, Henriot ? " 
 
 " Had I uttered these words yesterday I should have been 
 a denunciator." 
 
 " And to-day ? " 
 
 " To-day is different I am accused and I am defending 
 myself." 
 
 " Are you sure of the first attempt, Henriot ? " 
 
 " As sure as I am of the second." 
 
 " And they tried to poison you ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " With what ? " 
 
 " With an opiate." 
 
 " How could they poison you with an opiate ? " 
 
 " Why, sire, ask Rene ; poisoning is done with gloves " 
 
 Charles frowned ; then by degrees his brow cleared. 
 
 " Yes," said he, as if speaking to himself. " It is the nature
 
 472 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 of wild creatures to flee from death. Why, then, should not 
 knowledge do what instinct does ? " 
 
 "Well, sire ! " said Henry, " is your Majesty satisfied with 
 my frankness, and do you believe that I have told you every- 
 thing ? " 
 
 " Yes, Henriot, and you are a good fellow. Do you think 
 that those who hate you have grown weary, or will new 
 attempts be made on your life ? " 
 
 <% Sire, every evening I am surprised to find myself still 
 living." 
 
 " It is because they know I love you, Henriot, that they 
 wish to kill you. But do not worry. They shall be punished 
 for their evil intentions. Meanwhile you are free." 
 
 "Free to leave Paris, sire ? " asked Henry. 
 
 " No ; you well know that I cannot possibly do without you. 
 In the name of a thousand devils ! I must have some one here 
 who loves me." 
 
 " Then, sire, if your Majesty keep me with you, will you 
 grant me a favor " 
 
 What is it ? " 
 
 " Not to keep me as a friend, but as a prisoner. Yes ; does 
 not your Majesty see that it is your friendship for me that is 
 my ruin ? " 
 
 " Would you prefer my hatred ? " 
 
 " Your apparent hatred, sire. It will save me. As soon as 
 they think I am in disgrace they will be less anxious for my 
 death." 
 
 " Henriot," said Qharles, " I know neither what you desire, 
 nor what object you seek ; but if your wishes do not succeed, 
 and if your object is not accomplished, I shall be greatly sur- 
 prised." 
 
 " I may, then, count on the severity of the King ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " In that case I shall be less uneasy. Now what are your 
 Majesty's commands ? " 
 
 " Return to your apartments, Henriot, I am in pain. I will 
 see my dogs and then go to bed." 
 
 " Sire," said Henry, " your Majesty ought to send for a 
 physician. Your trouble is perhaps more serious than you 
 imagine." 
 
 " I have sent for Maitre Ambroise Pare, Henriot." 
 
 " Then I shall retire more satisfied."
 
 A CTfiON. 473 
 
 " Upon ray soul," said the King, " I believe that of all my 
 family you are the only one who really loves me." 
 
 " Is this indeed your opinion, sire ? " 
 
 " On the word of a gentleman." 
 
 " Then commend me to Monsieur de Nancey as a man your 
 deep anger may not allow to live a month. By this means you 
 will have me many years to love you." 
 
 " Monsieur de Nancey ! " cried Charles. 
 
 The captain of the guards entered. 
 
 " I commit into your hands the most guilty man of my 
 kingdom. You will answer for him with your life." 
 
 Henry assumed an air of consternation, and followed Mon- 
 sieur de Nancey. 
 
 CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 ACTION. 
 
 CHARLES, left alone, wondered greatly at not having seen 
 either of his favorites, his nurse Madeleine* or his greyhound 
 Acteon. 
 
 " Nurse must have gone to chant psalms with some Hugue- 
 not of her acquaintance," said he to himself ; " and Acteon is 
 probably still angry with me for the whipping I gave him this 
 morning." 
 
 Charles took a candle and went into his nurse's room. The 
 good woman was not there. From her chamber a door opened 
 into the armory, it may be remembered. The King started 
 towards this door, but as he did so he was seized with one of 
 those spasms he had already felt, and which seemed to attack 
 him suddenly. He felt as if his entrails were being run 
 through with a red-hot iron, and an unquenchable thirst con- 
 sumed him. Seeing a cup of milk on the table, he swallowed 
 it at a gulp, and felt somewhat relieved. 
 
 Taking the candle he had set down, he entered the armory. 
 
 To his great astonishment Acte'on did not come to meet him. 
 Had he been shut up ? If so, he would have known that his 
 master had returned from hunting, and would have barked. 
 
 Charles called and whistled, but no animal appeared. He 
 advanced a few steps, and as the light from the candle fell
 
 474 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 upon a corner of the room, he perceived an inert something 
 lying there on the floor. 
 
 " Why ! hello, Acteon ! " cried Charles. He whistled 
 again, but the dog did not stir. Charles hastened forward and 
 touched him ; the poor beast was stiff and cold. From his 
 throat, contracted by pain, several drops of gall had fallen, 
 mixed with foamy and bloody saliva. The dog had found an 
 old cap of his master's in the armory, and had died with his 
 head resting on this object, which represented a friend. 
 
 At the sight, which made him forget his own pain and re- 
 stored all his energy, rage boiled in Charles's veins. He would 
 have cried out ; but, restrained as they are in their greatness, 
 kings are not free to yield to that first impulse which every 
 man turns to the profit of his passion or to his defence. Charles 
 reflected that there had been some treason, and was silent. 
 
 Then he knelt down before his dog and with experienced 
 eye examined the body. The eyes were glassy, the tongue red 
 and covered with pustules. It was a strange disease, and one 
 which made Charles shudder. The King put on his gloves, 
 which he had taken off and slipped into his belt, opened the 
 livid lips of the dog to examine his teeth, and perceived in 
 the interstices some white-looking fragments clinging to the 
 sharp points of the molars. He took out these pieces, and 
 saw that they were paper. Near where the paper had been 
 the swelling was greater, the gums were swollen, and the skin 
 looked as if it had been eaten by vitriol. 
 
 Charles gazed carefully around him. On the carpet lay two 
 or three bits of the paper similar to that which he had 
 already recognized in the dog's mouth. One of the pieces, 
 larger than the others, showed the marks of a woodcut. 
 Charles's hair stood on end, for he recognized a fragment of 
 the picture which represented a gentleman hawking, and 
 which Acteon had torn from the treatise on hunting. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, turning pale ; " the book was poisoned ! " 
 
 Then, suddenly remembering : 
 
 " A thousand devils ! " he exclaimed, " I touched every page 
 with my finger, and at every page I raised my finger to my 
 lips. These fainting-spells, these attacks of pain and vom- 
 iting ! I am a dead man ! " 
 
 For an instant Charles remained motionless under the 
 weight of this terrible thought. Then, rising with a dull 
 groan, he hastened to the door of the armory.
 
 ACTION. 475 
 
 " Maitre Re'ne' ! " he cried, " I want Maitre Re'ne', the 
 Florentine ; send some one as quickly as possible to the Pont 
 Saint Michel and bring him to me ! He must be here within 
 ten minutes. Let some one mount a horse and lead another 
 that he may come more quickly. If Maitre Ambroise Pare 
 arrives have him wait." 
 
 A guard went instantly to carry out the King's commands. 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Charles, " if I have to put everybody to 
 the torture, I will know who gave this book to Henriot ; " and 
 with perspiration on his brow, clenched hands, and heaving 
 breast, he stood with his eyes fixed on the body of his dead dog. 
 
 Ten minutes later the Florentine knocked timidly and not 
 without some anxiety at the door of the King's apartments. 
 There are some consciences to which the sky is never clear. 
 
 " Enter ! " said Charles. 
 
 The perfumer appeared. Charles went towards him with 
 imperious air and compressed lip. 
 
 " Your Majesty sent for me," said Rene, trembling. 
 
 " You are a skilful chemist, are you not ? " 
 
 Sire " 
 
 " And you know all that the cleverest doctors know ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty exaggerates." 
 
 " No ; my mother has told me so. Besides, I have confidence 
 in you, and I prefer to consult you rather than any one else. 
 See," he continued, pointing to the dog, "look at what this 
 animal has between his teeth, I beg you, and tell me of what 
 he died." 
 
 While Rene, candle in hand, bent over the floor as much to 
 hide his emotion as to obey the King, Charles stood up, his 
 eyes fixed on the man, waiting with an impatience easy to 
 understand for the reply which was to be his sentence of death 
 or his assurance of safety. 
 
 Re'ne drew a kind of scalpel from his pocket, opened it, and 
 with the point detached from the mouth of the greyhound 
 the particles of paper which adhered to the gums; then he 
 looked long and attentively at the humor and the blood which 
 oozed from each wound. 
 
 " Sire," said he, trembling, " the symptoms are very bad." 
 
 Charles felt an icy shudder run through his veins to his 
 very heart. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " the dog has been poisoned, has he not ? " 
 
 " I fear so, sire."
 
 476 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " With what sort of poison ? " 
 
 " With mineral poison, I think." 
 
 " Can you ascertain positively that he has been poisoned ? " 
 
 " Yes, certainly, by opening and examining the stomach." 
 
 " Open it. I wish there to be no doubt." 
 
 " I must call some one to assist me." 
 
 " I will help you," said Charles. 
 
 " You, sire ! " 
 
 " Yes. If he has been poisoned, what symptoms shall we 
 find ? " 
 
 " Red blotches and herborizations in the stomach." 
 
 "Come, then," said Charles, "begin." 
 
 With a stroke of the scalpel Rene opened the hound's body 
 and with his two hands removed the stomach, while Charles, 
 one knee on the floor, held the light with clenched and tremb- 
 ling hand. 
 
 " See, sire," said Rene ; " here are evident marks. These 
 are the red spots I spoke of ; as to these bloody veins, which 
 seem like the roots of a plant, they are what I meant by her- 
 borizations. I find here everything I looked for." 
 
 " So the dog was poisoned ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " With mineral poison ? " 
 
 " In all probability." 
 
 " And what symptoms would a man have who had inadver- 
 tently swallowed some of the same poison ? " 
 
 " Great pain in the head, internal burning as if he had 
 swallowed hot coals, pains in the bowels, and vomiting." 
 
 " Would he be thirsty ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " Intensely thirsty." 
 
 " That is it ! that is it ! " murmured the King. 
 
 " Sire, I seek in vain for the motive for all these questions." 
 
 " Of what use to seek it ? You need not know it. Answer 
 my questions, that is all." 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " What is the antidote to give a man who may have swal- 
 lowed the same substance as my dog ? " 
 
 Rene reflected an instant. 
 
 " There are several mineral poisons," said he ; " and before 
 answering I should like to know what you mean. Has your 
 Majesty any idea of the way in which your dog was 
 poisoned ? "
 
 ACTION. 477 
 
 " Yes," said Charles ; " he chewed the leaf of a book." 
 
 The leaf of a book ? " 
 
 < Yes." 
 
 " Has your Majesty this book ? " 
 
 " Here it is," said Charles, and, taking the volume from the 
 shelf where he had placed it, he handed it to Rene. 
 
 The latter gave a start of surprise which did not escape the 
 King. 
 
 " He ate a leaf of this book ? " stammered Rene. 
 
 " Yes, this one," and Charles pointed to the torn page. 
 
 " Will you allow me to tear out another, sire ? " 
 
 Do so." 
 
 Rene tore out a leaf and held it over the candle. The paper 
 caught fire, filling the room with a strong smell of garlic. 
 
 " He has been poisoned with a preparation of arsenic," said he. 
 
 " You are sure ? " 
 
 " As sure as if I had prepared it myself." 
 
 " And the antidote ? " 
 
 Rene shook his head. 
 
 " What ! " said Charles in a hoarse voice, " you know no 
 remedy ? " 
 
 " The best and most efficacious is the white of eggs beaten 
 in milk ; but " 
 
 But what ? " 
 
 " It must be administered at once ; otherwise " 
 
 Otherwise ? " 
 
 " Sire, it is a terrible poison." said Rene, again. 
 
 " Yet it does not kill immediately," said Charles. 
 
 " No, but it kills surely, no matter how long the time, 
 though even this may sometimes be calculated." 
 
 Charles leaned against the marble table. 
 
 " Now," said he, putting his hand on Rene's shoulder, " you 
 know this book ? " 
 
 " I, sire ? " said Rene, turning pale. 
 
 " Yes, you ; on seeing it you betrayed yourself." 
 
 " Sire, I swear to you " 
 
 " Rene," said Charles, " listen to me. You poisoned the 
 Queen of Navarre with gloves ; you poisoned the Prince of 
 Porcion with the smoke from a lamp ; you tried to poison Mon- 
 sieur de Conde with a scented apple. Rene, I will have your 
 skin removed with red-hot pincers, bit by bit, if you do not tell 
 me to whom this book belongs."
 
 478 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The Florentine saw that he could not dally with the anger of 
 Charles IX., and resolved to be bold. 
 
 " If I tell the truth, sire, who will guarantee that I shall 
 not be more cruelly punished than if I keep silent ? " 
 
 I will." 
 
 " Will you give me your royal word ? " 
 
 " On my honor as a gentleman your life shall be spared," 
 said the King. 
 
 " The book belongs to me, then," said Rene. 
 
 " To you ! " cried Charles, starting back and looking at the 
 poisoner with haggard eyes. 
 
 Yes, to me." 
 
 " How did it leave your possession ? " 
 
 " Her majesty the queen mother took it from my house." 
 
 " The queen mother ! " exclaimed Charles. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 With what object ? " 
 
 " With the intention, I think, of having it sent to the King 
 of Navarre, who had asked the Due d'Alenqon for a book of 
 the kind in order to study the art of hawking." 
 
 " Ah ! " cried Charles, that is it. I see it all. The book 
 indeed was in Henriot's room. There is a destiny about this 
 and I submit to it." 
 
 At that moment Charles was seized with a violent fit of 
 coughing, followed by fresh pain in the bowels. He gave two 
 or three stifled cries, and fell back in his chair. 
 
 " What is the matter, sire ? " asked Rene in a frightened 
 voice. 
 
 " Nothing," said Charles, " except that I am thirsty. Give 
 me something to drink." 
 
 Rene filled a glass with water and with trembling hand gave 
 it to Charles, who swallowed it at a draught. 
 
 " Now," said he, taking a pen and dipping it into the ink, 
 " write in this book." 
 
 " What must I write ? " 
 
 " What I am going to dictate to you : 
 
 " ' This book on hawking was given by me to the queen 
 mother, Catharine de Medicis.' " 
 
 Rene took the pen and wrote. 
 
 " Now sign your name." 
 
 The Florentine obeyed. 
 
 " You promised to save my life."
 
 THE FOREST OF VINCENNES.. 479 
 
 "I will keep my promise." 
 
 " But," said Rene, " the queen mother ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " said Charles, " I have nothing to do with her ; if 
 you are attacked defend yourself." 
 
 " Sire, may I leave France, where I feel that my life is in 
 danger ? " 
 
 " I will reply to that in a fortnight." 
 
 " But, in the meantime " 
 
 Charles frowned and placed his finger on his livid lips. 
 
 " You need not be afraid of me, sire." 
 
 And happy to have escaped so easily the Florentine bowed 
 and withdrew. 
 
 Behind him the nurse appeared at the door of her room. 
 
 " What is the matter, my Chariot ? " said she. 
 
 "Nurse, I have been walking in the dew, and have taken 
 cold." 
 
 " You are very pale, Chariot." 
 
 " It is because I am so weak. Give me your arm, nurse, as 
 far as my bed." 
 
 The nurse hastily came forward. 
 
 Charles leaned on her and reached his room. 
 
 " Now," said Charles, " I will put myself to bed." 
 
 " If Maitre Ambroise Pare comes ? " 
 
 "Tell him that I am better and that I do not need him." 
 
 " But, meanwhile, what will you take ? " 
 
 " Oh ! a very simple medicine," said Charles, " the whites 
 of eggs beaten in milk. By the way, nurse," he continued, " my 
 poor Acteon is dead. To-morrow morning he must be buried 
 in a corner of the garden of the Louvre. He was one of my 
 best friends. I will have a tomb made for him if I have 
 time." 
 
 CHAPTER LIV. 
 
 THE FOREST OF VINCENNES. 
 
 ACCORDING to the order given by Charles IX., Henry was 
 conducted that same evening to Vincennes. Such was the 
 name given at that time to the famous castle of which to-day 
 only a fragment remains, colossal enough, however, to give an 
 idea of its past grandeur. ,
 
 480 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The trip was made in a litter, on either side of which 
 walked four guards. 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey, bearing the order which was to open 
 to Henry the door of the protecting abode, walked first. 
 
 At the postern of the prison they stopped. Monsieur de 
 Nancey dismounted from his horse, opened the gate, which 
 was closed with a padlock, and respectfully asked the king to 
 follow. 
 
 Henry obeyed without uttering a word. Any dwelling 
 seemed to him safer than the Louvre, and ten doors closed on 
 him were at the same time ten doors shut between him and 
 Catharine de Medicis. 
 
 The royal prisoner crossed the drawbridge between two 
 soldiers, passed through the three doors on the ground floor 
 and the three at the foot of the staircase ; then, still preceded 
 by Monsieur de Nancey, he ascended one flight. Arrived there, 
 the captain of the guards, seeing that the king was about to 
 mount another flight, said to him : 
 
 " My lord, you are to stop here. " 
 
 " Ah ! " said Henry, pausing, " it seems that I am given 
 the honors of the first floor." 
 
 " Sire," replied Monsieur de Nancey, " you are treated like 
 a crowned head." 
 
 " The devil ! the devil ! " said Henry to himself, " two or 
 three floors more would in no way have humiliated me. I 
 shall be too comfortable here ; I suspect something." 
 
 " Will your majesty follow me ? " asked Monsieur de Nancey. 
 
 " Ventre saint gris ! " said the King of Navarre, " you know 
 very well, monsieur, that it is not a question of what I will 
 or will not do, biit of what my brother Charles orders. Did he 
 command that I should follow you ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire." 
 
 " Then I will do so, monsieur." 
 
 They reached a sort of corridor at the end of which they 
 came to a good-sized room, with dark and gloomy looking 
 walls. Henry gazed around him with a glance not wholly free 
 from anxiety. 
 
 " Where are we ? " he asked. 
 
 " In the chamber of torture, my lord." 
 
 " Ah ! " replied the king, looking at it more closely. 
 
 There was something of everything in this chamber pitch- 
 ers and wooden horses for the torture by water ; wedges and
 
 THE FOREST OF VINCENNES. 481 
 
 mallets for the torture of the boot ; besides stone benches nearly 
 all around the room for the wretches who awaited the torture. 
 Above these benches, at the seats themselves, and at their feet, 
 were iron rings fastened into the walls, without other symme- 
 try than that of the torturing art. But their proximity to the 
 seats sufficiently indicated that they were there in order to 
 await the limbs of those Avho were to occupy them. 
 
 Henry walked on without a word, but not a single detail of 
 all the hideous apparatus which, so to speak, had stamped the 
 history of suffering on the walls escaped him. 
 
 The king was so taken up with the objects about him that 
 he forgot to look where he was going, and came to a sudden 
 standstill. 
 
 " Ah ! " said he, " what is that ? " 
 
 And he pointed to a kind of ditch dug in the damp pave- 
 ment which formed the floor. 
 
 " That is the gutter, sire." 
 
 " Does it rain here, then ? " 
 
 " Yes, sire, blood." 
 
 " Ah ! " said Henry, " very good. Shall we not soon reach 
 my apartment ? " 
 
 " Yes, my lord, here it is," said a figure in the dark, which, 
 as it drew nearer, became clearer and more distinguishable. 
 
 Henry thought he recognized the voice, and advanced 
 towards the figure. 
 
 " So it is you, Beaulieu," said he. " What the devil are 
 you doing here ? " 
 
 " Sire, I have just received my appointment as governor of 
 the fortress of Vincennes." 
 
 " Well, my dear friend, your initiation does you honor. A 
 king for a prisoner is not bad." 
 
 " Pardon me, sire," said Beaulieu, " but I have already had 
 two gentlemen." 
 
 " Who are they ? But, pardon me, perhaps I am indiscreet. 
 If so, assume that I have said nothing." 
 
 " My lord, I have not been ordered to keep it secret. They 
 are Monsieur de la Mole and Monsieur de Coconnas." 
 
 " Ah ! that is true. I saw them arrested. Poor gentlemen, 
 and how do they bear this misfortune ? " 
 
 " Differently. One is gay, the other sad ; one sings, the 
 other groans." 
 
 " Which one groans ? "
 
 482 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole, sire." 
 
 " Faith," said Henry, " I can understand more easily the one 
 who groans than the one who sings. After what I have seen 
 the prison is not a very lively place. On what floor are they ? " 
 
 " High up ; on the fourth." 
 
 Henry heaved a sigh. It was there that he wished to be. 
 
 " Come, Monsieur de Beaulieu," said he, " be good enough 
 to show me my room. I am in haste to see it, as I am greatly 
 fatigued from the journey we have just made." 
 
 " This is it, my lord," said Beaulieu, pointing to an open door. 
 
 " Number two," said Henry ; " why not number one ? " 
 
 " Because that is reserved, my lord." 
 
 " Ah ! it seems, then, that you expect a prisoner of higher 
 rank than I." 
 
 " I did not say, my lord, that it was a prisoner." 
 
 Who is it, then ? " 
 
 " I beg my lord not to insist, for by refusing to answer I 
 should fail in the obedience due him." 
 
 " Ah ! that is another thing," said Henry. 
 
 And he became more pensive than before. Number one per- 
 plexed him, apparently. The governor was assiduous in his 
 attentions. With a thousand apologies he installed Henry in 
 his apartment, made every excuse for the comforts he might 
 lack, stationed two soldiers at the door, and withdrew. 
 
 " Now," said the governor, addressing the turnkey, " let us 
 go to the others." 
 
 The turnkey walked ahead. They took the same road by 
 which they had come, passed through the chamber of torture, 
 crossed the corridor, and reached the stairway. Then, still 
 following his guide, Monsieur de Beaulieu ascended three 
 flights. On reaching the fourth floor the turnkey opened suc- 
 cessively three doors, each ornamented with two locks and 
 three enormous bolts. He had scarcely touched the third 
 door before they heard a joyous voice exclaiming : 
 
 " By Heaven ! open ; if only to give us some air. Your 
 stove is so warm that I am stifled here." 
 
 And Coconnas, whom the reader has no doubt already recog- 
 nized from his favorite exclamation, bounded from where he 
 stood to the door. 
 
 " One instant, my gentleman," said the turnkey, " I have not 
 come to let you out, but to let myself in, and the governor is 
 with me."
 
 THE FOREST OF VINCENNES. 483 
 
 " The governor ! " said Coconnas, " what does he want ? " 
 
 " To pay you a visit." 
 
 " He does me great honor," said Coconnas ; " and he is 
 welcome." 
 
 Monsieur de Beaulieu entered and at once dispelled the 
 cordial smile of Coconnas by one of those icy looks which 
 belong to governors of fortresses, to jailers, and to hang- 
 men. 
 
 " Have you any money, monsieur ? " he asked of the pris- 
 oner. 
 
 " I ? " said Coconnas ; " not a crown." 
 
 Jewels ? " 
 
 " I have a ring." 
 
 " Will you allow me to search you ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas, reddening with anger, " you 
 take much on yourself, being in prison, and having me there 
 also." 
 
 " We must suffer everything for the service of the King." 
 
 " So," said the Piedmontese, " those good fellows who rob 
 on the Pont Neuf are like you, then, in the service of the 
 King. By Heavens ! I was very unjust, monsieur, for until 
 now I have taken them for thieves." 
 
 " Good evening, monsieur," said Beaulieu. " Jailer, lock 
 the door." 
 
 The governor went away, taking with him the ring, which 
 was a beautiful sapphire, given him by Madame de Nevers to 
 remind him of the color of her eyes. 
 
 "Now for the other," he said as he went out. 
 
 They crossed an empty chamber, and the game of three 
 doors, six locks, and nine bolts began anew. 
 
 The last door open, a sigh was the first sound that greeted 
 the visitors. 
 
 The apartment was more gloomy looking than the one 
 Monsieur de Beaulieu had just left. Four long narrow win- 
 dows admitted a feeble light into this mournful abode. Before 
 these, iron bars were crossed in such a way that the eye of 
 the prisoner was arrested by a dark line and prevented from 
 catching even a glimpse of the sky. From each corner of the 
 room pointed arches met in the middle of the ceiling, where 
 they spread out in Gothic fashion. 
 
 La Mole was seated in a corner, and, in spite of the entrance 
 of the visitors, appeared to have heard nothing.
 
 484 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 The governor paused on the threshold and looked for an 
 instant at the prisoner, who sat motionless, his head in his 
 hands. ' 
 
 " Good evening, Monsieur de la Mole," said Beaulieu. 
 
 The young man slowly raised his head. 
 
 " Good evening, monsieur," said he. 
 
 " Monsieur," continued the governor, " I have come to 
 search you." 
 
 " That is useless," said La Mole. " I will give you all I 
 have." 
 
 " What have you ? " 
 
 " About three hundred crowns, these jewels, and rings." 
 
 " Give them to me, monsieur," said the governor. 
 
 " Here they are." 
 
 La Mole turned out his pockets, took the rings from his fin- 
 ger, and the clasp from his hat. 
 
 " Have you nothing more ? " 
 
 " Not that I know of." 
 
 " And that silk cord around your neck, what may that be ? " 
 asked the governor. 
 
 "Monsieur, that is not a jewel, but a relic." 
 
 " Give it to me." 
 
 " What ! you demand it ? " 
 
 " I am ordered to leave you only your clothes, and a relic is 
 not an article of clothing." 
 
 La Mole made a gesture of anger, which, in the midst of the 
 dignified and pained calm which distinguished him, seemed 
 to impress the men accustomed to stormy emotions. 
 
 But he immediately recovered his self-possession. 
 
 " Very well, monsieur," said he, " you shall see what you 
 ask for." 
 
 Then, turning as if to approach the light, he unfastened the 
 pretended relic, which was none other than a medallion con- 
 taining a portrait, which he drew out and raised to his lips. 
 Having kissed it several times, he suddenly pretended to drop 
 it as by accident, and placing the heel of his boot on it he 
 crushed it into a thousand pieces. 
 
 " Monsieur ! " said the governor. 
 
 And he stooped down to see if he could not save the 
 unknown object which La Mole wished to hide from him ; but 
 the miniature was literally ground to powder. 
 
 " The King wished for this jewel," said La Mole, " but he
 
 THE FOREST OF VINCENNES. 485 
 
 had no right to the portrait it contained. Now, here is the 
 medallion ; you may take it." 
 
 " Monsieur," said Beaulieu, " I shall complain of you to the 
 King." 
 
 And without taking leave of his prisoner by a single word 
 he went out, so angry that without waiting to preside over the 
 task, he left to the turnkey the care of closing the doors. 
 
 The jailer turned to leave, but seeing that Monsieur de 
 Beaulieu had already started down the stairs : 
 
 " Faith ! monsieur," said he, turning back, " I did well to 
 ask you to give me the hundred crowns at once for which I 
 am to allow you to speak to your companion ; for had you not 
 done so the governor would have taken them from you with 
 the three hundred others, and my conscience would not have 
 allowed me to do anything for you; but as T was paid in 
 advance, I promised that you should see your friend. So 
 come. An honest man keeps his word. Only, if it is possible, 
 for your sake as much as for mine, do not talk politics." 
 
 La Mole left his apartment and found himself face to face 
 with Coconnas, who was walking up and down the flags of the 
 intermediate room. 
 
 The two friends rushed into each other's arms. 
 
 The jailer pretended to wipe the corner of his eye, and then 
 withdrew to watch that the prisoners were not surprised, or 
 rather that he himself was not caught. 
 
 " Ah ! here you are ! " said Coconnas. " Well, has that 
 dreadful governor paid his visit to you ? " 
 
 " Yes, as he did to you, I presume ? " 
 
 " Did he remove everything ? " 
 
 " And from you, too ? " 
 
 " Ah ! I had not much ; only a ring from Henriette, that 
 was all." 
 
 " And money ? " 
 
 " I gave all I had to the good jailer, so that he would 
 arrange this interview for us." 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " it seems that he had something 
 from both of us." 
 
 " Did you pay him too ? " 
 
 " I gave him a hundred crowns." 
 
 " So much the better." 
 
 " One can do everything with money, and I trust that we 
 shall not lack for it."
 
 486 MARGUERITE DE VALOTS. 
 
 " Do you know what has happened to us ? " 
 
 " Perfectly ; we have been betrayed." 
 
 " By that scoundrelly Due d'Alenqon. I should have been 
 right to twist his neck." 
 
 " Do you think our position serious ? " 
 
 " I fear so." 
 
 " Then there is likelihood of the torture ? " 
 
 " I will not hide from you the fact that I have already 
 thought of it." 
 
 " What should you do in that case ? " 
 
 " And you ? " 
 
 " I should be silent," replied La Mole, with a feverish flush. 
 
 " Silent ? " cried Coconnas. 
 
 " Yes, if I had the strength." 
 
 " Well," said Coconnas, " if they insult me in any such way 
 I promise you I will tell them a few things." 
 
 " What things ? " asked La Mole, quickly. 
 
 " Oh, be easy things which will prevent Monsieur 
 d'Alenc/jn from sleeping for some time." 
 
 La Mole was about to reply when the jailer, who no doubt 
 had heard some noise, appeared, and pushing each prisoner 
 into his respective cell, locked the doors again. 
 
 CHAPTER LV. 
 
 THE FIGURE OF WAX. 
 
 FOR a week Charles was confined to his bed by a slow fever, 
 interrupted by violent attacks which resembled epileptic fits. 
 During these attacks he uttered shrieks which the guards, 
 watching in his chamber, heard with terror, and the echoes of 
 which reached to the farthest corner of the old Louvre, aroused 
 so often by many a dreadful sound. Then, when these attacks 
 passed, Charles, completely exhausted, sank back with closed 
 eyes into the arms of his nurse. 
 
 To say that, each in his way, without communicating the 
 feeling to the other, for mother and son sought to avoid 
 rather than to see each other, to say that Catharine de Medicis 
 and the Due d'Alenqon revolved sinister thoughts in the depths
 
 THE FIGURE OF WAX. 487 
 
 of their hearts would be to say that in that nest of vipers 
 moved a hideous swarm. 
 
 Henry was shut up in his chamber in the prison ; and at his 
 own request no one had been allowed to see him, not even 
 Marguerite. In the eyes of every one his imprisonment was 
 an open disgrace. Catharine and D'Alenqon, thinking him 
 lost, breathed once more, and Henry ate and drank more 
 calmly, hoping that he was forgotten. 
 
 At court no one suspected the cause of the King's illness. 
 Maitre Ambroise Pare and Mazille, his colleague, thought it 
 was inflammation of the bowels, and had prescribed a regimen 
 which aided the special drink given by Rene. Charles received 
 this, his only nourishment, three times a day from the hands 
 of his nurse. 
 
 La Mole and Coconnas were at Vincennes in closest con- 
 finement. Marguerite and Madame de Nevers had made a 
 dozen attempts to reach them, or at least to send them a note, 
 but without success. One morning Charles felt somewhat 
 better, and wished the court to assemble. This was the usual 
 custom in the morning, although for some time no levee had 
 taken place. The doors were accordingly thrown open, and it 
 was easy to see, from his pale cheeks, yellow forehead, and 
 the feverish light in his deep-sunken eyes, which were sur- 
 rounded by dark circles, what frightful ravages the unknown 
 disease had made on the young monarch. 
 
 The royal chamber was soon filled with curious and inter- 
 ested courtiers. Catharine, D'Alenqon, and Marguerite had 
 been informed that the King was to hold an audience. There- 
 fore all three entered, at short intervals, one by one ; Catharine 
 calm, D'Alenqon smiling, Marguerite dejected. Catharine 
 seated herself by the side of the bed without noticing the look 
 that Charles gave her as he saw her approach. 
 
 Monsieur d'Alenc/m stood at the foot. 
 
 Marguerite leaned against a table, and seeing the pale brow, 
 the worn features, and deep-sunken eyes of her brother, could 
 not repress a sigh and a tear. 
 
 Charles, whom nothing escaped, saw the tear and heard the 
 sigh, and with his head made a slight motion to Marguerite. 
 
 This sign, slight as it was, lighted the face of the poor 
 Queen of Navarre, to whom Henry had not had time or per- 
 haps had not wished to say anything. 
 
 She feared for her husband, she trembled for her lover.
 
 488 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 For herself she had no fear ; she knew La Mole well, and felt 
 she could rely on him. 
 
 " Well, my dear son," said Catharine, " how do you feel ? " 
 
 "Better, mother, better." 
 
 " What do your physicians say ? " 
 
 " My physicians ? They are clever doctors, mother," said 
 Charles, bursting into a laugh. " I take great pleasure, I admit, 
 in hearing them discuss my malady. Nurse, give me some- 
 thing to drink." 
 
 The nurse brought Charles a cup of his usual beverage. 
 
 " What do they order you to take, my son ? " 
 
 " Oh ! madame, who knows anything about their prepara- 
 tions ? " said the King, hastily swallowing the drink. 
 
 " What my brother needs," said Francois, " is to rise and get 
 out into the open air ; hunting, of which he is so fond, would 
 do him a great deal of good." 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, with a smile, the meaning of which it 
 was impossible for the duke to understand, " and yet the last 
 hunt did me great harm." 
 
 Charles uttered these words in such a strange way that the 
 conversation, in which the others present had not taken part, 
 stopped. Then the King gave a slight nod of his head. The 
 courtiers understood that the audience was over, and with- 
 drew one after another. 
 
 D'Alenqon started to approach his brother, but some secret 
 feeling stopped him. He bowed and went out. 
 
 Marguerite seized the wasted hand her brother held out to 
 her, pressed it, and kissed it. Then she, in turn, withdrew. 
 
 " Dear Margot ! " murmured Charles. 
 
 Catharine alone remained, keeping her place at the side of 
 the bed. Finding himself alone with her, Charles recoiled as 
 if from a serpent. 
 
 Instructed by the words of Rene, perhaps still better by 
 silence and meditation, Charles no longer had even the happi- 
 ness of doubt. 
 
 He knew perfectly to whom and to what to attribute his 
 approaching death. 
 
 So, when Catharine drew near to the bed and extended to 
 him a hand as cold as his glance, the King shuddered in fear. 
 
 " Yoxi have remained, madame ? " said he. 
 
 " Yes, rny son," replied Catharine, " I must speak to you on 
 important matters."
 
 THE FIGURE OF WAX. 489 
 
 " Speak, madame," said Charles, again recoiling. 
 
 "Sire!" said the queen, "you said just now that your 
 physicians were great doctors ! " 
 
 " And I say so again, madame." 
 
 " Yet what have they done during your illness ? " 
 
 " Nothing, it is true but if you had heard what they said 
 really, madame, one might afford to be ill if only to listen 
 to their learned discussions." 
 
 " Well, my son, do you want me to tell you something ? " 
 
 " What is it, mother ? " 
 
 " I suspect that all these clever doctors know nothing what- 
 ever about your malady." 
 
 " Indeed, madame ! " 
 
 " They may, perhaps, see a result, but they are ignorant of 
 the cause." 
 
 " That is possible," said Charles, not understanding what his 
 mother was aiming at. 
 
 " So that they treat the symptoms and not the ill itself." 
 
 " On my soul ! " said Charles, astonished, " I believe you are 
 right, mother." 
 
 " Well, my son," said Catharine, " as it is good neither for 
 my happiness nor the welfare of the kingdom for you to be ill 
 so long, and as your mind might end by becoming affected, I 
 assembled the most skilful doctors." 
 
 " In the science of medicine, madame ? " 
 
 " No, in a more profound science : that which helps not only 
 the body but the mind as well." 
 
 " Ah ! a beautiful science, madame," said Charles, " and one 
 which the doctors are right in not teaching to crowned heads ! 
 Have your researches had any result ? " he continued. 
 
 Yes." 
 
 What was it ? " 
 
 "That which I hoped for; I bring to your Majesty that 
 which will cure not only your body but your mind." 
 
 Charles shuddered. He thought that finding that he was 
 still living his mother had resolved to finish knowingly that 
 which she had begun unconsciously. 
 
 " Where is this remedy ? " said he, rising on his elbow and 
 looking at his mother. 
 
 " In the disease itself," replied Catharine. 
 
 " Then where is that ? " 
 
 " Listen to me, my son," said Catharine ; " have you not
 
 490 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 sometimes heard it said that there are secret enemies who in 
 their revenge assassinate their victim from a distance ? " 
 
 " By steel or poison ? " asked Charles, without once turning 
 his eyes from the impassible face of his mother. 
 
 "No, by a surer and much more terrible means," said 
 Catharine. 
 
 " Explain yourself." 
 
 " My son," asked the Florentine, " do you believe in charms 
 and magic ? " 
 
 Charles repressed a smile of scorn and incredulity. 
 
 " Fully," said he. 
 
 " Well," said Catharine, quickly, " from magic comes all your 
 suffering. An enemy of your Majesty who would not have 
 dared to attack you openly has conspired in secret. He has 
 directed against your Majesty a conspiracy much more terrible 
 in that he has no accomplices, and the mysterious threads of 
 which cannot be traced." 
 
 " Faith, no ! " said Charles, aghast at such cunning. 
 
 " Think well, my son," said Catharine, " and recall to mind 
 certain plans for flight which would have assured impunity to 
 the murderer." 
 
 " To the murderer ! " cried Charles. " To the murderer, you 
 say ? Has there been an attempt to kill me, mother ? " 
 
 Catharine's changing eye rolled hypocritically under its 
 wrinkled lid. 
 
 " Yes, my son ; you doubt it, perhaps, but I know it for a 
 certainty." 
 
 " I never doubt what you tell me, mother," replied the King, 
 bitterly. " How was the attempt made ? I am anxious to 
 know." 
 
 " By magic." 
 
 " Explain yourself, madame," said Charles, recalled by his 
 loathing to his role of observer. 
 
 " If the conspirator I mean, and one whom at heart your 
 Majesty already suspects, had succeeded in his plans, no one 
 would have fathomed the cause of your Majesty's sufferings. 
 Fortunately, however, sire, your brother watched over you." 
 
 Which brother ? " 
 
 " D'Alenqon." 
 
 " Ah ! yes, that is true ; I always forget that I have a 
 brother," murmured Charles, laughing bitterly ; " so you say, 
 madame "
 
 THE FIGURE OF. WAX. 491 
 
 " That fortunately he revealed the conspiracy. But while 
 he, inexperienced child that he is, sought only the traces of 
 an ordinary plot, the proofs of a young man's escapade, I 
 sought for proofs of a much more important deed; for I 
 understand the reach of the guilty one's mind." 
 
 " Ah ! mother, one would say you were speaking of the 
 King of Navarre," said Charles, anxious to see how far this 
 Florentine dissimulation would go. 
 
 Catharine hypocritically dropped her eyes. 
 
 "I have had him arrested and taken to Vincennes for his 
 escapade," continued the King ; " is he more guilty than I sus- 
 pected, then ? " 
 
 " Do you feel the fever that consumes you ? " asked Catha- 
 rine. 
 
 " Yes, certainly, madame," said Charles, frowning. 
 
 " Do you feel the fire that burns you internally ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame," replied Charles, his brow darkening more 
 and more. 
 
 " And the sharp pains in your head, which shoot from your 
 eyes to your brain like so many arrows ? " 
 
 " Yes, madame. I feel all that. You describe my trouble 
 perfectly ! " 
 
 " Well ! the explanation is very simple," said the Floren- 
 tine. " See." 
 
 And she drew from under her cloak an object which she 
 gave to the King. 
 
 It was a figure of yellow wax, about six inches high, clothed 
 in a robe covered with golden stars also of wax, like the 
 figure ; and over this a royal mantle of the same material. 
 
 Well," asked Charles, " what is this little statue ? " 
 
 " See what it has on its head," said Catharine. 
 
 " A crown," replied Charles. 
 
 " And in the heart ? " 
 
 A needle." 
 
 " Well, sire, do you recognize yourself ? " 
 
 Myself ? " 
 
 " Yes, you, with your crown and mantle ? " 
 
 " Who made this figure ? " asked Charles, whom this farce 
 was beginning to weary ; " the King of Navarre, no doubt ? " 
 
 " No, sire." 
 
 " No ? then I do not understand you." 
 
 " I say no" replied Catharine, " because you asked the
 
 492 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 question literally. I should have said yes had you put it dif- 
 ferently." 
 
 Charles made no answer. He was striving to penetrate all 
 the thoughts of that shadowy mind, which constantly closed 
 before him just as he thought himself ready to read it. 
 
 " Sire," continued Catharine, " this statue was found by the 
 Attorney-General Laguesle, in the apartment of the man who 
 on the day you last went hawking led a horse for the King 
 of Navarre." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Yes, and, if you please, look again at the needle in the 
 heart, and see what letter is written on the label attached to it." 
 
 " I see an < M,' " said Charles. 
 
 " That means mort, death ; it is the magic formula, sire. The 
 maker thus wrote his vow on the very wound he gave. Had 
 he wished to make a pretence at killing, as did the Due de 
 Bretagne for King Charles VI., he would have driven the 
 needle into the head and put an { F ' instead of an ( M.' " 
 
 " So," said Charles IX., " according to your idea, the person 
 who seeks to end my clays is Monsieur de la Mole ? " 
 
 " Yes, he is the dagger ; but behind the dagger is the hand 
 that directs it." 
 
 " This then is the sole cause of my illness ? the day the 
 charm is destroyed the malady will cease ? But how go to 
 work ? " asked Charles, " you must know, mother ; but I, 
 unlike you, who have spent your whole life studying them, 
 know nothing about charms and spells." 
 
 " The death of the conspirator destroys the charm, that is 
 all. The day the charm is destroyed your illness will cease," 
 said Catharine. 
 
 " Indeed ! " said Charles, with an air of surprise. 
 
 " Did you not know that ? " 
 
 " Why ! I am no sorcerer," said the King. 
 
 " Well, now," said Catharine, "your Majesty is convinced, 
 are you not ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " Conviction has dispelled anxiety ? " 
 
 " Completely." 
 
 " You do not say so out of complaisance ? " 
 
 " No, mother ! I say it from the bottom of my heart." 
 
 Catharine's face broke into smiles. 
 
 " Thank God ! " she exclaimed, as if she believed in God.
 
 THE FIGURE OF WAX. 493 
 
 " Yes, thank God ! '' repeated Charles, ironically ; " I know 
 now, as you do, to whom to attribute my present condition, 
 and consequently whom to punish." 
 
 " And you will punish " 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole ; did you not say that he was the 
 guilty party ? " 
 
 " I said that he was the instrument." 
 
 " Well," said Charles, " Monsieur de la Mole first ; he is the 
 most important. All these attacks on me might arouse dan- 
 gerous suspicions. It is imperative that there be some light 
 thrown on the matter and from this light the truth may be 
 discovered." 
 
 " So Monsieur de la Mole " 
 
 " Suits me admirably as the guilty one ; therefore I accept 
 him. We will begin with him ; and if he has an accomplice, 
 he shall speak." 
 
 " Yes," murmured Catharine, " and if he does not, we will 
 make him. We have infallible means for that." 
 
 Then rising : 
 
 " Will you permit the trial to begin, sire ? " 
 
 " I desire it, madame," replied Charles, " and the sooner the 
 better." 
 
 Catharine pressed the hand of her son without comprehend- 
 ing the nervous grasp with which he returned it, and left the 
 apartment without hearing the sardonic laugh of the King, or 
 the terrible oath which followed the laugh. 
 
 Charles wondered if it were not dangerous to let this woman 
 go thus, for in a few hours she would have done so much that 
 there would be no way of stopping it. 
 
 As he watched the curtain fall after Catharine, he heard a 
 light rustle behind him, and turning he perceived Marguerite, 
 who raised the drapery before the corridor leading to his 
 nurse's rooms. 
 
 Marguerite's pallor, her haggard eyes and oppressed breath- 
 ing betrayed the most violent emotion. 
 
 " Oh, sire ! sire ! " she exclaimed, rushing to her brother's 
 bedside; "you know that she lies." 
 
 " She ? Who ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " Listen, Charles, it is a terrible thing to accuse one's 
 mother ; but I suspected that she remained with you to perse- 
 cute them again. But, on my life, on yours, on our souls, I 
 tell you what she says is false ! "
 
 494 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 11 To persecute them ! Whom is she persecuting?" 
 
 Both had instinctively lowered their voices ; it seemed as if 
 they themselves feared even to hear them. 
 
 " Henry, in the first place ; your Henriot, who loves you, 
 who is more devoted to you than any one else." 
 
 " You think so, Margot ? " said Charles. 
 
 " Oh ! sire, I am sure of it." 
 
 " Well, so am I," said Charles. 
 
 " Then if you are sure of it, brother," said Marguerite, sur- 
 prised, " why did you have him arrested and taken to 
 Vincennes ? " 
 
 " Because he asked me to do so." 
 
 " He asked you, sire ? " 
 
 " Yes, Henriot has singular ideas. Perhaps he is wrong, 
 perhaps right ; at any rate, one of his ideas was that he would 
 be safer in disgrace than in favor, away from me at Vincennes 
 instead of near me in the Louvre." 
 
 " Ah ! I see," said Marguerite, " and is he safe there ? " 
 
 " As safe as a man can be whose head Beaulieu answers for 
 with his own." 
 
 " Oh ! thank you, brother ! so much for Henry. But " 
 
 But what ? " 
 
 " There is another, sire, in whom perhaps I am wrong to be 
 interested, but " 
 
 Who is it ? " 
 
 " Sire, spare me. I would scarcely dare name him to my 
 brother, much less to my King." 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole, is it not ? " said Charles. 
 
 " Alas ! " said Marguerite, " you tried to kill him once, sire, 
 and he escaped from your royal vengeance only by a miracle." 
 
 " He was guilty of only one crime then, Marguerite ; now he 
 has committed two." 
 
 " Sire, he is not guilty of the second." 
 
 " But," said Charles, " did you not hear what our good 
 mother said, my poor Margot ? " 
 
 " Oh, I have already told you, Charles," said Marguerite, 
 lowering her voice, " that what she said was false." 
 
 " You do not know perhaps that a waxen figure has been 
 found in Monsieur de la Mole's rooms ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes, brother, I know it." 
 
 " That this figure is pierced to the heart by a needle, and 
 that it bears a tag with an ' M ' on it ? "
 
 THE FIGURE OF WAX. 495 
 
 " I know that, too." 
 
 " And that over the shoulders of the figure is a royal mantle, 
 and that on its head is a royal crown ? " 
 
 " I know all that." 
 
 " Well ! what have you to say to it ? " 
 
 " This : that the figure with a royal cloak and a crown on its 
 head is that of a woman, and not that of a man." 
 
 " Bah ! " said Charles, " and the needle in its heart ? " 
 
 " Was a charm to make himself beloved by this woman, and 
 pot a charm to kill a man." 
 
 "But the letter <M' ?" 
 
 " It does not mean mart) as the queen mother said." 
 
 " What does it mean, then ? " asked Charles. 
 
 " It means it means the name of the woman whom Mon- 
 sieur de la Mole loves." 
 
 " And what is the name of this woman ? " 
 
 " Marguerite, brother ! " cried the Queen of Navarre, fall- 
 ing on her knees before the King's bed, taking his hand between 
 both of hers, and pressing her face to it, bathed in tears. 
 
 " Hush, sister ! " said Charles, casting a sharp glance about 
 him beneath his frowning brow. " For just as you overheard 
 a moment ago, we may now be overheard again." 
 
 " What does it matter ? " exclaimed Mai'guerite, raising her 
 head, " if the whole world were present to hear me, I would 
 declare before it that it is infamous to abuse the love of 
 a gentleman by staining his reputation with a suspicion of 
 murder." 
 
 " Margot, suppose I were to tell you that I know as well as 
 you do who it is and who it is not ? " 
 
 " Brother ! " 
 
 " Suppose I were to tell you that Monsieur de la Mole is 
 innocent ? " 
 
 " You know this ? " 
 
 " If I were to tell you that I know the real author of the 
 crime ? " 
 
 " The real author ! " cried Marguerite ; " has there been a 
 crime committed, then ? " 
 
 " Yes ; intentionally or unintentionally there has been a 
 crime committed." 
 
 " On you ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Impossible ! "
 
 496 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Impossible ? Look at me, Margot." 
 
 The young woman looked at her brother and trembled, see- 
 ing him so pale. 
 
 " Margot, I have not three months to live ! " said Charles. 
 
 " You, brother ! you, Charles ! " she cried. 
 
 " Margot, I am poisoned." 
 
 Marguerite screamed. 
 
 " Hush," said Charles. " It must be thought that I am 
 dying by magic." 
 
 " Do you know who is guilty ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " You said it was not La Mole ? " 
 
 " No, it is not he." 
 
 " Nor Henry either, surely great God ! could it be " 
 
 " Who ? " 
 
 " My brother D' Alenqon ? " murmured Marguerite. 
 
 " Perhaps." 
 
 " Or or " Marguerite lowered her voice as if frightened 
 at what she was going to say, " or our mother ? " 
 
 Charles was silent. 
 
 Marguerite looked at him, and read all that she asked in 
 his eyes. Then still on her knees she half fell over against a 
 chair. 
 
 " Oh ! my God ! my God ! " she whispered, " that is im- 
 possible." 
 
 " Impossible ? " said Charles, with a strident laugh, " it is a 
 pity Rene is not here to tell you the story." 
 
 " Rene ? " 
 
 " Yes ; he would tell you that a woman to whom he dares 
 refuse nothing asked him for a book on hunting which was 
 in his library ; that a subtle poison was poured on every page 
 of this book ; that the poison intended for some one, I know 
 not for whom, fell by a turn of chance, or by a punishment 
 of Heaven, on another. But in the absence of Rene if you 
 wish to see the book it is there in my closet, and written in 
 the Florentine's handwriting you will see that this volume, 
 which still contains the death of many among its pages, was 
 given by him to his fellow countrywoman." 
 
 " Hush, Charles, hush ! " said Marguerite. 
 
 " Now you see that it must be supposed that I die of magic." 
 
 " But it is monstrous, monstrous ! Pity ! Pity ! you know 
 he is innocent."
 
 THE INVISIBLE BUCKLERS. 497 
 
 " Yes, I know it, but he must be thought guilty. Let your 
 lover die ; it is very little to do in order to save the honor of the 
 house of France ; I myself shall die that the secret may die 
 with me." 
 
 Marguerite bent her head, realizing that nothing could be 
 obtained from the King towards saving La Mole, and with- 
 drew weeping, having no hope except in her own resources. 
 
 Meantime Catharine, as Charles had divined, had lost not a 
 minute, but had written to the Attorney-General Laguesle a 
 letter, every word of which has been preserved by history and 
 which throws a lurid light upon the drama : 
 
 " Monsieur le Procureur : I have this evening been informed 
 beyond a doubt that La Mole has committed sacrilege. Many 
 evil things such as books and papers have been found in his 
 apartments in Paris. I beg you to summon the chief presi- 
 dent, and to inform him as early as possible of the affair of 
 the waxen figure meant for the King, and which was pierced 
 to the heart. 
 
 " CATHARIlfS." 1 
 
 CHAPTER LVI. 
 
 THE INVISIBLE BUCKLERS. 
 
 THE day after that on which Catharine had written this let- 
 ter the governor entered Coconnas's cell with an imposing 
 retinue consisting of two halberdiers and four men in black 
 gowns. 
 
 Coconnas was asked to descend to a room in which the 
 Attorney Laguesle and two judges waited to question him 
 according to Catharine's instructions. 
 
 During the week he had spent in prison Coconnas had 
 reflected a great deal. Besides that, he and La Mole were 
 together for a few minutes each day, through the kindness of 
 their jailer, who, without saying anything to them, had 
 arranged this surprise, which in all probability they did not owe 
 to his philosophy alone, besides, we say, La Mole and he had 
 agreed on the course they were to pursue, which was to persist in 
 absolute denial ; and they were persuaded that with a little 
 skill the affair would take a more favorable turn ; the charges 
 
 1 Textual.
 
 498 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 were no greater against them than against the others. Henry 
 and Marguerite had made no attempt at flight ; they could not 
 therefore be compromised in an affair in which the chief ring- 
 leaders were free. Coconnas did not know that Henry was in 
 the prison, and the complaisance of the jailer told him that 
 above his head hovered a certain protection which he called 
 the invisible bucklers. 
 
 Up to then the examination had been confined to the inten- 
 tions of the King of Navarre, his plans of flight, and the part 
 the two friends had played in them. To all these questions 
 Coconnas had constantly replied in a way more than vague 
 and much more than adroit ; he was ready still to reply in the 
 same way, and had prepared in advance all his little repartees, 
 when he suddenly found the object of the examination was 
 altered. It turned upon one or more visits to Rene, one or 
 more waxen figures made at the instigation of La Mole. 
 
 Prepared as he was, Coconnas believed that the accusation 
 lost much of its intensity, since it was no longer a question of 
 having betrayed a king but of having made a figure of a queen ; 
 and this figure not more than ten inches high at the most. 
 He, therefore, replied brightly that neither he nor his friend 
 had played with a doll for some time, and noticed with pleasure 
 that several times his answers made the judges smile. 
 
 It had not yet been said in verse : " I have laughed, there- 
 fore am I disarmed," but it had been said a great deal in 
 prose. And Coconnas thought that he had partly disarmed 
 his judges because they had smiled. 
 
 His examination over, he went back to his cell, singing so 
 merrily that La Mole, for whom he was making all the noise, 
 drew from it the happiest auguries. 
 
 La Mole was brought down, and like Coconnas saw with 
 astonishment that the accusation had abandoned its first 
 ground and had entered a new field. He was questioned as 
 to his visits to Rene. He replied that he had gone to the 
 Florentine only once. Then, if he had not ordered a waxen 
 figure. He replied that Rene had showed him such a figure 
 ready made. He was then asked if this figure did not repre- 
 sent a man. He replied that it represented a woman. Then, 
 if the object of the charm was not to cause the death of the 
 man. He replied that the purpose of the charm was to cause 
 himself to be beloved by the woman. 
 
 These questions were put in a hundred different forms, but
 
 THE INVISIBLE BUCKLERS. 499 
 
 La Mole always replied in the same way. The judges looked 
 at one another with a certain indecision, not knowing what to 
 say or do before such simplicity, when a note brought to the 
 Attorney-General solved the difficulty. 
 
 " If the accused denies resort to the torture. 
 
 " C." 
 
 The attorney put the note into his pocket, smiled at La 
 Mole, and politely dismissed him. 
 
 La Mole returned to his cell almost as reassured, if not as 
 joyous, as Coconnas. 
 
 " I think everything is going well," said he. 
 
 An hour later he heard footsteps and saw a note slipped 
 under his door, without seeing the hand that did it. He took 
 it up, thinking that in all probability it came from the jailer ? 
 
 Seeing it, a hope almost as acute as a disappointment sprang 
 into his heart ; he hoped it was from Marguerite, from whom 
 he had had no news since he had been a prisoner. 
 
 He took it up with trembling hand, and almost died of joy 
 as he looked at the handwriting. 
 
 " Courage ! " said the note. " / am watching over you." 
 
 " Ah ! if she is watching," cried La Mole, covering with 
 kisses the paper which had touched a hand so dear, " if she is 
 watching, I am saved." 
 
 In order for La Mole to comprehend the note and rely with 
 Coconnas on what the Piedmontese called his invisible bucklers 
 it is necessary for us to conduct the reader to that small house, 
 to that chamber in which the reminders of so many scenes of 
 intoxicating happiness, so many half-evaporated perfumes, so 
 many tender recollections, since become agonizing, were break- 
 ing the heart of a woman half reclining on velvet cushions. 
 
 " To be a queen, to be strong, young, rich, beautiful, and 
 suffer what I suffer ! " cried this woman ; " oh ! it is impos- 
 sible ! " 
 
 Then in her agitation she rose, paced up and down, stopped 
 suddenly, pressed her burning forehead against the ice-cold 
 marble, rose pale, her face covered with tears, wrung her hands, 
 and crying aloud fell back again hopeless into a chair. 
 
 Suddenly the tapestry which separated the apartment of the 
 Rue Cloche Percee from that in the Rue Tizon was raised, and 
 the Duchesse de Nevers entered. 
 
 " Ah ! " exclaimed Marguerite, " is it you ? With what im- 
 patience I have waited for you ! Well ! What news ? "
 
 500 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Bad news, my poor friend. Catharine herself is hurrying 
 on the trial, and at present is at Vincennes." 
 
 " And Keiie ? " 
 
 " Is arrested." 
 
 " Before you were able to speak to him ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And our prisoners ? " 
 
 " I have news of them." 
 
 "From the jailer?" 
 
 Yes." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well ! They see each other every day. The day before 
 yesterday they were searched. La Mole broke your picture to 
 atoms rather than give it up." 
 
 Dear La Mole ! " 
 
 " Annibal laughed in the face of the inquisitors." 
 
 Worthy Annibal ! What then ? " 
 
 " This morning they were questioned as to the flight of the 
 king, his projects of rebellion in Navarre, and they said 
 nothing." 
 
 " Oh ! I knew they would keep silence ; but silence will kill 
 them as much as if they spoke." 
 
 1 Yes, but we must save them." 
 Have you thought over our plan ? " 
 ; Since yesterday I have thought of nothing else." 
 
 ' Well ? " 
 
 I have just come to terms with Beaulieu. Ah ! my dear 
 queen, what a hard and greedy man ! It will cost a man's 
 life, and three hundred thousand crowns." 
 
 " You say he is hard and greedy and yet he asks only the 
 life of a man and three hundred thousand crowns. Why, that 
 is nothing ! " 
 
 " Nothing ! Three hundred thousand crowns ! Why, all 
 your jewels and all mine would not be enough." 
 
 " Oh ! that is nothing. The King of Navarre will pay some- 
 thing, the Due d'Alenqon will pay part, and my brother 
 Charles will pay part, or if not " 
 
 " See ! what nonsense you talk. I have the money." 
 
 You ? " 
 
 Yes, I." 
 
 " How did you get it ? " 
 
 Ah ! that is telling ! "
 
 THE INVISIBLE BUCKLERS. 501 
 
 " Is it a secret ? " 
 
 " For every one except you." 
 
 " Oh, my God ! " said Marguerite, smiling through her tears, 
 " did you steal it ? " 
 
 " You shall judge." 
 
 " Well, let me." 
 
 " Do you remember that horrible Nantouillet ? " 
 
 " The rich man, the usurer ? " 
 
 "If you please." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well ! One day seeing a certain blonde lady, with greenish 
 eyes, pass by, wearing three rubies, one over her forehead, the 
 other two over her temples, an arrangement which was very 
 becoming to her, this rich man, this usurer, cried out : 
 
 " ' For three kisses in the place of those three rubies I will 
 give you three diamonds worth one hundred thousand crowns 
 apiece ! ' : 
 
 " Well, Henriette ? " 
 
 " Well, my dear, the diamonds appeared and are sold." 
 
 " Oh, Henriette ! Henriette ! " cried Marguerite. 
 
 " Well ! " exclaimed the duchess in a bold tone at once inno- 
 cent and sublime, which sums up the age and the woman, 
 " well, I love Annibal ! " 
 
 " That is true," said Marguerite, smiling and blushing at 
 the same time, " you love him a very great deal, too much, per- 
 haps." 
 
 And yet she pressed her friend's hand. 
 
 " So," continued Henriette, " thanks to our three diamonds, 
 the three hundred thousand crowns and the man are ready." 
 
 " The man ? What man ? " 
 
 " The man to be killed ; you forget a man must be killed." 
 
 " Have you found the necessary man ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " At the same price ? " asked Marguerite, smiling. 
 
 " At the same price I could have found a thousand," replied 
 Henriette, " no, no, for five hundred crowns." 
 
 " For five hundred crowns you have found a man who has 
 consented to be killed ? " 
 
 " What can you expect ? It is necessary for us to live." 
 
 " My dear friend, I do not understand you. Come, explain. 
 Enigmas require too much time to guess at such a moment as 
 this."
 
 502 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Well, listen ; the jailer to whom the keeping of La Mole 
 and Cocoimas is entrusted is an old soldier who knows what a 
 wound is. He would like to help save our friends, but he 
 does not want to lose his place. A blow of a dagger skilfully 
 aimed will end the affair. We will give him a reward and the 
 kingdom, indemnification. In this way the brave man will 
 receive money from both parties and will renew the fable of 
 the pelican." 
 
 " But," said Marguerite, " a thrust of a dagger " 
 
 " Do not worry ; Annibal will give it." 
 
 " Well," said Marguerite, " he has given as many as three 
 blows of his sword to La Mole, and La Mole is not dead ; 
 there is therefore every reason to hope." 
 
 " Wicked woman ! You deserve to have me stop." 
 
 " Oh ! no, no ; on the contrary, tell me the rest, I beg you. 
 How are we to save them ; come ! " 
 
 " Well, this is the plan. The chapel is the only place in the 
 castle where women can enter who are not prisoners. We are 
 to be hidden behind the altar. Under the altar cloth they will 
 find two daggers. . The door of the vestry -room will be opened 
 beforehand. Coconnas will strike the jailer, who will fall and 
 pretend to be dead ; we appear ; each of us throws a cloak over 
 the shoulders of her friend ; we run with them through the 
 small doors of the vestry -room, and as we have the password 
 we can leave without hindrance." 
 
 " And once out ? " 
 
 " Two horses will be waiting at the door ; the men will 
 spring on them, leave France, and reach Lorraine, whence now 
 and then they will return incognito." 
 
 " Oh ! you restore me to life," said Marguerite. " So we 
 shall save them ? " 
 
 " I am almost sure of it." 
 
 " Soon ? " 
 
 " In three or four days. Beaulieu is to let us know." 
 
 " But if you were recognized in the vicinity of Vincennes 
 that might upset our plan." 
 
 " How could any one recognize me ? I go there as a nun, 
 with a hood, thanks to which not even the tip of my nose is 
 visible." 
 
 " We cannot take too many precautions." 
 
 " I know that well enough, by Heaven ! as poor Annibal 
 would say."
 
 THE JUDGES. 503 
 
 " Did you hear anything about the King of Navarre ? " 
 
 " I was careful to ask." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " Well, he has never been so happy, apparently ; he laughs, 
 sings, eats, drinks, and sleeps well, and asks only one thing, 
 and that is to be well guarded." 
 
 " He is right. And my mother ? " 
 
 " I told you she is hurrying on the trial as fast as she can." 
 
 " Yes, but does she suspect anything about us ? " 
 
 " How could she ? Every one who has a secret is anxious to 
 keep it. Ah ! I know that she told the judges in Paris to be 
 in readiness." 
 
 " Let us act quickly, Henriette. If our poor prisoners change 
 their abode, everything will have to be done over again." 
 
 " Do not worry. I am as anxious as you to see them free." 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know that, and thank you, thank you a hundred 
 times for all you have done." 
 
 " Adieu, Marguerite. I am going into the country again." 
 
 " Are you sure of Beaulieu ? " 
 
 " I think so." 
 
 "Of the jailer?" 
 
 " He has promised." 
 
 " Of the horses ? " 
 
 " They will be the best in the stables of the Due de Nevers." 
 
 "I adore you, Henriette." 
 
 And Marguerite threw her arms about her friend's neck, after 
 which the two women separated, promising to see each other 
 again the next day, and every day, at the same place and hour. 
 
 These were the two charming and devoted creatures whom 
 Coconnas, with so much reason, called his invisible bucklers. 
 
 CHAPTER LVIL 
 
 THE JUDGES. 
 
 " WELL, my brave friend," said Coconnas to La Mole, when 
 the two were together after the examination, at which, for 
 the first time, the subject of the waxen image had been 
 discussed, " it seems to me that everything is going on finely, 
 and that it will not be long before the judges will dismiss us.
 
 504 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 And this diagnosis is entirely different from that of a dismissal 
 by physicians. When the doctor gives up the patient it is 
 because he cannot cure him, but when the judge gives up the 
 accused it is because he has no further hope of having him 
 beheaded." 
 
 " Yes," said La Mole ; " and moreover, it seems to me, from 
 the politeness and gentleness of the jailer and the looseness of 
 the doors, that I recognize our kind friends ; but I do not rec- 
 ognize Monsieur de Beaulieu, at least from what I had been 
 told of him." 
 
 " I recognize him," said Coconnas ; " only it will cost 
 dearly. But one is a princess, the other a queen ; both are 
 rich, and they will never have so good an opportunity to use 
 their money. Now let us go over our lesson. We are to be 
 taken to the chapel, and left there in charge of our turnkey ; 
 we shall each find a dagger in the spot indicated. I am to 
 make a hole in the body of our guide." 
 
 " Yes, but a slight one in the arm ; otherwise you will rob 
 him of his five hundred crowns." 
 
 " Ah, no ; not in the arm, for in that case he would have to 
 lose it, and it would be easy to see that it was given intention- 
 ally. No, it must be in his right side, gliding skilfully along 
 his ribs; that would look natural, but in reality would be 
 harmless." 
 
 " Well, aim for that, and then " 
 
 " Then you will barricade the front door with benches 
 while our two princesses rush from behind the altar, where 
 they are to be hidden, and Henriette opens the vestry door. 
 Ah, faith, how I love Henriette to-day ! She must have been 
 faithless to me in some way for me to feel as I do." 
 
 " And then," said La Mole, with the trembling voice which 
 falls from lips like music, " then we shall reach the forest. 
 A kiss given to each of us will make us strong and happy. 
 Can you not picture us, Annibal, bending over our swift 
 horses, our hearts gently oppressed ? Oh, what a good thing 
 is fear ! Fear in the open air when one has one's naked sword 
 at one's side, when one cries ' hurra ' to the courser pricked 
 by the spur, and which at each shout speeds the faster." 
 
 " Yes," said Coconnas, " but fear within four walls what 
 do you say to that, La Mole ? I can speak of it, for I have 
 felt something of it. When Beaulieu, with his pale face, en- 
 tered my cell for the first time, behind him in the darkness
 
 THE JUDGES. 505 
 
 shone halberds, and I heard a sinister sound of iron striking 
 against iron. I swear to you I immediately thought of the Due 
 d'Alenqon, and I expected to see his ugly face between the 
 two hateful heads of the halberdiers. I was mistaken, however, 
 and this was my sole consolation. But that was not all ; 
 night came, and I dreamed." 
 
 " So," said La Mole, who had been following his happy 
 train of thought without paying attention to his friend, " so 
 they have foreseen everything, even the place in which we are 
 to hide. We shall go to Lorraine, dear friend. In reality I 
 should rather have had it Navarre, for there I should have 
 been with her, but Navarre is too far ; Nancey would be better ; 
 besides, once there, we should be only eighty leagues from 
 Paris. Have you any feeling of regret, Annibal, at leaving 
 this place ? " 
 
 " Ah, no ! the idea ! Although I confess I am leaving every- 
 thing that belongs to me." 
 
 " Well, could we manage to take the worthy jailer with us 
 instead of " 
 
 " He would not go," said Coconnas, " he would lose too 
 much. Think of it ! five hundred crowns from us, a reward 
 from the government ; promotion, perhaps ; how happy will 
 be that fellow's life when I shall have killed him ! But what 
 is the matter ? " 
 
 " Nothing ! An idea came to me." 
 
 " It is not a funny one, apparently, for you are frightfully 
 pale." 
 
 " I was wondering why they should take us to the chapel." 
 
 " Why," said Coconnas, " to receive the sacrament. This 
 is the time for it, I think." 
 
 " But," said La Mole, " they take only those condemned to 
 death or the torture to the chapel." 
 
 " Oh ! " said Coconnas, becoming somewhat pale in turn, 
 " this deserves our attention. Let us question the good man 
 whom I am to split open. Here, turnkey ! " 
 
 " Did monsieur call ? " asked the jailer, who had been keep- 
 ing watch at the top of the stairs. 
 
 " Yes ; come here." 
 
 Well ? " 
 
 " It has been arranged that we are to escape from the 
 chapel, has it not ? " 
 
 " Hush ! " said the turnkey, looking round him in terror.
 
 506 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Do not worry ; no one can hear us." 
 
 " Yes, monsieur ; it is from the chapel." 
 
 " They are to take us to the chapel, then ? " 
 
 " Yes ; that is the custom." 
 
 " The custom ? " 
 
 "Yes; it is customary to allow everyone condemned to 
 death to pass the night in the chapel." 
 
 Coconnas and La Mole shuddered and glanced at each other. 
 
 " You think we are condemned to death, then ? " 
 
 " Certainly. You, too, must think so." 
 
 " Why should we think so ? " asked La Mole. 
 
 " Certainly ; otherwise you would not have arranged every- 
 thing for your escape." 
 
 " Do you know, there is reason in what he says ! " said 
 Coconnas to La Mole. 
 
 " Yes ; and what I know besides is that we are playing a 
 close game, apparently." 
 
 " But do you think I am risking nothing ? " said the turn- 
 key. " If in a moment of excitement monsieur should make 
 a mistake " 
 
 " Well ! by Heaven ! I wish I were in your place," said 
 Coconnas, slowly, " and had to deal with no hand but this ; 
 with no sword except the one which is to graze you." 
 
 " Condemned to death ! " murmured La Mole, " why, that is 
 impossible ! " 
 
 " Impossible ! " said the turnkey, naively, " and why ? " 
 
 " Hush ! " said Coconnas, " I think some one is opening the 
 lower door." 
 
 " To your cells, gentlemen, to your cells ! " cried the jailer, 
 hurriedly. 
 
 " When do you think the trial will take place ? " asked La 
 Mole. 
 
 " To-morrow, or later. But be easy ; those who must be in- 
 formed shall be." 
 
 " Then let us embrace each other and bid farewell to these 
 walls." 
 
 The two friends rushed into each other's arms and then 
 returned to their cells, La Mole sighing, Coconnas singing. 
 
 Nothing new happened until seven o'clock. Night fell dark 
 and rainy over the prison of Vincennes, a perfect night for 
 flight. The evening meal was brought to Coconnas, who ate 
 with his usual appetite, thinking of the pleasure he would
 
 THE JUDGES. 507 
 
 feel in being soaked in the rain which was pattering against 
 the walls, and already preparing himself to fall asleep to 
 the dull, monotonous murmur of the wind, when suddenly 
 it seemed to him that this wind, to which he occasionally 
 \istened with a feeling of melancholy never before experienced 
 'ty him until he came to prison, whistled more strangely than 
 usual under the doors, and that the stove roared with a louder 
 noise than common. This had happened every time one of the 
 cells above or opposite him was opened. It was by this noise 
 that Annibal always knew the jailer was coming from La 
 Mole's cell. 
 
 But this time it was in vain that Coconnas remained with 
 eye and ear alert. 
 
 The moments passed ; no one came. 
 
 " This is strange," said Coconnas, " La Mole's door has been 
 opened and not mine. Could La Mole have called ? Can he 
 be ill ? What does it mean ? " 
 
 With a prisoner everything is a cause for suspicion and 
 anxiety, as everything is a cause for joy and hope. 
 
 Half an hour passed, then an hour, then an hour and a half. 
 
 Coconnas was beginning to grow sleepy from anger when the 
 grating of the lock made him spring to his feet. 
 
 " Oh ! " said he, " has the time come for us to leave and are they 
 going to take us to the chapel without condemning us ? By 
 Heaven, what joy it would be to escape on such a night ! It 
 is as dark as an oven ! I hope the horses are not blind." 
 
 He was about to ask some jocular question of the turnkey 
 when he saw the latter put his finger to his lips and roll his 
 eyes significantly. Behind the jailer Coconnas heard sounds 
 and perceived shadows. 
 
 Suddenly in the midst of the darkness he distinguished two 
 helmets, on which the smoking candle threw a yellow light. 
 
 11 Oh ! " said he in a low voice, " what is this sinister pro- 
 cession ? What is going to happen ?" 
 
 The jailer replied by a sigh which greatly resembled a groan. 
 
 " By Heaven ! " murmured Coconnas ; " what a wretched 
 existence ! always on the ragged edge ; never on firm land ; either 
 we paddle in a hundred feet of water or we hover above the 
 clouds ; never a happy medium. Well, where are we going ? " 
 
 " Follow the halberdiers, monsieur," repeated the same 
 voice. 
 
 He had to obey. Coconnas left his room, and perceived the
 
 508 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 dark man whose voice had been so disagreeable. He was a 
 clerk, small and hunchbacked, who no doubt had put on the 
 gown in order to hide his bandy legs, as well as his back. He 
 slowly descended the winding stairs. At the first landing the 
 guards paused. 
 
 "That is a good deal to go down," murmured Coconnas, 
 " but not enough." 
 
 The door opened. The prisoner had the eye of a lynx and 
 the scent of a bloodhound. He scented the judges and saw 
 in the shadow the silhouette of a man with bare arms ; the 
 latter sight made the perspiration mount to his brow. Never- 
 theless, he assumed his most smiling manner, and entered the 
 room with his head tipped to one side, and his hand on his 
 hip, after the most approved manner of the times. 
 
 A curtain was raised, and Coconnas perceived the judges 
 and the clerks. * 
 
 A few feet away La Mole was seated on a bench. 
 
 Coconnas was led to the front of the tribunal. Arrived 
 there, he stopped, nodded and smiled to La Mole, and then 
 waited. 
 
 " What is your name, monsieur ? " inquired the president. 
 
 " Marcus Annibal de Coconnas," replied the gentleman with 
 perfect ease. " Count de Montpantier, Chenaux, and other 
 places ; but they are known, I presume." 
 
 " Where were you born ? " 
 
 "At Saint Colomban, near Suza." 
 
 " How old are you ? " 
 
 " Twenty-seven years and three months." 
 
 " Good ! " said the president. 
 
 " This pleases him, apparently," said Coconnas. 
 
 " Now," said the president after a moment's silence which 
 gave the clerk time to write down the answers of the accused ; 
 " what was your reason for leaving the service of Monsieur 
 d' Alenqon ? " 
 
 " To rejoin my friend Monsieur de la Mole, who had already 
 left the duke three days before." 
 
 " What were you doing the day of the hunt, when you were 
 arrested ? " 
 
 " Why," said Coconnas, " I was hunting." 
 
 " The King was also present at that hunt, and was there 
 seized with the first attack of the malady from which he is at 
 present suffering."
 
 THE JUDGES. 509 
 
 " I was not near the King, and I can say nothing about this. 
 I was even ignorant of the fact that he had been ill." 
 
 The judges looked at one another with a smile of incredulity. 
 
 " Ah ! you were ignorant of his Majesty's illness, were you ? " 
 said the president. 
 
 " Yes, monsieur, and I am sorry to hear of it. Although the 
 King of France is not my king, I have a great deal of sym- 
 pathy for him." 
 
 " Indeed ! " 
 
 " On my honor ! It is different so far as his brother the Due 
 d'Alenqon is concerned. The latter I confess " 
 
 " We have nothing to do with the Due d'Alen^on, monsieur ; 
 this concerns his Majesty." 
 
 " Well, I have already told you that I am his very humble 
 servant," said Coconnas, turning about in an adorably impu- 
 dent fashion. 
 
 " If as you pretend, monsieur, you are really his servant, 
 will you tell us what you know of a certain waxen figure ? " 
 
 " Ah, good ! we have come back to the figure, have we ? " 
 
 " Yes, monsieur ; does this displease you ? " 
 
 " On the contrary, I prefer it; go ahead." 
 
 "Why was this statue found in Monsieur de la Mole's 
 apartments ? " 
 
 " At Monsieur de la Mole's ? At Rene's, you mean ? " 
 
 " You acknowledge that it exists, then, do you ? " 
 
 " Why, if you will show it to me." 
 
 " Here it is. Is this the one you know ? " 
 
 " It is." 
 
 "Clerk," said the president, "write down that the accused 
 recognizes the image as the one seen at Monsieur de la 
 Mole's." 
 
 " No, no ! " said Coconnas, " do not let us misunderstand 
 each other as the one seen at Rene's." 
 
 " At Re'ne's ; very good ! On what day ? " 
 
 " The only day La Mole and myself were at Rene's." 
 
 " You admit, then, that you were at Rene's with Monsieur de 
 la Mole ? " 
 
 " Why, did I ever deny it ? " 
 
 " Clerk, write down that the accused admits having gone to 
 Rene's to work conjurations." 
 
 " Stop there, Monsieur le President. Moderate your enthu- 
 siasm, I beg you. I did not say that at all."
 
 510 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " You deny having been at Rene's to work conjurations ? " 
 
 " I deny it. The magic took place by accident. It was 
 unprem editated. " 
 
 But it took place ? " 
 
 " I cannot deny that something resembling a charm did take 
 place." 
 
 "Clerk, write down that the accused admits that he ob- 
 tained at Rene's a charm against the life of the King." 
 
 " What ! against the King's life ? That is an infamous lie ! 
 There was no charm obtained against the life of the King." 
 
 " You see, gentlemen ! " said La Mole. 
 
 " Silence ! " said the president ; then turning to the clerk : 
 " Against the life of the King," he continued. " Have you 
 that?" 
 
 " Why, no, no ! " cried Coconnas. " Besides, the figure is not 
 that of a man, but of a woman." 
 
 " What did I tell you, gentlemen ? " said La Mole. 
 
 " Monsieur de la Mole," said the president, " answer when 
 you are questioned, but do not interrupt the examination of 
 others." 
 
 " So you say that it is a woman ? " 
 
 " Certainly I say so." 
 
 " In that case, why did it have a crown and a cloak ? " 
 
 " By Heaven ! " said Coconnas, " that is simple enough, 
 because it was " 
 
 La Mole rose and put his finger on his lips. 
 
 " That is so," said Coconnas, " what was I going to say that 
 could possibly concern these gentlemen ? " 
 
 " You persist in stating that the figure is that of a 
 woman ? " 
 
 " Yes ; certainly I persist." 
 
 " And you refuse to say what woman ? " 
 
 " A woman of my country," said La Mole, " whom I loved 
 and by whom I wished to be loved in return." 
 
 " We are not asking you, Monsieur de la Mole," said the 
 president ; " keep silent, therefore, or you shall be gagged." 
 
 " Gagged ! " exclaimed Coconnas ; " what do you mean, mon- 
 sieur of the black robe ? My friend gagged ? A gentleman ! 
 the idea ! " 
 
 " Bring in Rene," said the Attorney-General Laguesle. 
 
 " Yes ; bring in Rene," said Coconnas ; " we shall see who is 
 right here, we two or you three."
 
 THE JUDGES. 511 
 
 Rdne* entered, pale, aged, and almost unrecognizable to the 
 two friends, bowed under the weight of the crime he was about 
 to commit much more than because of those he had already 
 committed. 
 
 " Maitre Rene," said the judge, " do you recognize the two 
 accused persons here present ? " 
 
 " Yes, monsieur," replied Rene, in a voice which betrayed 
 his emotion. 
 
 " From having seen them where ? " 
 
 " In several places ; and especially at my house." 
 
 " How many times did they go to your house ? " 
 
 "Once only." 
 
 As Rene spoke the face of Coconnas expanded ; La Mole's, 
 on the contrary, looked as though he had a presentiment of 
 evil. 
 
 " For what purpose were they at your house ? " 
 
 Rene seemed to hesitate a moment. 
 
 " To order me to make a waxen figure," said he. 
 
 " Pardon me, Maitre Rene," said Coconnas, " you are making 
 a slight mistake." 
 
 " Silence ! " said the president ; then turning to Rene, 
 " was this figure to be that of a man or a woman ? " 
 
 " A man," replied Rene. 
 
 Coconnas sprang up as if he had received an electric shock. 
 
 " A man ! " he exclaimed. 
 
 " A man," repeated Rene, but in so low a tone that the 
 president scarcely heard him. 
 
 " Why did this figure of a man have on a mantle and a 
 crown ? " 
 
 " Because it represented a king." 
 
 " Infamous liar ! " cried Coconnas, infuriated. 
 
 " Keep still, Coconnas, keep still," interrupted La Mole, 
 " let the man speak ; every one has a right to sell his own 
 soul." 
 
 " But not the bodies of others, by Heaven ! " 
 
 " And what was the meaning of the needle in the heart of 
 the figure, with the letter l M ' on a small banner ? " 
 
 " The needle was emblematical of the sword or the dagger ; 
 the letter < M ' stands for mort." 
 
 Coconnas sprang forward as though to strangle Rene", but 
 four guards restrained him. 
 
 " That will do," said the Attorney Laguesle, " the court is
 
 512 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 sufficiently informed. Take the prisoners to the waiting- 
 room." 
 
 " But," exclaimed Coconnas, " it is impossible to hear one's 
 self accused of such things without protesting." 
 
 "Protest, monsieur, no one will hinder you. Guards, did 
 you hear ? " 
 
 The guards seized the two prisoners and led them out, La 
 Mole by one door, Coconnas by another. 
 
 Then the attorney signed to the man whom Coconnas had 
 perceived in the shadow, and said to him : 
 
 " Do not go away, my good fellow, you shall have work this 
 evening." 
 
 " Which shall I begin with, monsieur ? " asked the man, 
 respectfully holding his cap in his hand. 
 
 " With that one," said the president, pointing to La Mole, 
 who could still be seen disappearing in the distance between 
 the two guards. Then approaching Rene, who stood trembling, 
 expecting to be led back to the cell in which he had been 
 confined : 
 
 " You have spoken well, monsieur," said he to him, " you 
 need not worry. Both the King and the queen shall know 
 that it is to you they are indebted for the truth of this affair." 
 
 But instead of giving him strength, this promise seemed to 
 terrify Rene, whose only answer was a deep sigh. 
 
 CHAPTER LVITI. 
 
 THE TOBTUKE OF THE BOOT. 
 
 IT was only when he had been led away to his new cell and 
 the door was locked on him that Coconnas, left alone, and no 
 longer sustained by the discussion with the judges and his 
 anger 'at Rene, fell into a train of mournful reflections. 
 
 " It seems to me," thought he, " that matters are turning 
 against us, and that it is about time to go to the chapel. I suspect 
 we are to be condemned to death. It looks so. I especially fear 
 being condemned to death by sentences pronounced behind 
 closed doors, in a fortified castle, before faces as ugly as those 
 about me. They really wish to cut off our heads. Well ! well ! 
 I repeat what I said just now, it is time to go to chapel."
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE BOOT. 513 
 
 These words, uttered in a low tone, were followed by a 
 silence, which in turn was broken by a cry, shrill, piercing, 
 lugubrious, unlike anything human. It seemed to penetrate 
 the thick walls, and vibrate against the iron bars. 
 
 In spite of himself Coconnas shivered ; and yet he was so 
 brave that his courage was like that of wild beasts. He stood 
 still, doubting that the cry was human, and taking it for the 
 sound of the wind in the trees or for one of the many night 
 noises which seem to rise or descend from the two unknown 
 worlds between which floats our globe. Then he heard it again, 
 shriller, more prolonged, more piercing than before, and this 
 time not only did Cocounas distinguish the agony of the human 
 tone in it, but he thought it sounded like La Mole's. 
 
 As he realized this the Piedmontese forgot that he was con- 
 fined behind two doors, three gates, and a wall twelve feet 
 thick. He hurled his entire weight against the sides of the 
 cell as though to push them out and rush to the aid of the 
 victim, crying, " Are they killing some one here ? " But he un- 
 expectedly encountered the wall and the shock hurled him back 
 against a stone bench on which he sank down. 
 
 Then there was silence. 
 
 " Oh, they have killed him ! " he murmured ; "it is abomi- 
 nable ! And one is without arms, here, and cannot defend 
 one's self ! " 
 
 He groped about. 
 
 " Ah ! this iron chain ! " he cried, " I will take it and woe 
 to him who comes near me ! " 
 
 Coconnas rose, seized the iron chain, and with a pull shook . 
 it so violently that it was clear that with two such efforts he 
 would wrench it away. 
 
 But suddenly the door opened and the light from a couple 
 of torches fell into the cell. 
 
 " Come, monsieur," said the same voice which had sounded 
 so disagreeable to him, and which this time, in making itself 
 heard three floors below, did not seem to him to have acquired 
 any new charm. 
 
 " Come, monsieur, the court is awaiting you." 
 
 " Good," said Coconnas, dropping his ring, " I am to hear 
 my sentence, am I not ? " 
 
 " Yes, monsieur." 
 
 " Oh ! I breathe again ; let us go," said he.
 
 514 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 He followed the usher, who preceded him with measured 
 tread, holding his black rod. 
 
 In spite of the satisfaction he had felt at first, as he walked 
 along Coconnas glanced anxiously about him. 
 
 "Oh!" he murmured, " I do not perceive my good jailer. 
 I confess I miss him." 
 
 They entered the hall the judges had just left, in which 
 a man was standing alone, whom Coconnas recognized as the 
 Attorney-General. In the course of the examination the latter 
 had spoken several times, always with an animosity easy to 
 understand. 
 
 He was the one whom Catharine, both by letter and in 
 person, had specially charged with the trial. 
 
 At the farther end of this room, the corners of which were 
 lost in darkness behind a partly raised curtain, Coconnas saw 
 such dreadful sights that he felt his limbs give away, and 
 cried out : " Oh, my God ! " 
 
 It was not without cause that the cry had been uttered. 
 The sight was indeed terrible. The portion of the room 
 hidden during the trial by the curtain, which was now drawn 
 back, looked like the entrance to hell. 
 
 A wooden horse was there, to which were attached ropes, 
 pulleys, and other accessories of torture. Further on glowed 
 a brazier, which threw its lurid glare on the surrounding ob- 
 jects, and which added to the terror of the spectacle. Against 
 one of the pillars which supported the ceiling stood a man 
 motionless as a statue, holding a rope in his hand. He 
 looked as though made of the stone of the column against 
 which he leaned. To the walls above the stone benches, be- 
 tween iron links, chains were suspended and blades glittered. 
 
 " Oh ! " murmured Coconnas, " the chamber of horrors is 
 all ready, apparently waiting only for the patient ! What 
 can it mean ? " 
 
 " On your knees, Marc Annibal Coconnas," said a voice 
 which caused that gentleman to raise his head. " On your 
 knees to hear the sentence just pronounced on you ! " 
 
 This was an invitation against which the whole soul of 
 Annibal instinctively rebelled. 
 
 But as he was about to refuse two men placed their hands 
 on his shoulders so unexpectedly and so suddenly that his 
 knees bent under him on the pavement. The voice con- 
 tinued
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE BOOT. 515 
 
 " Sentence of the court sitting in the prison of Vincennes 
 on Marc Annibal de Coconnas, accused and convicted of high 
 treason, of an attempt to poison, of sacrilege and magic 
 against the person of the King, of a conspiracy against the 
 kingdom, and of having by his pernicious counsels driven a 
 prince of the blood to rebellion." 
 
 At each charge Coconnas had shaken his head, keeping time 
 like a fractious child. The judge continued : 
 
 " In consequence of which, the aforesaid Marc Annibal de 
 Coconnas shall be taken from prison to the Place Saint Jean 
 en Greve to be there beheaded ; his property shall be confis- 
 cated; his woods cut down to the height of six feet; his castles 
 destroyed, and a post planted there with a copper plate bearing 
 an inscription of his crime and punishment." 
 
 " As for my head," said Coconnas, " I know you will cut 
 that off, for it is in France, and in great jeopardy ; but as for 
 my woods and castles, I defy all the saws and axes of this 
 most Christian kingdom to harm them." 
 
 " Silence ! " said the judge ; and he continued : 
 
 " Furthermore, the aforesaid Coconnas " 
 
 " What ! " interrupted Coconnas, " is something more to be 
 done to me after my head is cut off ? Oh ! that seems to me 
 very hard ! " 
 
 " No, monsieur," said the judge, " before." 
 
 And he resumed : 
 
 " Furthermore, the aforesaid Coconnas before the execution 
 of his sentence shall undergo the severest torture, consisting of 
 ten wedges " 
 
 Coconnas sprang up, flashing a burning glance at the judge. 
 
 " And for what ? " he cried, finding no other words but these 
 simple ones to express the thousand thoughts that surged 
 through his mind. 
 
 In reality this was complete ruin to Coconnas' hopes. He 
 would not be taken to the chapel until after the torture, from 
 which many frequently died. The braver and stronger the 
 victim, the more likely he was to die, for it was considered an 
 act of cowardice to confess ; and so long as the prisoner refused 
 to confess the torture was continued, and not only continued, 
 but increased. 
 
 The judge did not reply to Coconnas ; the rest of the sen- 
 tence answered for him. He continued : 
 
 " In order to compel the aforesaid Coconnas to confess in
 
 516 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 regard to his accomplices, and the details of the plan and con- 
 spiracy." 
 
 " By Heaven ! " cried Coconnas ; " this is what I call infa- 
 mous ; more than infamous cowardly ! " 
 
 Accustomed to the anger of his victims, which suffering al- 
 ways changed to tears, the impassible judge merely made a sign. 
 
 Coconnas was seized by the feet and the shoulders, overpow- 
 ered, laid on his back, and bound to the rack before he was 
 able even to see those who did the act. 
 
 " Wretches ! " shouted he, in a paroxysm of fury, straining 
 the bed and the cords so that the tormentors themselves drew 
 back. " Wretches ! torture me, twist me, break me to pieces, 
 but you shall know nothing, I swear ! Ah ! you think, do you, 
 that it is with pieces of wood and steel that a gentleman of my 
 name is made to speak ? Go ahead ! I defy you ! " 
 
 "Prepare to write, clerk," said the judge. 
 
 " Yes, prepare," shouted Coconnas ; " and if you write every- 
 thing I am going to tell you you infamous hangmen, you 
 will be kept busy. Write ! write ! " 
 
 " Have you anything you wish to confess ? " asked the judge 
 in his calm voice. 
 
 " Nothing ; not a word ! Go to the devil ! " 
 
 " You had better reflect, monsieur. Come, executioner, 
 adjust the boot." 
 
 At these words the man, who until then had stood motion- 
 less, the ropes in his hand, stepped forward from the pillar 
 and slowly approached Coconnas, who turned and made a 
 grimace at him. 
 
 It was Maitre Caboche, the executioner of the provostship 
 of Paris. 
 
 A look of sad surprise showed itself on the face of Coconnas, 
 who, instead of crying out and growing agitated, lay without 
 moving, unable to take his eyes from the face of the forgotten 
 friend who appeared at that moment. 
 
 Without moving a muscle of his face, without showing that 
 he had ever seen Coconnas anywhere except on the rack, 
 Caboche placed two planks between the limbs of the victim, 
 two others outside of his limbs, and bound them securely 
 together by means of the rope he held in his hand. 
 
 This was the arrangement called the "boot." 
 
 For ordinary torture six wedges were inserted between the 
 two planks, which, on being forced apart, crushed the flesh.
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE BOOT. 517 
 
 For severe torture ten wedges were inserted, and then the 
 planks not only broke the flesh but the bones. 
 
 The preliminaries over, Maitre Caboche slipped the end of 
 the wedge between the two planks, then, mallet in hand, bent 
 on one knee and looked at the judge. 
 
 " Do you wish to speak ? " said the latter. 
 
 "No," resolutely answered Coconnas, although he felt the 
 perspiration rise to his brow and his hair begin to stand on 
 end. 
 
 " Proceed, then," said the judge. " Insert the first wedge." 
 
 Caboche raised his arm, with its heavy mallet, and struck 
 the wedge a tremendous blow, which gave forth a dull sound. 
 The rack shook. 
 
 Coconnas did not utter a single word at the first wedge, 
 which usually caused the most resolute to groan. Moreover, 
 the only expression on his face was that of indescribable as- 
 tonishment. He watched Caboche in amazement, who, with 
 arm raised, half turned towards the judge, stood ready to re- 
 peat the blow. 
 
 " What was your idea in hiding in the forest ? " asked the 
 judge. 
 
 " To sit down in the shade," replied Coconnas. 
 
 " Proceed," said the judge. 
 
 Caboche gave a second blow which resounded like the first. 
 
 Coconnas did not move a muscle ; he continued to watch the 
 executioner with the same expression. 
 
 The judge frowned. 
 
 " He is a hard Christian," he murmured ; " has the wedge 
 entered ? " 
 
 Caboche bent down to look, and in doing so said to Cocon- 
 nas : 
 
 " Cry out, you poor fellow ! " 
 
 Then rising : 
 
 " Up to the head, monsieur," said he. 
 
 " Second wedge," said the judge, coldly. 
 
 The words of Caboche explained all to Coconnas. The 
 worthy executioner had rendered his friend the greatest ser- 
 vice in his power : he was sparing him not only pain, but more, 
 the shame of confession, by driving in wedges of leather, the 
 upper part of which was covered with wood, instead of oak 
 wedges. In this way he was leaving him all his strength to 
 face the scaffold.
 
 518 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Ah ! kind, kind Caboche," murmured Coconnas, " fear 
 nothing ; I will cry out since you ask me to, and if you are not 
 satisfied it will be because you are hard to please." 
 
 Meanwhile Caboche had introduced between the planks the 
 end of a wedge larger than the first. 
 
 " Strike," cried the judge. 
 
 At this word Caboche struck as if with a single blow he 
 would demolish the entire prison of Vincennes. 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! Stop ! stop ! " cried Coconnas ; " a thousand 
 devils ! you are breaking my bones ! Take care ! " 
 
 " Ah !" said the judge, smiling, " the second seems to take 
 effect ; that surprises me." 
 
 Coconnas panted like a pair of bellows. 
 
 "What were you doing in the forest?" asked the judge. 
 
 " By Heaven ! I have already told you. I was enjoying 
 the fresh air." 
 
 " Proceed," said the judge. 
 
 " Confess," whispered Caboche. 
 
 " What ? " 
 
 " Anything you wish, but something." 
 
 And he dealt a second blow no less light than the former. 
 
 Coconnas thought he would strangle himself in his efforts to 
 cry out. 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said he ; " what is it you want to know, mon- 
 sieur ? By whose order I was in the forest ? " 
 
 "Yes." " 
 
 " I was there by order of Monsieur d'Alenqon." 
 
 " Write," said the judge. 
 
 " If I committed a crime in setting a trap for the King of 
 Navarre," continued Coconnas, " I was only an instrument, 
 monsieur, and I was obeying my master." 
 
 The clerk began to write. 
 
 " Oh ! you denounced me, pale-face ! " murmured the vic- 
 tim ; "but just wait!" 
 
 And he related the visit of Francois to the King of Navarre, 
 the interviews between De Mouy and Monsieur d'Alengon, the 
 story of the red cloak, all as though he were just remembering 
 them between the blows of the hammer. 
 
 At length he had given such precise, terrible, uncontestable 
 evidence against D'Alenqon, making it seem as though it was 
 extorted from him only by the pain, he grimaced, roared, 
 and yelled so naturally, and in so many different tones of
 
 THE TORTURE OF THE BOOT. 519 
 
 voice, that the judge himself became terrified at having to 
 record details so compromising to a son of France. 
 
 " Well ! " said Caboche to himself, " here is a gentleman 
 who does not need to say things twice, and who gives full 
 measure of work to the clerk. Great God ! what if, instead of 
 leather, the wedges had been of wood ! " 
 
 Coconnas was excused from the last wedge ; but he had had 
 nine others, which were enough to have crushed his limbs com- 
 pletely. 
 
 The judge reminded the victim of the mercy allowed him on 
 account of his confession, and withdrew. 
 
 The prisoner was alone with Caboche. 
 
 " Well," asked the latter, " how are you ? " 
 
 " Ah ! my friend ! my kind friend, my dear Caboche ! " ex- 
 claimed Coconnas. " You may be sure I shall be grateful all 
 my life for what you have done for me." 
 
 " The deuce ! but you are right, monsieur, for if they knew 
 what I have done it would be I who would have to take your 
 place on the rack, and they would not treat me as I have 
 treated you." 
 
 " But how did the idea come to you ? " 
 
 " Well," said Caboche, wrapping the limbs of Coconnas in 
 bloody bands of linen ; " I knew you had been arrested, and 
 that your trial was going on. I knew that Queen Catharine 
 was anxious for your death. I guessed that they would put 
 you to the torture and consequently took my precautions." 
 
 " At the risk of what might have happened ? " 
 
 " Monsieur," said Caboche, " you are the only gentleman who 
 ever gave me his hand, and we all have memories and hearts, 
 even though we are hangmen, and perhaps for that very reason. 
 You will see to-morrow how well I will do my work." 
 
 " To-morrow ? " said Coconnas. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " What work ? " 
 
 Caboche looked at Coconnas in amazement. 
 
 " What work ? Have you forgotten the sentence ? " 
 
 " Ah ! yes, of course ! the sentence ! " said Coconnas ; " I 
 had forgotten it." 
 
 The fact is that Coconnas had not really forgotten it, but he 
 had not been thinking of it. 
 
 What he was thinking of was the chapel, the knife hidden 
 under the altar cloth, of Henriette and the queen, of the vestry
 
 520 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 door, and the two horses waiting on the edge of the forest ; he 
 was thinking of liberty, of the ride in the open air, of safety 
 beyond the boundaries of France. 
 
 " Now," said Caboche, " you must be taken skilfully from 
 the rack to the litter. Do not forget that for every one, even 
 the guards, your limbs are broken, and that at every jar you 
 must give a cry." 
 
 " Ah ! ah ! " cried Coconnas, as the two assistants advanced. 
 
 " Come ! come ! Courage," said Caboche, " if you cry out 
 already, what will you do in a little while ? " 
 
 " My dear Caboche," said Coconnas, " do not have me touched, 
 I beg, by your estimable acolytes ; perhaps their hands are not 
 as light as yours." 
 
 " Place the litter near the racks," said Caboche. 
 
 The attendants obej'ed. Maitre Caboche raised Coconnas 
 in his arms as if he were a child and laid him in the 
 litter, but in spite of every care Coconnas uttered loud shrieks. 
 
 The jailer appeared with a lantern. 
 
 " To the chapel," said he. 
 
 The bearers started after Coconnas had given Caboche a 
 second grasp of the hand. The first had been of too much 
 use to the Piedmontese for him not to repeat it. 
 
 CHAPTEE LIX. 
 
 THE CHAPEL. 
 
 IN profound silence the mournful procession crossed the 
 two drawbridges of the fortress and the courtyard which leads 
 to the chapel, through the windows of which a pale light 
 colored the white faces of the red-robed priests. 
 
 Coconnas eagerly breathed the night air, although it was 
 heavy with rain. He looked at the profound darkness and 
 rejoiced that everything seemed propitious for the flight of 
 himself and his companion. It required all his will-power, all 
 his prudence, all his self-control to keep from springing from 
 the litter when on entering the chapel he perceived near the 
 choir, three feet from the altar, a figure wrapped in a great 
 white cloak. 
 
 It was La Mole.
 
 THE CHAPEL. 521 
 
 The two soldiers who accompanied the litter stopped outside 
 of the door. 
 
 " Since they have done us the final favor of once more leav- 
 ing us together," said Coconnas in a drawling voice, " take 
 me to my friend." 
 
 The bearers had had no different order, and made no objec- 
 tion to assenting to Coconnas's demand. 
 
 La Mole was gloomy and pale ; his head rested against the 
 marble wall ; his black hair, bathed with profuse perspiration, 
 gave to his face the dull pallor of ivory, and seemed still to 
 stand on end. 
 
 At a sign from the turnkey the two attendants went to find 
 the priest for whom Coconnas had asked. 
 
 This was the signal agreed on. 
 
 Coconnas followed them with anxious eyes ; but he was 
 not the only one whose glance was riveted on them. 
 
 Scarcely had they disappeared when two women rushed 
 from behind the altar and hurried to the choir with cries of 
 joy, rousing the air like a warm and restless breeze which 
 precedes a storm. 
 
 Marguerite rushed towards La Mole, and caught him in her 
 arms. 
 
 La Mole uttered a piercing shriek, like one of the cries 
 Coconnas had heard in his dungeon and which had so terrified 
 him. 
 
 " My God ! What is the matter, La Mole ? " cried Mar- 
 guerite, springing back in fright. 
 
 La Mole uttered a deep moan and raised his hands to his 
 eyes as though to hide Marguerite from his sight. 
 
 The queen was more terrified at the silence and this gesture 
 than she had been at the shriek. 
 
 " Oh ! " she exclaimed, " what is the matter ? You are 
 covered with blood." 
 
 Coconnas, who had rushed to the altar for the dagger, and 
 who was already holding Henriette in his arms, now came 
 back. 
 
 " Rise," said Marguerite, " rise, I beg you ! You see the 
 time has come." 
 
 A hopelessly sad smile passed over the white lips of 
 La Mole, who seemed almost unequal to the effort. 
 
 " Beloved queen ! " said the young man, " you counted with- 
 out Catharine, and consequently without a crime. 1 under-
 
 522 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 went the torture, my bones are broken, my whole body is 
 nothing but a wound, arid the effort I make now to press my 
 lips to your forehead causes me pain worse than death." 
 
 Pale and trembling, La Mole touched his lips to the queen's 
 brow. 
 
 " The rack ! " cried Coconnas, " I, too, suffered it, but did 
 not the executioner do for you what he did for me ? " 
 
 Coconnas related everything. 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " I see ; you gave him your hand the 
 day of our visit ; I forgot that all men are brothers, and was 
 proud. God has punished me for it ! " 
 
 La Mole clasped his hands. 
 
 Coconnas and the women exchanged a glance of indescrib- 
 able terror. 
 
 " Come," said the jailer, who until then had stood at the 
 door to keep watch, and had now returned, " do not waste 
 time, dear Monsieur de Coconnas; give me my thrust of the 
 dagger, and do it in a way worthy of a gentleman, for they are 
 coining." 
 
 Marguerite knelt down before La Mole, as if she were one 
 of the marble figures on a tomb, near the image of the one 
 buried in it. 
 
 " Come, my friend," said Coconnas, " I am strong, I will 
 carry you, I will put you on your horse, or even hold you in 
 front of me, if you cannot sit in the saddle-; but let us start. 
 You hear what this good man says ; it is a question of life and 
 death." 
 
 La Mole made a superhuman struggle, a final effort. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " it is a question of life or death." 
 
 And he strove to rise. 
 
 Annibal took him by the arm and raised him. During the^ 
 process La Mole uttered dull moans, but when Coconnas let go 
 of him to attend to the turnkey, and when he was supported 
 only by the two women his legs gave way, and in spite of the 
 effort of Marguerite, who was wildly sobbing, he fell back in a 
 heap, and a piercing shriek which he could not restrain 
 echoed pitifully throughout the vaults of the chapel, which 
 vibrated long after. 
 
 " You see," said La Mole, painfully, " you see, my queen ! 
 Leave me ; give me one last kiss and go. I did not confess, 
 Marguerite, and our secret is hidden in our love and will die 
 with me. Good-by, my queen, my queen."
 
 THE CHAPEL. 523 
 
 Marguerite, herself almost lifeless, clasped the dear head in 
 her arms, and pressed on it a kiss which was almost holy. 
 
 " You Annibal," said La Mole, " who have been spared these 
 agonies, who are still young and able to live, flee, flee ; give 
 me the supreme consolation, my dear friend, of knowing you 
 have escaped." 
 
 " Time flies," said the jailer; "make haste." 
 
 Henriette gently strove to lead Annibal to the door. Mar- 
 guerite on her knees before La Mole, sobbing, and with di- 
 shevelled hair, looked like a Magdalene. 
 
 " Flee, Annibal," said La Mole, " flee ; do not give our 
 enemies the joyful spectacle of the death of two innocent 
 men." 
 
 Coconnas quietly disengaged himself from Henriette, who was 
 leading him to the door, and with a gesture so solemn that it 
 seemed majestic said : 
 
 " Madame, first give the five hundred crowns we promised 
 to this man." 
 
 " Here they are," said Henriette. 
 
 Then turning to La Mole, and shaking his head sadly : 
 
 " As for you, La Mole, you do me wrong to think for an 
 instant that I could leave you. Have I not sworn to live and 
 die with you ? But you are suffering so, my poor friend, that 
 I forgive you." 
 
 And seating himself resolutely beside his friend Coconnas 
 leaned forward and kissed his forehead. 
 
 Then gently, as gently as a mother would do to her child, 
 he drew the dear head towards him, until it rested on his 
 breast. 
 
 Marguerite was numb. She had picked up the dagger which 
 Coconnas had just let fall. 
 
 " Oh, my queen," said La Mole, extending his arms to her, 
 and understanding her thought, " my beloved queen, do not 
 forget that I die in order to destroy the slightest suspicion of 
 our love ! " 
 
 " But what can I do for you, then," cried Marguerite, in de- 
 spair, " if I cannot die with you ? " 
 
 " You can make death sweet to me," replied La Mole ; " you 
 can come to me with smiling lips." 
 
 Marguerite advanced and clasped her hands as if asking him 
 to speak. 
 
 " Do you remember that evening, Marguerite, when in ex-
 
 524 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 change for the life I then offered you, and which to-day I lay 
 down for you, you made me a sacred promise." 
 
 Marguerite gave a start. 
 
 " Ah ! you do remember," said La Mole, " for you shud- 
 der." 
 
 " Yes, yes, I remember, and on my soul, Hyacinthe, I will 
 keep that promise." 
 
 Marguerite raised her hand towards the altar, as if calling 
 God a second time to witness her oath. 
 
 La Mole's face lighted up as if the vaulted roof of the 
 chapel had opened and a heavenly ray had fallen on him. 
 
 " They are coming! " said the jailer. 
 
 Marguerite uttered a cry, and rushed to La Mole, but the 
 fear of increasing his agony made her pause trembling before 
 him. 
 
 Henriette pressed her lips to Coconnas's brow, and said to 
 him : 
 
 " My Annibal, I understand, and I am proud of you. I 
 well know that your heroism makes you die, and for that 
 heroism I love you. Before God I will always love you more 
 than all else, and what Marguerite has sworn to do for 
 La Mole, although I know not what it is, I swear I will do for 
 you also." 
 
 And she held out her hand to Marguerite. 
 
 " Ah ! thank you," said Coconnas ; " that is the way to 
 speak." 
 
 " Before you leave me, my queen," said La Mole, " one last 
 favor. Give me some last souvenir, that I may kiss it as I 
 mount the scaffold." 
 
 " Ah ! yes, yes," cried Marguerite ; " here ! " 
 
 And she unfastened from her neck a small gold reliquary 
 suspended from a chain of the same metal. 
 
 " Here," said she, " is a holy relic which I have worn from 
 childhood. My mother put it around my neck when I was 
 very little and she still loved me. It was given me by my 
 uncle, Pope Clement and has never left me. Take it ! take 
 it!" 
 
 La Mole took it, and kissed it passionately. 
 
 " They are at the door," said the jailer ; " flee, ladies, flee ! " 
 
 The two women rushed behind the altar and disappeared. 
 
 At the same moment the priest entered.
 
 THE PLACE SAINT JEAN EN GREVE. 625 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 THE PLACE SAINT JEAN EN GREVE. 
 
 IT was seven o'clock in the morning, and a noisy crowd 
 was waiting in the squares, the streets, and on the quays. At 
 six o'clock a tumbril, the same in which after their duel the 
 two friends had been conveyed half dead to the Louvre, had 
 started from Vincennes and slowly crossed the Rue Saint An- 
 toine. Along its route the spectators, so huddled together that 
 they crushed one another, seemed like statues with fixed eyes 
 and open mouths. 
 
 This day there was to be a heartrending spectacle offered 
 by the queen mother to the people of Paris. 
 
 On some straw in the tumbril, we have mentioned, which 
 was making its way through the streets, were two young 
 men, bareheaded, and entirely clothed in black, leaning against 
 each other. Coconnas supported on his knees La Mole, whose 
 head hung over the sides of the tumbril, and whose eyes wan- 
 dered vaguely here and there. 
 
 The crowd, eager to see even the bottom of the vehicle, 
 crowded forward, lifted itself up, stood on tiptoe, mounted 
 posts, clung to the angles of the walls, and appeared satisfied 
 only when it had succeeded in seeing every detail of the two 
 bodies which were going from the torture to death. 
 
 It had been rumored that La Mole was dying without having 
 confessed one of the charges imputed to him ; while, on the 
 contrary, Coconnas, it was asserted, could not endure the tor- 
 ture, and had revealed everything. 
 
 So there were cries on all sides : 
 
 " See the red-haired one ! It was he who confessed ! It 
 was he who told everything ! He is a coward, and is the 
 cause of the other's death ! The other is a brave fellow, and 
 confessed nothing." 
 
 The two young men heard perfectly, the one the praises, the 
 other the reproaches, which accompanied their funeral march ; 
 and while La Mole pressed the hands of his friend a sublime 
 expression of scorn lighted up the face of the Piedrnontese, 
 who from the foul tumbril gazed upon the stupid mob as if he 
 were looking down from a triumphal car. 
 
 Misfortune had done its heavenly work, and had ennobled
 
 526 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 the face of Coconnas, as death was about to render divine his 
 soul. 
 
 " Are we nearly there ? " asked La Mole. " I can stand no 
 more, ray friend. I feel as if I were going to faint." 
 
 "Wait! wait! La Mole, we are passing by the Rue Tizon 
 and the Rue Cloche Percee ; look ! look ! " 
 
 " Oh ! raise me, raise me, that I may once more gaze on that 
 happy abode." 
 
 Coconnas raised his hand and touched the shoulder of the 
 executioner, who sat at the front of the tumbril driving. 
 
 " Maitre," said he, " do us the kindness to stop a moment 
 opposite the Rue Tizon." 
 
 Caboche nodded in assent, and drew rein at the place indi- 
 cated. 
 
 Aided by Coconnas, La Mole raised himself with an effort, 
 and with eyes blinded by tears gazed at the small house, silent 
 and mute, deserted as a tomb. A groan burst from him, and 
 in a low voice he murmured : 
 
 " Adieu, adieu, youth, love, life ! " 
 
 And his head fell forward on his breast. 
 
 " Courage," said Coconnas ; " we may perhaps find all this 
 above." 
 
 " Do yoii think so ? " murmured La Mole. 
 
 " I think so, because the priest said so ; and above all, 
 because I hope so. But do not faint, my friend, or these 
 staring wretches will laugh at us." 
 
 Caboche heard the last words and whipping his horse with 
 one hand he extended the other, unseen by any one, to Cocon- 
 nas. It contained a small sponge saturated with a powerful 
 stimulant, and La Mole, after smelling it and rubbing his 
 forehead with it, felt himself revived and reanimated. 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " I am better," and he kissed the 
 reliquary, which he wore around his neck. 
 
 As they turned a corner of the quay and reached the small 
 edifice built by Henry II. they saw the scaffold rising bare and 
 bloody on its platform above the heads of the crowd. 
 
 " Dear friend," said La Mole, " I wish I might be the first 
 to die." 
 
 Coconnas again touched the hangman's shoulder. 
 
 " What is it, my gentleman ? " said the latter, turning around. 
 
 " My good fellow," said Coconnas, " you will do what you 
 can for me, will you not ? You said you would."
 
 THE PLACE SAINT JEAN EN GREVE. 627 
 
 " Yes, and I repeat it." 
 
 " My friend has suffered more than I and consequently has 
 less strength " 
 
 " Well ? " 
 
 " Well, he says that it would cause him too much pain to 
 see me die first. Besides, if I were to die before him he 
 would have no one to support him on the scaffold." 
 
 "Very well," said Caboche, wiping away a tear with the 
 back of his hand ; " be easy, it shall be as you wish." 
 
 " And with one blow, eh ? " said the Piedmontese in a low 
 tone. 
 
 " With one blow." 
 
 " That is well. If you have to make up for it, make up on 
 me." 
 
 The tumbril stopped. They had arrived. Coconnas put on 
 his hat 
 
 A murmur like that of the waves at sea reached the ears of 
 La Mole. He strove to rise, but strength failed him. Caboche 
 and Coconnas supported him under the arms. 
 
 The place was paved with heads ; the steps of the Hotel de 
 Ville seemed an amphitheatre peopled with spectators. Each 
 window was filled with animated faces, the eyes of which 
 seemed on fire. 
 
 When they saw the handsome young man, no longer able to 
 support himself on his bruised legs, make a last effort to 
 reach the scaffold, a great shout rose like a cry of universal 
 desolation. Men groaned and women uttered plaintive shrieks. 
 
 " He was one of the greatest courtiers ! " said the men ; 
 " and he should not have to die at Saint Jean en Greve, but 
 at the Pre aux Clercs." 
 
 " How handsome he is ! How pale ! " said the women ; " he 
 is the one who would not confess." 
 
 " Dearest friend," said La Mole, " I cannot stand. Carry 
 me!" 
 
 " Wait," said Coconnas. 
 
 He signed to the executioner, who stepped aside ; then, 
 stooping, he lifted La Mole in his arms as if he were a child, 
 and without faltering carried his burden up the steps of the 
 scaffold, where he put him down, amid the frantic shouting 
 and applause of the multitude. Coconnas raised his hat 
 and bowed. Then he threw the hat on the scaffold beside 
 him.
 
 528 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 11 Look round," said La Mole, " do you not see them some- 
 where ? " 
 
 Coconnas slowly glanced around the place, and, having 
 reached a certain point, without removing his eyes from it he 
 laid his hand on his friend's shoulder. 
 
 " Look," said he, " look at the window of that small 
 tower ! " 
 
 With his other hand he pointed out to La Mole the little 
 building which still stands at the corner of the Rue de la 
 Vannerie and the Rue Mouton, a reminder of past ages. 
 
 Somewhat back from the window two women dressed in 
 black were leaning against each other. 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " I feared only one thing, and that 
 was to die without seeing her again. I have seen her ; now I 
 can go." 
 
 And with his eyes riveted on the small window he raised the 
 reliquary to his lips and covered it with kisses. 
 
 Coconnas saluted the two women with as much grace as if 
 he were in a drawing-room. In response to this they waved 
 their handkerchiefs bathed in tears. 
 
 Caboche now touched Coconnas on the shoulder, and looked 
 at him significantly. 
 
 " Yes, yes," said the Piedmontese. Then turning to La 
 Mole : 
 
 "Embrace me," said he, "and die like a man. This will 
 not be hard for you, my friend ; you are so brave ! " 
 
 " Ah ! " said La Mole, " there will be no merit in my dying 
 bravely, suffering as I do." 
 
 The priest approached and held the crucifix before La Mole, 
 who smiled and pointed to the reliquary in his hand. 
 
 " Never mind," said the priest, " ask strength from Him who 
 suffered what you are about to suffer." 
 
 La Mole kissed the feet of the Christ. 
 
 " Commend me to the prayers of the nuns of the Avens 
 Sainte Vierge." 
 
 " Make haste, La Mole," said Coconnas, " you cause me such 
 suffering that I feel myself growing weak." 
 
 " I am ready," said La Mole. 
 
 " Can you keep your head steady ? " inquired Caboche, hold- 
 ing his sword behind La Mole, who was on his knees. 
 
 " I hope so," said the latter. 
 
 Then all will go well."
 
 THE PLACE SAINT JEAN EN GREVE. 529 
 
 " But," said La Mole, " you will not forget what I asked of 
 you ? This reliquary will open the doors to you." 
 
 " Be easy. Now try to keep your head straight." 
 
 La Mole raised his head and turned his eyes towards the 
 little tower. 
 
 " Adieu, Marguerite," said he ; " bless " 
 
 He never finished. With one blow of his sword, as swift 
 as a stroke of lightning, Caboche severed the head, which 
 rolled to the feet of Coconnas. 
 
 The body fell back gently as if going to rest. 
 
 A great cry nose from thousands of voices, and, among them, 
 it seemed to Coconnas that he heard a shriek more piercing 
 than all the rest. 
 
 " Thank you, my good friend," said Coconnas, and a third 
 time he extended his hand to the hangman. 
 
 " My son," said the priest, " have you nothing to confess to 
 God ? " 
 
 " Faith no, father," said the Piedmontese ; " all that I had 
 to say I said to you yesterday." 
 
 Then turning to Caboche : 
 
 " Now, executioner, my last friend, one more favor ! " 
 
 Before kneeling down he turned on the crowd a glance so 
 calm and serene that a murmur of admiration rose, which 
 soothed his ear and flattered his pride. Then, raising the head 
 of his friend and pressing a kiss on the purple lips, he gave a 
 last look toward the little tower, and kneeling down, still hold- 
 ing the well-loved head in his hand, he said : 
 
 Now ! " 
 
 Scarcely had he uttered the word before Caboche had cut off 
 his head. 
 
 This done, the poor hangman began to tremble. 
 
 " It was time it was over," said he. "Poor fellow ! " 
 
 And with difficulty he drew from the clinched fingers of 
 La Mole the reliquary of gold. Then he threw his cloak over 
 the sad remains which the tumbril was to convey to his own 
 abode. 
 
 The spectacle over, the crowd dispersed.
 
 530 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 CHAPTER LXI. 
 THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER. 
 
 NIGHT descended over the city, which still trembled at the 
 remembrance of the execution, the details of which passed 
 from mouth to mouth, saddening the happy supper hour in 
 every home. In contrast to the city, which was silent and 
 mournful, the Louvre was noisy, joyous, and illuminated. 
 There was a grand fe"te at the palace, a fte ordered by 
 Charles IX., a fe~te he had planned for that evening at the 
 very time that he had ordered the execution for the morning. 
 
 The previous evening the Queen of Navarre had received 
 word to be present, and, in the hope that La Mole and Cocon- 
 nas would have escaped during the night, since every measure 
 had been taken for their safety, she had promised her brother 
 to comply with his wishes. 
 
 But when she had lost all hope, after the scene in the chapel, 
 after, out of a last feeling of piety for that love, the greatest 
 and the deepest she had ever known, she had been present 
 at the execution, she resolved that neither prayers nor threats 
 should force her to attend a joyous festival at the Louvre 
 the same day on which she had witnessed so terrible a scene 
 at the Greve. 
 
 That day King Charles had given another proof of the will 
 power which no one perhaps carried as far as he. In bed for 
 a fortnight, weak as a dying man, pale as a corpse, yet he rose 
 about five o'clock and donned his most beautiful clothes, 
 although during his toilet he fainted three times. 
 
 At eight o'clock he asked what had become of his sister, 
 and inquired if any one had seen her and what she was doing. 
 No one could tell him, for the queen had gone to her apart- 
 ments about eleven o'clock and had absolutely refused admit- 
 tance to every one. 
 
 But there was no refusal for Charles. Leaning on the arm 
 of Monsieur de Nancey, he went to the queen's rooms and 
 entered unannounced by the secret corridor. 
 
 Although he had expected a melancholy sight, and had pre- 
 pared himself for it in advance, that which he saw was even 
 more distressing than he had anticipated. 
 
 Marguerite, half dead, was lying on a divan, her head buried
 
 THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER. 531 
 
 in the cushions, neither weeping nor praying, but moaning like 
 one in great agony ; and this she had been doing ever since her 
 return from the Greve. At the other end of the chamber Hen- 
 riette de Nevers, that daring woman, lay stretched on the carpet 
 unconscious. On coming back from the Greve her strength, 
 like Marguerite's, had given out, and poor Gillonne was going 
 from one to the other, not daring to offer a word of consolation. 
 
 In the crises which follow great catastrophes one hugs 
 one's grief like a treasure, and any one who attempts to divert 
 us, ever so slightly, is looked on as an enemy. Charles IX. 
 closed the door, and leaving Nancey in the corridor entered, 
 pale and trembling. 
 
 Neither of the women had seen him. Gillonne alone, who 
 was trying to revive Henriette, rose on one knee, and looked in 
 a startled way at the King. 
 
 The latter made a sign with his hand, whereupon the girl 
 rose, courtesied, and withdrew. 
 
 Charles then approached Marguerite, looked at her a moment 
 in silence, and in a tone of which his harsh voice was supposed 
 to be incapable, said : 
 
 " Margot ! my sister ! " 
 
 The young woman started and sat up. 
 
 " Your Majesty ! " said she. 
 
 " Come, sister, courage." 
 
 Marguerite raised her eyes to Heaven. 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, " but listen to me." 
 
 The Queen of Navarre made a sign of assent. 
 
 " You promised me to come to the ball," said Charles. 
 
 " I ! " exclaimed Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes, and after your promise you are expected ; so that if 
 you do not come every one will wonder why." 
 
 " Excuse me, brother," said Marguerite, " you see that I am 
 suffering greatly." 
 
 " Exert yourself." 
 
 For an instant Marguerite seemed to try to summon her, 
 courage, then suddenly she gave way and fell back among the 
 cushions. 
 
 " No, no, I cannot go," said she. 
 
 Charles took her hand and seating himself on the divan said : 
 
 " You have just lost a friend, I know, Margot; but look at 
 me. Have I not lost all my friends, even my mother ? You 
 can always weep when you wish to; but I, at the moment of
 
 632 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 my greatest sorrows, am always forced to smile. You suffer ; 
 but look at me ! I am dying. Come, Margot, courage ! I 
 ask it of you, sister, in the name of our honor ! We bear like 
 a cross of agony the reputation of our house ; let us bear it, 
 sister, as the Saviour bore his cross to Calvary ; and if on 
 the way we stagger, as he did, let us like him rise brave and 
 resigned." 
 
 " Oh, my God ! my God ! " cried Marguerite. 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, answering her thought ; " the sacrifice 
 is severe, sister, but each one has his own burden, some of 
 honor, others of life. Do you suppose that with my twenty- 
 five years, and the most beautiful throne in the world, I do 
 not regret dying ? Look at me ! My eyes, my complexion, 
 my lips are those of a dying man, it is true ; but my smile, 
 does not my smile imply that I still hope ? and in a week, a 
 month at the most, you will be weeping for me, sister, as you 
 now weep for. him who died to-day." 
 
 " Brother ! " exclaimed Marguerite, throwing her arms about 
 Charles's neck. 
 
 " So dress yourself, dear Marguerite," said the King, u hide 
 your pallor and come to the ball. I have given orders for new 
 jewels to be brought to you, and ornaments worthy of your 
 beauty." 
 
 "Oh ! what are diamonds and dresses to me now ? " said 
 Marguerite. 
 
 " Life is long, Marguerite," said Charles, smiling, " at least 
 for you." 
 
 The pages withdrew ; Gillonne alone remained. 
 
 " Prepare everything that is necessary for me, Gillonne," 
 said Marguerite. 
 
 " Sister, remember one thing : sometimes it is by stifling or 
 rather by dissimulating our suffering that we show most honor 
 to the dead." 
 
 " Well, sire," said Marguerite, shuddering, " I will go to the 
 ball." 
 
 A tear, which soon dried on his parched eyelid, moistened 
 Charles's eye. 
 
 He leaned over his sister, kissed her forehead, paused an in- 
 stant before Henriette, who had neither seen nor heard him, 
 and murmured : 
 
 " Poor woman ! " 
 
 Then he went out silently.
 
 THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER. 533 
 
 Soon after several pages entered, bringing boxes and jewel- 
 caskets. 
 
 Marguerite made a sign for them to set everything down. 
 
 Gillonue looked at her mistress in astonishment. 
 
 " Yes," said Marguerite, in a tone the bitterness of which 
 it is impossible to describe ; yes, I will dress and go to the 
 ball ; I am expected. Make haste ; the day will then be com- 
 plete. A fte on the Greve in the morning, a fte in the 
 Louvre in the evening." 
 
 " And the duchess ? " said Gillonne. 
 
 " She is quite happy. She may remain here ; she can 
 weep ; she can suffer at her ease. She is not the daughter of 
 a king, the wife of a king, the sister of a king. She is not a 
 queen. Help me to dress, Gillonne." 
 
 The young girl obeyed. The jewels were magnificent, the 
 dress gorgeous. Marguerite had never been so beautiful. 
 
 She looked at herself in a mirror. 
 
 " My brother is right," said she ; " a human being is indeed 
 a miserable creature." 
 
 At that moment Gillonne returned. 
 
 " Madame," said she, " a man is asking for you." 
 
 " For me ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 Who is he ? " 
 
 " I do not know, but he is terrible to look at ; the very sight 
 of him makes me shudder." 
 
 " Go and ask him his name," said Marguerite, turning 
 pale. 
 
 Gillonne withdrew, and returned in a few moments. 
 
 " He will not give his name, madame, but he begged me to 
 give you this." 
 
 Gillonne handed to Marguerite the reliquary she had given 
 to La Mole the previous evening. 
 
 " Oh ! bring him in, bring him in ! " said the queen quickly, 
 growing paler and more numb than before. 
 
 A heavy step shook the floor. The echo, indignant, no doubt, 
 at having to repeat such a sound, moaned along the wainscot- 
 ing. A man stood on the threshold. 
 
 " You are " said the queen. 
 
 " He whom you met one day near Montfaucon, madame, and 
 who in his tumbril brought back two wounded gentlemen to 
 the Louvre."
 
 534 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Yes, yes, I know you. You are Maitre Caboche." 
 
 " Executioner of the provostship of Paris, madame." 
 
 These were the only words Henriette had heard for an hour. 
 She raised her pale face from her hands and looked at the 
 man with her sapphire eyes, from which a double flame 
 seemed to dart. 
 
 " And you come " said Marguerite, trembling. 
 
 " To remind you of your promise to the younger of the two 
 gentlemen, who charged me to give you this reliquary. You 
 remember the promise, madame ? " 
 
 " Yes, yes," exclaimed the queen, " and never has a noble 
 soul had more satisfaction than his shall have; but where 
 is" 
 
 " At my house with the body." 
 
 " At your house ? Why did you not bring it ? " 
 
 " I might have been stopped at the gate of the Louvre, and 
 compelled to raise my cloak. What would they have said if 
 they had seen a head under it ? " 
 
 " That is right ; keep it. I will come for it to-morrow." 
 
 " To-morrow, madame," said Caboche, " may perhaps be too 
 late." 
 
 " How so ? " 
 
 "Because the queen mother wanted the heads of the first 
 victims executed by me to be kept for her magical experiments." 
 
 " Oh ! What profanation ! The heads of our well-beloved ! 
 Henriette," cried Marguerite, turning to her friend, who had 
 risen as if a spring had placed her on her feet, " Henriette, my 
 angel, do you hear what this man says ? " 
 
 " Yes ; what must we do ? " 
 
 " Go with him." 
 
 Then uttering a cry of pain by which great sufferers return 
 to life : 
 
 " Ah ! I was so happy," said Henriette ; " I was almost 
 dead." 
 
 Meanwhile Marguerite had thrown a velvet cloak over her 
 bare shoulders. 
 
 " Come," said she, " we will go and see them once more." 
 
 Telling Gillonne to have all the doors closed, the queen 
 gave orders for a litter to be brought to the private entrance, 
 and taking Henriette by the arm, she descended by the secret 
 corridor, signing to Caboche to follow. 
 
 At the lower door was the litter ; at the gate Caboche's
 
 THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER. 535 
 
 attendant waited with a lantern. Marguerite's porters were 
 trusty men, deaf and dumb, more to be depended on than if 
 they had been beasts of burden. 
 
 They walked for about ten minutes, preceded by Caboche 
 and his servant, carrying the lantern. Then they stopped. 
 The hangman opened the door, while his man went ahead. 
 
 Marguerite stepped from the litter and helped out the 
 Duchesse de Xevers. In the deep grief which bound them 
 together it was the nervous organism which was the stronger. 
 
 The headsman's tower rose before them like a dark, vague 
 giant, giving out a lurid gleam from two narrow upper win- 
 dows. 
 
 The attendant reappeared at the door. 
 
 " You can enter, ladies," said Caboche ; " every one is 
 asleep in the tower." 
 
 At the same moment the light from above was extinguished. 
 
 The two women, holding to each other, passed through the 
 small gothic door, and reached a dark hall with damp and 
 uneven pavement. At the end of a winding corridor they per- 
 ceived a light and guided by the gruesome master of the 
 place they set out towards it. The door closed behind them. 
 
 Caboche, a wax torch in hand, admitted them into a lower 
 room filled with smoke. In the centre was a table containing 
 the remains of a supper for three. These three were probably 
 the hangman, his wife, and his chief assistant. In a conspic- 
 uous place on the wall a parchment was nailed, sealed with 
 the seal of the King. It was the hangman's license. In a 
 corner was a long-handled sword. This was the flaming 
 sword of justice. 
 
 Here and there were various rough drawings representing 
 martyrs undergoing the torture. 
 
 At the door Caboche made a low bow. 
 
 "Your majesty will excuse me," said he, "if I ventured to 
 enter the Louvre and bring you here. But it was the last 
 wish of the gentleman, so that I felt I " 
 
 "You did well, Maitre," said Marguerite, "and here is a 
 reward for you." 
 
 Caboche looked sadly at the large purse which Marguerite 
 laid on the table. 
 
 " Gold ! " said he ; " always gold ! Alas ! madame, if I only 
 could buy back for gold the blood I was forced to spill to- 
 day!"
 
 536 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Maitre," said Marguerite, looking around with a sad 
 hesitation, " Maitre, do we have to go to some other room ? I 
 do not see " 
 
 " No, madame, they are here ; but it is a sad sight, and one 
 which I could have spared you by wrapping up in my cloak 
 that for which you have come." 
 
 Marguerite and Henriette looked at each other. 
 
 " No," said the queen, who had read in her friend's eye the 
 same thought as in her own ; " no, show us the way and we 
 will follow." 
 
 Caboche took the torch and opened an oaken door at the top 
 of a short stairway, which led to an underground chamber. At 
 that instant a current of air blew some sparks from the torch 
 arid brought to the princesses an ill-smelling odor of dampness 
 and blood. Henriette, white as an alabaster statue, leaned on 
 the arm of her less agitated friend ; but at the first step she 
 swayed. 
 
 " I can never do it," said she. 
 
 " When one loves truly, Henriette," replied the queen, 
 " one loves beyond death." 
 
 It was a sight both horrible and touching presented by the 
 two women, glowing with youth, beauty, and jewels, as they 
 bent their heads beneath the foul, chalky ceiling, the weaker 
 leaning on the stronger, the stronger clinging to the arm of the 
 hangman. 
 
 They reached the final step. On the floor of the cellar lay 
 two human forms covered with a wide cloth of black serge. 
 
 Caboche raised a corner of it, and, lowering the torch : 
 
 " See, madame," said he. 
 
 In their black clothes lay the two young men, side by side, 
 in the strange symmetry of death. Their heads had been 
 placed close to their bodies, from which they seemed to be 
 separated only by a bright red circle about the neck. Death 
 had not disunited their hands, for either from chance or the 
 kind care of the hangman the right hand of La Mole rested in 
 Coconnas's left hand. 
 
 There was a look of love under the lids of La Mole, and a 
 smile of scorn under those of Coconnas. 
 
 Marguerite knelt down by the side of her lover, and with 
 hands that sparkled with gems gently raised the head she had 
 so greatly love. 
 
 The Duchesse de Nevers leaned against the wall, unable to
 
 MARGUERITE IN THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER.
 
 THE HEADSMAN'S TOWER. 537 
 
 remove her eyes from that pale face on which so often she had 
 gazed for pleasure and for love. 
 
 " La Mole ! Dear La Mole ! " murmured Marguerite. 
 
 " Annibal ! Annibal ! " cried the duchess, " so beautiful ! so 
 proud ! so brave ! Never again will you answer me ! " 
 
 And her eyes filled with tears. 
 
 This woman, so scornful, so intrepid, so insolent in happi- 
 ness ; this woman who carried scepticism as far as absolute 
 doubt, passion to the point of cruelty ; this woman had never 
 thought of death. 
 
 Marguerite was the first to move. 
 
 She put into a bag, embroidered with pearls and perfumed 
 with finest essences, the head of La Mole, more beautiful than 
 ever as it rested against the velvet and the gold, and the 
 beauty of which was to be preserved by a special preparation, 
 used at that time in the embalming of royal personages. 
 
 Henriette then drew near and wrapped the head of 
 Coconnas in a fold of her cloak. 
 
 And both women, bending beneath their grief more than 
 beneath their burdens, ascended the stairs with a last look at 
 the remains which they left to the mercy of the hangman in 
 that sombre abode of ordinary criminals. 
 
 " Do not fear, madame," said Caboche, who understood their 
 look, " the gentlemen, I promise you, shall be buried in holy 
 ground." 
 
 " And you will have masses said for them with this," said 
 Henriette, taking from her neck a magnificent necklace of 
 rubies, and handing it to the hangman. 
 
 They returned to the Louvre by the same road by which 
 they had gone. At the gate the queen gave her name ; at 
 the foot of her private stairway she descended and, returning 
 to her rooms, laid her sad burden in the closet adjoining her 
 sleeping-room, destined from that moment to become an 
 oratory. Then, leaving Henriette in her room, paler and more 
 beautiful than ever, she entered the great ballroom, the same 
 room in which, two years and a half ago, the first chapter of 
 our history opened. 
 
 All eyes were turned on her, but she bore the general gaze 
 with a proud and almost joyous air. 
 
 She had religiously carried out the last wish of her friend. 
 
 Seeing her, Charles pushed tremblingly through the gilded 
 crowd around her.
 
 538 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Sister," said he, aloud, " I thank you." 
 
 Then in a low tone : 
 
 " Take care ! " said he, " you have a spot of blood on your 
 arm." 
 
 " Ah ! what difference does that make, sire," said Margue- 
 rite, " since I have a smile on my lips ? " 
 
 CHAPTER LXIL 
 
 THE SWEAT OF BLOOD. 
 
 A FEW days after the terrible scene we have just described, 
 that is, on the 30th of May, 1574, while the court was at Vin- 
 cennes, suddenly a great commotion was heard in the chamber 
 of the King. The latter had been taken ill in the midst of the 
 ball he had given the day of the execution of the two young 
 men, and had been ordered by his physicians into the pure air 
 of the country. 
 
 It was eight o'clock in the morning. A small group of 
 courtiers were talking excitedly in the antechamber, when sud- 
 denly a cry was heard, and Charles's nurse appeared at the 
 door, her eyes filled with tears, calling f ranticallv : 
 
 Help ! Help ! " 
 
 " Is his Majesty worse ? " asked the Captain de Nancey, 
 whom, as we know, the King had relieved from all duty to 
 Queen Catharine in order to attach him to himself. 
 
 " Oh ! Blood ! Blood ! " cried the nurse. " The doctors ! 
 call the doctors ! " 
 
 Mozille and Ambroise Pare in turn attended the august 
 patient, and the latter, seeing the King fall asleep, had taken 
 advantage of the fact to withdraw for a few moments. Mean- 
 while a great perspiration had broken out all over the King ; 
 and as Charles suffered from a relaxation of the capillary 
 vessels, which caused a haemorrhage of the skin, the bloody 
 sweat had alarmed the nurse, unaccustomed to this strange 
 phenomenon, who, being a Protestant, kept repeating that it 
 was a judgment for the blood of the Huguenots shed in the 
 massacre of Saint Bartholomew. 
 
 The courtiers went in all directions in search of the doctor, 
 who could not be far away, and whom they could not fail to
 
 THE SWEAT OF BLOOD. 539 
 
 meet. The antechamber, therefore, became deserted, every one 
 being anxious to show his zeal in bringing the much-needed 
 physician. 
 
 Just then a door opened and Catharine appeared. She 
 passed hurriedly through the antechamber and hastily entered 
 the apartment of her son. 
 
 Charles was stretched on his bed, his eyes closed, his breast 
 heaving ; from his body oozed a crimson sweat. His hand 
 hung over the bed, and from the end of each finger dropped a 
 ruby liquid. It was a horrible sight. 
 
 At the sound of his mother's steps, as if he knew she was 
 there, Charles sat up. 
 
 " Pardon, madame," said he, looking at her, " but I desire 
 to die in peace." 
 
 " To die, my son ? " said Catharine. " This is only a passing 
 attack of your wretched trouble. Would you have us despair 
 in this way ? " 
 
 " I tell you, madame, I feel that my soul is about to pass 
 away. I tell you, madame, that death is near me, by Heaven ! 
 I feel what I feel, and I know what I am talking about ! " 
 
 " Sire," said the queen, " your imagination is your most 
 serious trouble. Since the well-merited punishment of those 
 two sorcerers, those assassins, La Mole and Coconnas, your 
 physical suffering should have diminished. The mental 
 trouble alone continues, and if I could talk with you for just 
 ten minutes I could prove to you " 
 
 "Nurse," said Charles, "watch at the door that no one may 
 enter. Queen Catharine de Medicis wishes to speak with her 
 well-loved son Charles IX." 
 
 The nurse withdrew. 
 
 " Well," continued Charles, " this interview will have to 
 take place some day or other, and better to-day than to-morrow. 
 Besides, to-morrow may be too late. But a third person must 
 be present." 
 
 " Why ? " 
 
 " Because I tell you I am dying," repeated Charles with 
 frightful seriousness ; " because at any moment death may 
 enter this chamber, as you have done, pale, silent, and unan- 
 nounced. It is, therefore, time. Last night I settled my 
 personal affairs ; this morning I will arrange those of the 
 kingdom."
 
 540 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " What person do you desire to see ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " My brother, madame. Have him summoned." 
 
 " Sire," said the queen, " I see with pleasure that the preju- 
 dices dictated by hatred rather than pain are leaving your mind, 
 as they soon will fade from your heart. Nurse ! " cried Cath- 
 arine, " nurse ! " 
 
 The woman, who was keeping watch outside, opened the 
 door. 
 
 " Nurse," said Catharine, " by order of my son, when Mon- 
 sieur de Nancey returns say to him to summon the Due d'Al- 
 enqon." 
 
 Charles made a sign which detained the woman. 
 
 " I said my brother, madame," said Charles. 
 
 Catharine's eyes dilated like those of a tigress about to 
 show her anger. But Charles raised his hand imperatively. 
 
 " I wish to speak to my brother Henry," said he. " Henry 
 alone is my brother ; not he who is king yonder, but he who 
 is a prisoner here. Henry shall know my last wishes." 
 
 "And do you think," exclaimed the Florentine, with unusual 
 boldness in the face of the dread will of her son, her hatred 
 for the Bearnais being strong enough to make her forget her 
 customary dissimulation, " do you think that if, as you say, 
 you are near the tomb, I will yield to any one, especially a 
 stranger, my right to be present at your last hour ; my right 
 as queen and mother ? " 
 
 " Madame," said Charles, " I am still King ; and I still com- 
 mand. I tell you that I desire to speak to my brother Henry 
 and yet you do not summon my captain of the guard. A 
 thousand devils ! I warn you, madame, I still have strength 
 enough to go for him myself." 
 
 The King made a movement as if to rise from the bed, which 
 brought to light his body, bloody like Christ's after the flog- 
 ging- 
 
 " Sire," cried Catharine, holding him back, " you wrong us 
 all. You forget the insults given to our family, you repudiate 
 our blood. A son of France alone should kneel before the 
 death-bed of a King of France. As to me, my place is marked 
 out ; it is here by the laws of nature as well as the laws of 
 royalty. Therefore I shall remain." 
 
 " And by what right do you remain, madame ? " demanded 
 Charles IX. 
 
 " Because I am your mother."
 
 THE SWEAT OF BLOOD. 541 
 
 " You are no more my mother, madame, than is the Due 
 d'Alenqon my brother." 
 
 " You are mad, monsieur," said Catharine ; " since when is 
 she who gives birth to a child no longer his mother ? " 
 
 " From the moment, madame, when the unnatural mother 
 takes away that which she gives," replied Charles, wiping 
 away a bloody sweat from his lips. 
 
 " What do you mean, Charles ? I do not understand you," 
 murmured Catharine, gazing at her son, her eyes dilated with 
 astonishment. 
 
 " But you will, madame." 
 
 Charles searched under his pillow and drew out a small 
 silver key. 
 
 " Take this, madame, and open my travelling-box. It con- 
 tains certain papers which will speak for me." 
 
 Charles pointed to a magnificent carved box, closed with a 
 silver lock, like the key, which occupied the most conspicuous 
 place in the room. 
 
 Catharine, dominated by the look and manner of Charles, 
 obeyed, advanced slowly to the box, and opened it. But no 
 sooner had she looked into it than she suddenly sprang back 
 as if she had seen some sleeping reptile inside it. 
 
 " Well," said Charles, who had not taken his eyes from his 
 mother, " what is there in the box to startle you, madame ? " 
 
 " Nothing," said Catharine. 
 
 " Then put in your hand, madame, and take out a book that 
 is there ; there is one, is there not ? " added Charles, with a 
 pale smile, more terrible in him than a threat in another. 
 
 " Yes," faltered Catharine. 
 
 " A book on hunting ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " Take it out and bring it to me." 
 
 In spite of her assurance Catharine turned pale, and 
 trembled in every limb, as she extended her hand towards the 
 box. 
 
 " Fatality ! " she murmured, raising the book. 
 
 " Very good," said Charles, " now listen ; this book on hunt- 
 ing I loved the chase madly, above everything else I read 
 this book too eagerly, do you understand, madame ? " 
 
 Catharine gave a dull moan. 
 
 " It was a weakness," continued Charles ; " burn it, madame. 
 The weakness of kings and queens must not be known ! "
 
 542 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 Catharine stepped to the glowing hearth, and dropped the 
 book into the flames. 
 
 Then, standing motionless and silent, she watched with 
 haggard eye the bluish light which rose from the poisoned 
 leaves. 
 
 As the book burned a strong odor of arsenic spread through 
 the room. Soon the volume was entirely destroyed. 
 
 " And now, madame," said Charles, with irresistible majesty, 
 " call my brother." 
 
 Catharine, overcome, crushed under a multiple emotion 
 which her profound wisdom could not analyze, and which her 
 almost superhuman strength could not combat, took a step 
 forward as if to speak. 
 
 The mother grew remorseful ; the queen was afraid ; the 
 poisoner felt a return of hatred. 
 
 The latter sentiment dominated. 
 
 " Curse him ! " she cried, rushing from the room, " he 
 triumphs, he gains his end ; curse him ! curse him ! " 
 
 " You understand, my brother, my brother Henry," cried 
 Charles, calling after his mother ; " my brother Henry, with 
 whom I wish to speak instantly regarding the regency of the 
 kingdom ! " 
 
 Almost at the same instant Maitre Ambroise Pare entered 
 through the door opposite the one by which the queen had 
 just left, and, pausing on the threshold, noticed the peculiar 
 odor in the room. 
 
 " Who has been burning arsenic here ? " said he. 
 
 " I," replied Charles. 
 
 CHAPTER LXIII. 
 
 THE DONJON OF THE PRISON OF VINCENNES. 
 
 HENRY OF NAVARRE was strolling dreamily along the terrace 
 of the prison. He knew the court was at the chateau, not a 
 hundred feet away, and through the walls it seemed as if his 
 piercing eye could picture Charles as he lay dying. 
 
 The weather was perfect. A broad band of sunlight lay on 
 the distant fields, bathing in liquid gold the tops of the forest 
 trees, proud of the richness of their first foliage. The very 
 stones of the prison itself, gray as they were, seemed impreg-
 
 DONJON OF THE PRISON OF VINCENNES. 543 
 
 nated with the gentle light of heaven, and some flowers, lured 
 by the breath of the east wind, had pushed through the crevices 
 of the wall, and were raising their disks of red and yellow 
 velvet to the kisses of the warm air. 
 
 But Henry's eyes were fixed neither on the verdant plains 
 nor on the gilded tree tops. His glance went beyond, and was 
 fixed, full of ambition, on the capital of France, destined one 
 day to become the capital of the world. 
 
 " Paris," murmured the King of Navarre, " there is Paris ; 
 that is, joy, triumph, glory, power, and happiness. Paris, 
 in which is the Louvre, and the Louvre, in which is the throne ; 
 and only one thing separates me from this Paris, for which I 
 so long, and that something the stones at my feet, which shut 
 me in with my enemy ! " 
 
 As he glanced from Paris to Vincennes, he perceived on his 
 left, in a valley, partly hidden by flowering almond-trees, a 
 man, whose cuirass sparkled in the sunlight at its owner's 
 slightest movement. 
 
 This man rode a fiery steed and led another which seemed 
 no less impatient. 
 
 The King of Navarre fixed his eyes on this cavalier and saw 
 him draw his sword from his sheath, place his handkerchief 
 on the point, and wave it like a signal. 
 
 At the same instant the signal was repeated from the op- 
 posite hill, then all around the chateau a belt of handker- 
 chiefs seemed to flutter. 
 
 It was De Mouy and his Huguenots, who, knowing the King 
 was dying, and fearing that some attempt might be made on 
 Henry's life, had gathered together, ready to defend or attack. 
 
 Henry, with his eyes still on the horseman he had seen first, 
 bent over the balustrade, and shading his eyes with his hand 
 to keep out the dazzling rays of the sun, recognized the young 
 Huguenot. 
 
 " De Mouy ! " he exclaimed, as though the latter could hear 
 him. 
 
 And in his joy at seeing himself surrounded by friends, the 
 king raised his hat and waved his scarf. 
 
 All the white banners were again set in motion with an 
 energy which proved the joy of their owners. 
 
 " Alas ! they are waiting for me," said Henry, " and I can- 
 not join them. Why did I not do so when I could ? Now it is 
 too late ! "
 
 544 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 He made a despairing gesture, to which De Mouy returned 
 a sign which meant, " I will wait." 
 
 Just then Henry heard steps on the stone stairs. He 
 hastily withdrew. The Huguenots understood the cause of 
 his sudden disappearance, and their swords were returned to 
 their sheaths and their handkerchiefs disappeared. 
 
 Henry saw on the stairs a woman whose quick breathing 
 showed that she had come in haste. 
 
 He recognized, riot without the secret dread he always felt 
 on seeing her, Catharine de Medicis. 
 
 Behind her were two guards who stopped at the head of the 
 stairs. 
 
 " Oh ! " thought Henry, " it must be something new and 
 important that makes the queen mother come to seek me on 
 the balcony of the prison of Vincennes. 
 
 Catharine seated herself on a stone bench against the battle- 
 ment to recover her breath. 
 
 Henry approached her, and with his most gracious smile : 
 
 " Are you seeking me, my good mother ? " 
 
 " Yes, monsieur," replied Catharine, " I wish to give you a 
 final proof of my attachment. The King is dying and wishes 
 to see you." 
 
 " Me ! " said Henry, with a start of joy. 
 
 " Yes. He has been told, I am sure, that not only do you 
 covet the throne of Navarre but that of France as well." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " It is not true, I know, but he believes it, and no doubt the 
 object of the interview he wishes with you is to lay a snare 
 for you." 
 
 For me ? " 
 
 " Yes. Before dying Charles wants to know what there is 
 to hope or fear from you. And on your answer to his offer, 
 mark you, will depend his final commands, that is, your life 
 or death." 
 
 " But what will he offer me ? " 
 
 " How do I know ? Impossibilities, probably." 
 
 " But have you no idea ? " 
 
 " No ; but suppose for instance " 
 
 Catharine paused. 
 
 What." 
 
 " Suppose he credited you with these ambitious aims of 
 yours he has heard about; suppose he should wish to hear
 
 DONJOX OF THE PRISON OF VINCENNES. 545 
 
 these aims from your own lips ; suppose he should tempt you 
 as once they used to tempt the guilty in order to provoke a 
 confession without torture; suppose," continued Catharine, 
 looking fixedly at Henry, " he were to offer you a kingdom, 
 the regency ! " 
 
 A thrill of indescribable joy pervaded Henry's weary heart, 
 but he guessed the snare and his strong and supple soul re- 
 bounded. 
 
 < Me ? " said he ; " the snare would be too palpable ; offer 
 me the regency when there is you yourself and my brother 
 D'Aleiiqon ? " 
 
 Catharine compressed her lips to conceal her satisfaction. 
 
 " Then," said she, quickly, "you would refuse it ? " 
 
 " The King is dead," thought Henry, " and she is laying a 
 trap for me." 
 
 Aloud, he said : 
 
 " I must first hear what the King of France has to say ; for 
 from your own words, madame, all this is mere supposition." 
 
 " Doubtless," said Catharine ; " but you can tell me your 
 intentions." 
 
 " Why ! " said Henry, innocently, " having no pretensions, 
 I have no intentions." 
 
 " That is no answer," said Catharine, feeling that time was 
 flying, and giving way to her anger; "you can give some 
 answer." 
 
 " I cannot answer suppositions, madame ; a positive resolu- 
 tion is so difficult and so grave a thing to assume that I must 
 wait for facts." 
 
 " Listen, monsieur," said Catharine ; " there is no time to 
 lose, and we are Avasting it in vain discussion, in toying with 
 words. Let us play our role of king and queen. If you 
 accept the regency you are a dead man." 
 
 " The King lives," thought Henry. 
 
 Then aloud : 
 
 " Madame," said he, firmly, " God holds the lives of men 
 and of kings in his hands. He will inspire me. Let his 
 Majesty be informed that I am ready to see him." 
 
 " Reflect, monsieur." 
 
 " During the two years in which I have been persecuted, 
 during the month I have been a prisoner," replied Henry, 
 bravely, " I have had time to reflect, madame, and I have re- 
 flected. Have the goodness, therefore, to go to the King before
 
 546 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 me, and to tell him that I am following you. These two 
 guards," added Henry, pointing to the soldiers, " will see that 
 I do not escape. Moreover, that is not my intention." 
 
 There was such firmness in Henry's tone that Catharine 
 saw that all her attempts, under whatever disguise, would not 
 succeed. Therefore she hastily descended. 
 
 As soon as she had disappeared Henry went to the parapet 
 and made a sign to De Mouy, which meant : " Draw near and 
 be ready in case of necessity." 
 
 De Mouy, who had dismounted, sprang into the saddle, 
 and still leading the second horse galloped to within musket- 
 shot of the prison. 
 
 Henry thanked him by a gesture, and descended. 
 
 On the first landing he found the two soldiers who were 
 waiting for him. 
 
 A double troop of Swiss and light-horse guarded the 
 entrance to the court, and to enter or leave the chateau it was 
 necessary to traverse a double line of halberds. 
 
 Catharine had stopped and was waiting for him. 
 
 She signed to the two soldiers to go on, and laying her 
 hand on Henry's arm, said : 
 
 "This court has two gates. At one, behind the apart- 
 ments of the King, if you refuse the regency, a good horse and 
 freedom await you. At the other, through which you have just 
 passed, if you listen to the voice of ambition What do you 
 say?" 
 
 " I say that if the King makes me regent, madame, I, and 
 not you, shall give orders to the soldiers. I say that if I leave 
 the castle at night, all these pikes, halberds, and muskets shall 
 be lowered before me." 
 
 " Madman ! " murmured Catharine, exasperated, "believe me, 
 and do not play this terrible game of life and death with me." 
 
 " Why not ? " said Henry, looking closely at Catharine ; 
 " why not with you as well as with another, since up to this 
 time I have won ? " 
 
 " Go to the King's apartments, monsieur, since you are 
 unwilling to believe or listen to anything," said Catharine, 
 pointing to the stairway with one hand, and with the other 
 toying with one of the two poisoned daggers she always wore 
 in the black shagreen case, which has become historical. 
 
 " Pass before me, madame," said Henry ; " so long as I am 
 not regent, the honor of precedence belongs to you."
 
 THE REGENCY. 547 
 
 Catharine, thwarted in all her plans, did not attempt to 
 struggle, but ascended the stairs ahead of the King of Navarre. 
 
 CHAPTER LXIV. 
 
 THE REGENCY. 
 
 THE King, beginning to grow impatient, had summoned 
 Monsieur deNancey to his room, and had just given him orders 
 to go in search of Henry, when the latter appeared. 
 
 On seeing his brother-in-law at the door Charles uttered a 
 cry of joy, but Henry stood motionless, as startled as if he had 
 come face to face with a corpse. 
 
 The two physicians who were at the bedside and the priest 
 who had been with Charles withdrew. 
 
 Charles was not loved, and yet many were weeping in the 
 antechambers. At the death of kings, good or bad, there are 
 always persons who lose something and who fear they will not 
 find it again under the successor. 
 
 The mourning, the sobbing, the words of Catharine, the sin- 
 ister and majestic surroundings of the last moments of a king, 
 the sight of the King himself, suffering from a malady common 
 enough afterwards, but which, at that time, was new to science, 
 produced on Henry's mind, which was still youthful and con- 
 sequently still susceptible, such a terrible impression that in 
 spite of his determination not to cause Charles fresh anxiety 
 as to his condition, he could not as we have said repress the 
 feeling of terror which came to his face on perceiving the 
 dying man dripping with blood. 
 
 Charles smiled sadly. Nothing of those around them es- 
 capes the dying. 
 
 " Come, Henriot," said he, extending his hand with a gentle- 
 ness of voice Henry had never before noticed in him. " Come 
 in ; I have been very unhappy at not seeing you for so long. 
 I have tormented you greatly during my life, my poor friend, 
 and sometimes, believe me, I have reproached myself for it. 
 Sometimes I have taken the hands of those who tormented 
 you, it is true, but a king cannot control circumstances, and 
 besides my mother Catharine, my brothers lyAnjou and D'Alen- 
 qon, I had to consider during my lifetime something else which
 
 548 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 was troublesome and which ceases the moment I draw near to 
 death state policy." 
 
 " Sire," murmured Henry, " I remember only the love I 
 have always had for my brother, the respect I have always 
 felt for my King." 
 
 " Yes, yes, you are right," said Charles, " and I am grateful 
 to you for saying this, Henriot, for truly you have suffered a 
 great deal under my reign without counting the fact that it 
 was during my reign that your poor mother died. But you 
 must have seen that I was often driven ? Sometimes I have 
 resisted, but oftener I have yielded from very fatigue. But, 
 as you said, let us not talk of the past. Now it is the present 
 which concerns me ; it is the future which frightens me." 
 
 And the poor King hid his livid face in his emaciated hands. 
 
 After a moment's silence he shook his head as if to drive 
 away all gloomy thoughts, thus causing a shower of blood to 
 fall about him. 
 
 " We must save the state," he continued in a low tone, lean- 
 ing towards Henry. " We must prevent its falling into the 
 hands of fanatics or women." 
 
 As we have just said, Charles uttered these words in a 
 low tone, yet Henry thought he heard behind the headboard 
 something like a dull exclamation of anger. Perhaps some 
 opening made in the wall at the instigation of Charles himself 
 permitted Catharine to hear this final conversation. 
 
 " Of women ? " said the King of Navarre to provoke an 
 explanation. 
 
 "Yes, Henry," said Charles, "my mother wishes the regency 
 until my brother returns from Poland. But mind what I tell 
 you, he will not come back." 
 
 " Why not ?" cried Henry, whose heart gave a joyful leap. 
 
 " No, he cannot return," continued Charles, " because his 
 subjects will not let him leave." 
 
 " But," said Henry, " do you not suppose, brother, that the 
 queen mother has already written to him ? " 
 
 " Yes, but Nancey stopped the courier at Chateau Thierry, 
 and brought me the letter, in which she said I was to die. I 
 wrote to Varsovia myself, my letter reached there, I am sure, 
 and my brother will be watched. So, in all probability, 
 Henry, the throne will be vacant." 
 
 A second sound louder than the first was heard in the alcove. 
 
 " She is surely there," thought Henry, " and is listening."
 
 THE REGENCY. 549 
 
 Charles heard nothing. 
 
 " Now," he continued, " I am dying without male heir." 
 Then he stopped. A sweet thought seemed to light up his 
 face, and, laying his hand on the King of Navarre's shoulder : 
 
 " Alas ! " said he, " do you remember, Henriot, the poor little 
 boy I showed you one evening sleeping in his silken cradle, 
 watched over by an angel ? Alas ! Henriot, they will kill 
 him ! " 
 
 " Oh, sire ! " cried Henry, whose eyes filled with tears, " I 
 swear to you that I will watch over him all the days and nights 
 of my life. Command me, my King." 
 
 " Thanks, Henriot, thanks ! " said Charles, with a show of 
 feeling unusual in him, but which the situation had roused, 
 " I accept your promise. Do not make him a king, fortu- 
 nately he was not born for a throne, but make him happy. 
 I have left him an independent fortune. Let him inherit his 
 mother's nobility, that of the heart. Perhaps it would be bet- 
 ter for him if he were to enter the church. He would inspire 
 less fear. Oh ! it seems to me that I should die, if not happy, 
 at least calm, if I had the kisses of the child and the sweet 
 face of its mother to console me." 
 
 " Sire, could you not send for them ? " 
 
 " Ah, poor wretches ! They would never be allowed to leave 
 the Louvre ! Such is the condition of kings, Henriot. They 
 can neither live nor die as they please. But since you prom- 
 ise I am more resigned." 
 
 Henry reflected. 
 
 " Yes, no doubt, my King. I have promised, but can I 
 keep my word ? " 
 
 " What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Shall I not be persecuted, and threatened like him, even 
 more than him ? For I am a man, and he is only a child." 
 
 " You are mistaken," said Charles ; " after my death you 
 shall be great and powerful. Here is what will make you so." 
 
 And the King drew a parchment from under the pillow. 
 
 " See ! " said he. 
 
 Henry glanced over the document sealed with the royal seal. 
 
 " The regency for me, sire ! " said he, growing pale with joy. 
 
 " Yes, for you, until the return of the Due d'Anjou, and as 
 in all probability the duke will never return it is not the re- 
 gency only but the throne that this gives you." 
 
 " The throne ! " murmured Henry.
 
 550 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 " Yes," said Charles, " you alone are worthy of it ; you 
 alone are capable of governing these debauched gallants, and 
 these bold women who live by blood and tears. My brother 
 D'Alenqon is a traitor, and would deceive every one. Leave 
 him in the prison in which I have placed him. My mother 
 will try to kill you, therefore banish her. My brother D'Anjou 
 in three or four months, perhaps in a year, will leave Varsovia 
 and will come to dispute the throne with you. Answer him 
 by a bull from the pope. I have already arranged that matter 
 through my ambassador, the Due de Nevers, and you will 
 receive the' document before long." 
 
 Oh, my King ! " 
 
 " You have but one thing to fear, Henry, civil war ; but 
 by remaining converted you will avoid this, for the Huguenots 
 are strong only when you put yourself at their head, and 
 Monsieur de Conde is nothing when opposed to you. France 
 is a country of plains, Henry, and consequently a Catholic 
 country. The King of France ought to be the king of the 
 Catholics and not the king of the Huguenots, for the King of- 
 France ought to be the king of the majority. It is said I feel 
 remorse for the massacre of Saint Bartholomew ; doubts, yes ; 
 remorse, no. It is said I am bleeding the blood of those 
 Huguenots from every pore. I know what is flowing from 
 me. It is arsenic and not blood." 
 
 " What do you mean, sire ? " 
 
 " Nothing. If my death must be avenged, Henriot, it must 
 be avenged by God alone. Let us speak now of the future. 
 I leave you a faithful parliament and a trusty army. Lean on 
 them and they will protect you against your only enemies 
 my mother and the Due d'Alemjon." 
 
 Just then the sound of arms and military commands were 
 heard in the vestibule. 
 
 " I am dead ! " murmured Henry. 
 
 " You fear ? You hesitate ? " said Charles, anxiously. 
 
 " I ! sire," replied Henry ; " no, I do not fear, nor do I 
 hesitate. I accept." 
 
 Charles pressed Henry's hand. At that moment the nurse 
 approached with a drink she had been preparing in the adjoin- 
 ing room, not knowing that the fate of France was being de- 
 cided three feet from her. 
 
 " Call my mother, nurse, and have Monsieur d'Alengon also 
 summoned."
 
 THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! 551 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 
 THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE KING ! 
 
 A FEW moments later Catharine and the Due d'Alenqon, pale 
 with fright and trembling with rage, entered Charles's room. 
 As Henry had conjectured, Catharine had overheard every- 
 thing and in a few words had told all to Francois. 
 
 Henry was standing at the head of Charles's bed. 
 
 The King spoke his wishes : 
 
 " Madame," said he to his mother, " had I a son, you would 
 be regent, or in default of you it would be the King of Poland ; 
 or in default of him it would be my brother Francois ; but I have 
 no son, and after me the throne belongs to my brother the 
 Due d'Anjou, who is absent. As some day he will claim this 
 throne I do not wish him to find in his place a man who by 
 almost equal rights might dispute it with him, and who conse- 
 quently might expose the kingdom to civil war. This is why 
 I do not appoint you regent, madame, for you would have to 
 choose between your two sons, which would be painful for a 
 mother. This is why I do not choose my brother Franqois, for 
 he might say to his elder brother, ' You had a throne, why did 
 you leave it ? ' No, I have chosen as regent one who can 
 take the crown on trust, and who will keep it in his hand and 
 not on his head. Salute this regent, madame; salute him, 
 brother ; it is the King of Navarre ! " 
 
 And with a gesture of supreme authority the King himself 
 saluted Henry. 
 
 Catharine and D'Alenqon made a gesture between a nervous 
 shudder and a salute. 
 
 " Here, my Lord Regent," said Charles to the King of Na- 
 varre, " here is the parchment which, until the return of the 
 King of Poland, gives you the command of the armies, the keys 
 of the treasury, and the royal power and authority." 
 
 Catharine devoured Henry with her eyes ; Francois swayed 
 so that he could scarcely stand; but this weakness of the 
 one and strength of the other, instead of encouraging Henry, 
 showed him the danger which threatened him. 
 
 Nevertheless he made a violent effort and overcoming his 
 fears took the parchment from the hands of the King,
 
 552 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 raised himself to his full height, and gave Catharine and 
 FranQois a look which meant : 
 
 " Take care ! I am your master." 
 
 "No," said she, " never ; never shall my race bow to a for- 
 eign one ; never shall a Bourbon reign in France while a 
 Valois remains ! " 
 
 " Mother," cried Charles IX., sitting up among the crimson 
 sheets of his bed, more frightful looking than ever, " take care, 
 I am still King. Not for long, I well know ; but it does not 
 take long to give an order ; it does not take long to punish 
 murderers and poisoners." 
 
 " Well ! give the order, if you dare, and I will give mine ! 
 Come, Francois, come ! " 
 
 And the queen left the room rapidly, followed by the Due 
 d'Alengon. 
 
 " Nancey ! " cried Charles ; " Nancey ! come here ! I order 
 you, Nancey, to arrest my mother, and my brother, arrest" 
 
 A stream of blood choked his utterance, just as the captain 
 of the guards opened the door, and, almost suffocated, the King 
 fell back on his bed. Nancey had heard only his name ; 
 the orders which followed, and which had been uttered in a 
 less audible tone, were lost in space. 
 
 " Guard the door," said Henry, " and let no one enter." 
 
 Nancey bowed and withdrew. 
 
 Henry looked at the almost lifeless body, which already 
 would have seemed like that of a corpse had not a light 
 breath stirred the fringe of foam on the lips. 
 
 Henry looked for several moments, then, speaking to him- 
 self : 
 
 " The final moment has come ! " said he ; " shall I reign ? 
 shall I live ? " 
 
 Just then the tapestry of the alcove was raised, a pale face 
 appeared behind it, and a voice vibrated through the silence of 
 death which reigned throughout the royal chamber. 
 
 " Live ! " said this voice. 
 
 " Rene ! " cried Henry. 
 
 "Yes, sire." 
 
 " Your prediction was false, then ; I shall not be king ? " 
 
 " You shall be, sire ; but the time has not yet come." 
 
 " How do you know ? Speak, that I may know if I may 
 believe you." 
 
 " Listen."
 
 THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! 553 
 
 "Well?" 
 
 " Stoop down." 
 
 Henry leaned over Charles. Rene did the same. They 
 were separated by the width of the bed alone, and even this 
 distance was lessened by their positions. Between them, silent 
 and motionless, lay the dying King. 
 
 " Listen," said Rene ; " placed here by the queen mother 
 to ruin you, I prefer to serve you, for I have faith in your 
 horoscope. By serving you I shall profit both in body and 
 soul." 
 
 " Did the queen mother command you to say this also ? " 
 asked Henry, full of doubt and pain. 
 
 " No," said Rene ; "but I will tell you a secret." 
 
 He leaned still further over. 
 
 Henry did likewise, so that their heads almost touched. 
 
 This interview between two men bending over the body of a 
 dying king was so sombre that the hair of the superstitious 
 Florentine rose on end, and Henry's face became covered with 
 perspiration. 
 
 " Listen," continued Re'ne', " I will tell you a secret known 
 only to me. I will reveal it to you if you will swear over this 
 dying man to forgive me for the death of your mother." 
 
 " I have already promised you this," said Henry, with dark- 
 ening brow. 
 
 " You promised, but you did not swear," said Rene, drawing 
 back. 
 
 " I swear it," said Henry, raising his right hand over the 
 head of the King. 
 
 " Well, sire," said the Florentine, hastily, " the King of 
 Poland will soon arrive ! " 
 
 " No," said Henry, " the messenger was stopped by King 
 Charles." 
 
 " King Charles intercepted only the one on the road to 
 Chateau Thierry. But the queen mother wisely sent couriers 
 by three different routes." 
 
 " Oh ! I am lost ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " A messenger arrived this morning from Varsovia. The 
 king left after him without any one's thinking of opposing, 
 him, for at Varsovia the illness of the King of France was not 
 yet known. This courier only preceded Henry of Anjou by a 
 few hours." 
 
 " Oh ! had I but eight days ! " cried Henry.
 
 554 MARGUERITE DE V A LOIS. 
 
 " Yes, but you have not eight hours. Did you hear the noise 
 of arms ? " 
 
 Yes." 
 
 " They are making ready to kill you. They will seek you 
 even here in the apartment of the King." 
 
 " The King is not yet dead." 
 
 Rene looked closely at Charles. 
 
 " He will be in ten minutes ; you have ten minutes to live, 
 therefore ; perhaps less." 
 
 " What shall I do ? " 
 
 " Flee instantly, without delaying a minute, a second." 
 
 " But how ? If they are waiting in the antechamber they 
 will kill me as I go out." 
 
 " Listen ! I will risk everything for you. Never forget 
 this." 
 
 " Fear not." 
 
 " Follow me by the secret corridor. I will lead you to the 
 postern. Then, to gain time, I will tell the queen mother that 
 you are coming down ; you will be seen to have discovered 
 this secret passage, and to have profited by it to escape. Flee ! 
 Flee ! " 
 
 " Nurse ! " murmured Charles, " nurse ! " 
 
 Henry took from the bed Charles's sword, of no further use 
 to the dying King, put the parchment which made him regent 
 in his breast, kissed Charles's brow for the last time, and turn- 
 ing away hurried through the door, which closed behind him. 
 
 " Nurse ! " cried the King, in a stronger voice, " nurse ! " 
 
 The woman ran to him. 
 
 " What is it. Chariot ? " she asked. 
 
 " Nurse," said the King, his eye dilated by the terrible fixity 
 of death, "something must have happened while I slept. I 
 see a great light. I see God, our Master, I see Jesus, and the 
 Blessed Virgin Mary. They are praying and interceding for 
 me. The all-powerful Lord pardons me calls to me My 
 God ! my God ! In thy mercy, receive me ! My God ! forget 
 that I have been King, for I come to you without sceptre or 
 crown. My God ! forget the crimes of the King, and remem- 
 ber only the suffering of the man. My God, I come ! " 
 
 And Charles, who as he spoke had risen more and more as 
 if to go to the One who was calling him, after uttering these 
 words heaved a sigh and fell back still and cold in the arms 
 of his nurse.
 
 THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING! 555 
 
 Meantime, while the soldiers, commanded by Catharine, were 
 beginning to fill the main corridor in which they expected 
 Henry to appear, the latter, guided by Rene", passed along the 
 secret passage and reached the postern, sprang on the horse 
 which was waiting for him, and galloped to the place where he 
 knew he would find De Mouy. 
 
 Hearing the sound of the horse's hoofs, the galloping of which 
 fell on the hard pavement, some sentinels turned and cried : 
 
 " He flees ! He flees ! " 
 
 " Who ? " cried the queen mother, stepping to a window. 
 
 " The King of Navarre ! " cried the sentinels. 
 
 " Fire on him ! Fire ! " cried Catharine. 
 
 The sentinels levelled their muskets, but Henry was already 
 too far away. 
 
 " He flees ! " cried the queen mother ; " then he is van- 
 quished ! " 
 
 " He flees ! " murmured the Due d'Alemjon ; " then I am 
 king ! " 
 
 At that instant, while Francois and his mother were still 
 before the window, the drawbridge thundered under horses' 
 hoofs and preceded by a clanking of arms and great noise a 
 young man galloped up, his hat in his hand, shouting as he 
 entered the court : " France ! " He was followed by four 
 gentlemen, covered like himself with perspiration, dust, and 
 foam. 
 
 " My son ! " exclaimed Catharine, extending both arms out 
 of the window. 
 
 " Mother ! " replied the young man, springing from his 
 steed. 
 
 " My brother D'Anjou ! " cried Francois, stepping back in 
 amazement. 
 
 " Am I too late ? " asked Henry d'Anjou. 
 
 " No, just in time, and God must have guided you, for you 
 could not have arrived at a better moment. Look and 
 listen ! " 
 
 Monsieur de Nancey, captain of the guards, had come out 
 upon the balcony from the chamber of the King. 
 
 All eyes were turne.d towards him. 
 
 Breaking a wand in two, with arms extended, he took a 
 piece in either hand and cried three times : 
 
 " King Charles IX. is dead ! King Charles IX. is dead ! 
 King Charles IX. is dead ! "
 
 556 MARGUERITE DE VALOfS. 
 
 Then he dropped the pieces of the wand. 
 
 " Long live King Henry III. ! " shouted Catharine, making 
 the sign of the cross. " Long live King Henry III. ! " 
 
 All took up the cry except Due Franqois. 
 
 " Ah, she has betrayed ine ! " murmured he, digging his 
 nails into his breast. 
 
 " I have won," cried Catharine, " and that hateful Bearnais 
 will not reign ! " 
 
 CHAPTER LXVI. 
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 ONE year had elapsed since the death of Charles IX. and the 
 accession of his successor to the throne. 
 
 King Henry III., happily reigning by the grace of God and 
 his mother Catharine, was attending a fine procession given in 
 honor of Notre Dame de Clery. 
 
 He had gone on foot with the queen, his wife, and all the court. 
 
 King Henry III. could well afford this little pastime, for no 
 serious business occupied him for the moment. The King of 
 Navarre was in Navarre, where he had so long desired to be, 
 and where he was said to be very much taken up with a beau- 
 tiful girl of the blood of the Montmorencies whom he called 
 La Fosseuse. Marguerite was with him, sad and gloomy, find- 
 ing in the beautiful mountains not distraction but a softening 
 of the two greatest griefs of life, absence and death. 
 
 Paris was very quiet and the queen mother, really regent 
 since her dear son Henry had been King, resided sometimes 
 at the Louvre, sometimes at the Hotel de Soissons, which 
 occupied the site to-day covered by the Halle au Ble, of which 
 nothing remains beyond the beautiful column which is still 
 standing. 
 
 One evening when she was deeply engaged in studying the 
 stars with Rene, of whose little act of treason she was still 
 ignorant, and who had been reinstated in her favor after the 
 false testimony he had so opportunely given at the trial of 
 Coconnas and La Mole, she was informed that a man waited 
 for her in her oratory with something to tell her of the great- 
 est importance. 
 
 Hastily descending, the queen found the Sire de Maurevel.
 
 EPILOGUE. 557 
 
 "He is here ! " cried the ancient captain of the guards, not 
 giving Catharine time to address him, according to royal 
 etiquette. 
 
 " What he ? " demanded Catharine. 
 
 " Who but the King of Navarre, madame ! " 
 
 " Here ! " said Catharine, " here ! He Henry And 
 what has he come for, the madman ? " 
 
 " If appearances are to be believed, he comes to see Madame 
 de Sauve. That is all. If probabilities are to be considered, 
 he comes to conspire against the King." 
 
 " How do you know he is here ? " 
 
 " Yesterday I saw him enter a house, and an instant later 
 Madame de Sauve joined him there." 
 
 " Are you sure it was he ? " 
 
 " I waited until he came out, that is, part of the night. At 
 three o'clock the two lovers appeared. The king led Madame 
 de Sauve as far as the gate of the Louvre, where, thanks to the 
 porter, who no doubt is in her pay, she was admitted without 
 opposition, and the king returned, humming a tune, and with 
 a step as free as if he were among his own mountains." 
 
 " Where did he go then ? " 
 
 " To the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, Hotel de la Belle toile, the 
 same inn in which the two sorcerers used to lodge whom your 
 majesty had executed a year ago." 
 
 " Why did you not come and tell me this at once ? " 
 
 " Because I was not yet sure of my man." 
 
 And now ? " 
 
 " Now I am certain." 
 
 " Did you see him ? " 
 
 " Yes. I hid in a wine merchant's opposite. I saw him 
 enter the same building as on the previous night. Then as 
 Madame de Sauve was late he imprudently put his face against 
 the window pane on the first floor, and I had no further doubt. 
 Besides, a few minutes later Madame de Sauve came and again 
 joined him." 
 
 " Do you think that like last night they will remain until 
 three o'clock in the morning ? " 
 
 " It is probable." 
 
 " Where is the house ? " 
 
 " Near the Croix des Petits Champs, close to Saint HonoreV' 
 
 " Very good," said Catharine. " Does Monsieur de Sauve 
 know your handwriting ? "
 
 558 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Sit down, then, and write." 
 
 Maurevel took a pen and obeyed. 
 
 " I am ready, madame," said he. 
 
 Catharine dictated : 
 
 " While the Baron de Sauve is on service at the Louvre the 
 baroness is with one of her friends, in a house near the Croix 
 des Petit Champs, close to Saint Honore. The Baron de 
 Saure will know the house by a red cross on the wall" 
 
 " Well ? " said Maurevel. 
 
 "Make a copy of the letter," said Catharine. 
 
 Maurevel obeyed in silence. 
 
 "Now," said the queen, "have one of these letters taken by 
 a clever man to the Baron de Sauve, and drop the other in the 
 corridors of the Louvre." 
 
 " I do not understand," said Maurevel. 
 
 Catharine shrugged her shoulders. 
 
 " You do not understand that a husband who receives such a 
 note will be angry ? " 
 
 " But the King of Navarre never used to be angry, 
 madanie." 
 
 " It is not always with a king as with a simple courtier. 
 Besides, if De Sauve is not angry you can be so for him." 
 
 u I ! " 
 
 " Yes. You can take four men or six, if necessary, put on 
 a mask, break down the door, as if you had been sent by the 
 baron, surprise the lovers in the midst of their tete a tete, and 
 strike your blow in the name of the King. The next day 
 the note dropped in the corridor of the Louvre, and picked up 
 by some kind friend who already will have circulated the 
 news, will prove that it was the husband who had avenged 
 himself. Only by chance, the gallant happened to be King of 
 Navarre ; but who would have imagined that, when every one 
 thought him at Pau." 
 
 Maurevel looked at Catharine in admiration, bowed, and 
 withdrew. 
 
 As Maurevel left the Hotel de Soissons Madame de Sauve 
 entered the small house near the Croix des Petits Champs. 
 
 Henry was waiting for her at the half-open door. 
 
 As soon as he saw her on the stairs, he said : 
 
 " You have not been followed, have you ? " 
 
 " Why, no," said Charlotte, " at least, not so far as I know."
 
 EPILOGUE. 559 
 
 " I think I have been," said Henry, " not only to-night hut 
 last evening as well." 
 
 " Oh ! my God ! " said Charlotte, " you frighten me, sire ! If 
 this meeting between you and one of your old friends should 
 bring any harm to you I should be inconsolable." 
 
 " Do not worry, my love," said the Bearnais, " we have 
 three swordsmen watching in the darkness." 
 
 " Three are very few, sire." 
 
 " Three are enough when they are De Mouy, Saucourt, and 
 Barthelemy." 
 
 " Is De Mouy in Paris with you ? " 
 
 " Certainly." 
 
 " He dared to return to the capital ? Has he, then, like you, 
 some poor woman who is in love with him ? " 
 
 " No, but he has an enemy whose death he has sworn to have. 
 Nothing but hate, my dear, commits as many follies as love." 
 
 " Thank you, sire." 
 
 " Oh," said Henry, " I do not refer to our present follies. I 
 mean those of the past and the future. But do not let us dis- 
 cuss this ; we have no time to lose." 
 
 " You still plan to leave Paris ? " 
 
 " To-night." 
 
 " Are your affairs which brought you back to Paris fin- 
 ished ? " 
 
 " I came back only to see you." 
 
 " Gascon ! " 
 
 " Venire saint gris ! My love, that is true ; but let us put 
 aside such thoughts. I have still two or three hours in which 
 to be happy ; then farewell forever." 
 
 " Ah ! sire," said Madame de Sauve, " nothing is forever 
 except my love." 
 
 Henry had just said that he had no time for discussion ; 
 therefore he did not discuss this point. He believed, or sceptic 
 that he was, he pretended to believe. 
 
 As the King of Navarre had said, De Mouy and his two 
 companions were hidden near by. 
 
 It was arranged that Henry should leave the small house at 
 midnight instead of at three o'clock ; that, as on the previous 
 night, they would escort Madame de Sauve back to the Louvre, 
 and from there they would go to the Rue de la Cerisaie, where 
 Maurevel lived. 
 
 It was only during that day that De Mouy had been sure of
 
 560 MARGUERITE DE V ALOIS. 
 
 his enemy's whereabouts. The men had been on guard about 
 an hour when they perceived a man, followed at a few feet by 
 five others, who drew near to the door of the small house and 
 tried several keys successively. De Mouy, concealed within 
 the shelter of a neighboring door, made one bound from his 
 hiding-place, and seized the man by the arm. 
 
 " One moment," said he; " you cannot enter there." 
 
 The man sprang back, and in doing so his hat fell off. 
 
 " De Mouy de Saint Phale ! " he cried. 
 
 " Maurevel ! " thundered the Huguenot, raising his sword. 
 " I sought you, and you have come to me. Thanks ! " 
 
 But his anger did not make him forget Henry, and turning 
 to the window he whistled in the manner of the Bearnais 
 shepherds. 
 
 " That will be enough," said he to Saucourt. " Now, then, 
 murderer ! " 
 
 And he sprang towards Maurevel. 
 
 The latter had had time to draw a pistol from his belt. 
 
 " Ah ! now," said the King's Slayer, aiming at the young 
 man, " I think you are a dead man ! " 
 
 He fired. De Mouy jumped to one side and the ball passed 
 by without touching him. 
 
 " It is my turn now ! " cried the young man. 
 
 And he dealt Maurevel such a violent thrust with his sword 
 that, although the blade had to encounter his buff belt, the 
 sharp point pierced this obstacle and sank into the flesh. 
 
 The assassin gave a terrible cry of pain ; whereupon the 
 soldiers with him, thinking he was killed, fled in alarm down 
 the Rue Saint Honore. 
 
 Maurevel was not brave. Seeing himself abandoned by his 
 followers, and having to face an adversary like De Mouy, he 
 strove to escape, and ran after the guard, shouting, " help ! 
 help ! " 
 
 De Mouy, Saucourt, and Barthelemy, carried away by their 
 ardor, pursued him. As they entered the Rue de Grenelle, 
 which they had taken as a short cut, a window opened and a 
 man sprang out from the first floor, landing on the ground lately 
 wet by the rain. 
 
 It was Henry. 
 
 De Mouy's whistle had warned him of some danger and the 
 pistol-shot had showed him that the danger was great, and had 
 drawn him to the aid of his friends.
 
 EPILOGUE. 561 
 
 Energetic and vigorous, he dashed after them, sword in hand. 
 
 A cry guided him ; it came from the Barrier des Sergents. 
 It was Maurevel, who being hard pressed by De Mouy was call- 
 ing a second time for help from his men who had run away. 
 
 Maurevel had to turn or be run through the back ; he turned, 
 therefore, and, meeting his enemy's steel, gave him back so 
 skilful a thrust that the scarf of the latter was cut through. 
 But De Mouy at once lunged. The sword again sank into the 
 flesh it had already broken, and a second jet of blood spurted 
 from a second wound. 
 
 " At him ! " cried Henry, coming up. " Quick, quick, De 
 Mouy ! " 
 
 De Mouy needed no encouragement. 
 
 Again he charged at Maurevel ; but the latter had not waited. 
 
 Pressing his left hand over his wound, he again took to 
 flight. 
 
 " Kill him ! Quick ! Kill him ! " cried the king, " here are 
 the soldiers, and the despair of cowards is of no moment to 
 the brave." 
 
 Maurevel, who was well nigh exhausted, whose every breath 
 caused a bloody perspiration, fell down; but almost imme- 
 diately he rose again, and turning on one knee presented the 
 point of his sword to De Mouy. 
 
 " Friends ! Friends ! " cried Maurevel. " There are only 
 two. Fire at them ! Fire ! " 
 
 Saucourt and Barthelemy had gone in pursuit of the other 
 soldiers, down the Rue des Poulies, and the king and 
 De Mouy were alone with the four men. 
 
 " Fire ! " cried Maurevel again, while one of the soldiers 
 levelled his gun. 
 
 " Yes, but first," said De Mouy, " die, traitor, murderer, 
 assassin ! " and seizing Maurevel's sword with one hand, with 
 the other he plunged his own up to its hilt into the breast of 
 his enemy, with such force that he nailed him to the earth. 
 
 " Take care ! Take care ! " cried Henry. 
 
 De Mouy sprang back, leaving his sword in Maurevel's 
 body, just as a soldier was in the act of firing at him. 
 
 Henry at once passed his sword through the body of the 
 soldier, who gave a cry and fell by the side of Maurevel. 
 
 The two others took to flight. 
 
 " Come, De Mouy, come ! " cried Henry, " let us not lose 
 an instant ; if we are recognized it will be all over with us."
 
 562 MARGUERITE DE VALOIS. 
 
 " Wait, sire. Do you suppose I want to leave my sword in 
 the body of this wretch ? " and De Mouy approached Maurevel, 
 who lay apparently without sign of life. 
 
 But just as he took hold of his sword, which was run 
 through Maurevel's body, the latter raised himself, and with 
 the gun the soldier had dropped fired directly at De Mouy's 
 breast. 
 
 The young man fell without a cry. He was killed outright. 
 
 Henry rushed at Maurevel, but the latter had fallen again, 
 and the king's sword pierced only a dead body. 
 
 It was necessary to flee. The noise had attracted a large 
 number of persons ; the night watch might arrive at any 
 moment. Henry looked around to see if there was any face 
 he knew, and gave a cry of delight on recognizing La Huriere. 
 
 As the scene had occurred at the foot of the Croix du 
 Trahoir, that is, opposite the Rue de 1'Arbre Sec, our old 
 friend, whose naturally gloomy disposition had been still further 
 saddened since the death of La Mole and Coconnas, his two 
 favorite lodgers, had left his furnaces and his pans in the 
 midst of his preparations for the King of Navarre's supper, 
 and had run to the fight. 
 
 " My dear La Huriere, I commend De Mouy to your care, 
 although I greatly fear nothing can be done for him. Take 
 him to your inn, and if he still live, spare nothing. Here is 
 my purse. As to the other, leave him in the gutter, that he 
 may die like a dog." 
 
 " And yourself ? " said La Huriere. 
 
 " 1 have a farewell to make. I must hasten, but in ten 
 minutes I shall be with you. Have my horses ready." 
 
 Henry immediately set out towards the Croix des Petits 
 Champs ; but as he turned from the Rue de Grenelle he 
 stopped in terror. 
 
 A large crowd was before the door. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " asked Henry. " What is going on 
 in the house ? " 
 
 " Oh ! " answered the man addressed, " a terrible affair, mon- 
 sieur. A beautiful young woman has just been stabbed by her 
 husband, to whom a note had been given informing him that 
 his wife was here with her lover." 
 
 " And the husband ? " cried Henry. 
 
 "Has escaped." 
 
 " And the wife ? "
 
 EPILOGUE. 563 
 
 " She is in the house." 
 
 " Dead ? " 
 
 " Not yet, but, thank God, there is scarcely any hope." 
 
 " Oh ! " exclaimed Henry, " I am accursed indeed ! " and he 
 rushed into the house. 
 
 The room was full of people standing around a bed on which 
 lay poor Charlotte, who had been stabbed twice. 
 
 Her husband, who had hidden his jealousy for two years, 
 had seized this opportunity to avenge himself on her. 
 
 " Charlotte ! Charlotte ! " cried Henry, pushing through the 
 crowd and falling on his knees before the bed. 
 
 Charlotte opened her beautiful eyes, already veiled by 
 death, and uttered a cry which caused the blood to flow afresh 
 from her two wounds. Making an effort to rise, she said : 
 
 " Oh ! I well knew I could not die without seeing you 
 again ! " 
 
 And as if she had waited only for that moment to return to 
 Henry the soul he had so loved, she pressed her lips to the 
 King's forehead, again whispered for a last time, " I love 
 you!" and fell back dead. 
 
 Henry could not remain longer without risking his own life. 
 He drew his dagger, cut a lock of the beautiful blonde hair 
 which he had so often loosened that he might admire its length, 
 and went out sobbing, in the midst of the tears of all present, 
 who did not doubt but that they were weeping for persons of 
 high degree. 
 
 " Friend ! mistress ! " cried Henry in despair " all forsake 
 me, all leave me, all fail me at once ! " 
 
 " Yes, sire," said a man in a low tone, who had left the 
 group in front of the house, and who had followed Henry ; 
 " but you still have the throne ! " 
 
 " Rene ! " exclaimed Henry. 
 
 " Yes, sire, Rene, who is watching over you. That scoun- 
 drel Maurevel uttered your name as he died. It is known you 
 are in Paris ; the archers are hunting for you. Flee ! Flee ! " 
 
 " And you say that I shall be King, Rene ? I, a fugitive ? " 
 
 " Look, sire," said the Florentine, pointing to a brilliant 
 star, which appeared from behind the folds of a black cloud, 
 " it is not I who say so, but the star ! " 
 
 Henry heaved a sigh, and disappeared in the darkness. 
 
 END.
 
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