ht him into
communication with the Prince de Conde, La Renaudie, and Chaudieu, and
still more moved at the prospect of impending civil war, made no answer;
he ran hastily up from the kitchen to the back shop; but his mother, a
rabid Catholic, could not control her anger.

"I'll wager those three men I saw you talking with are Ref--"

"Hold your tongue, wife!" said the cautious old man with white hair who
was turning over a thick ledger. "You dawdling fellows," he went on,
addressing three journeymen, who had long finished their suppers, "why
don't you go to bed? It is eight o'clock, and you have to be up at
five; besides, you must carry home to-night President de Thou's cap
and mantle. All three of you had better go, and take your sticks and
rapiers; and then, if you meet scamps like yourselves, at least you'll
be in force."

"Are we going to take the ermine surcoat the young queen has ordered to
be sent to the hotel des Soissons? there's an express going from there
to Blois for the queen-mother," said one of the clerks.

"No," said his master, "the queen-mother's bill amounts to three
thousand crowns; it is time to get the money, and I am going to Blois
myself very soon."

"Father, I do not think it right at your age and in these dangerous
times to expose yourself on the high-roads. I am twenty-two years old,
and you ought to employ me on such errands," said Christophe, eyeing the
box which he supposed contained the surcoat.

"Are you glued to your seats?" cried the old man to his apprentices,
who at once jumped up and seized their rapiers, cloaks, and Monsieur de
Thou's furs.

The next day the Parliament was to receive in state, as its president,
this illustrious judge, who, after signing the death warrant of
Councillor du Bourg, was destined before the close of the year to sit in
judgment on the Prince de Conde!

"Here!" said the old man, calling to the maid, "go and ask friend
Lallier if he will come and sup with us and bring the wine; we'll
furnish the victuals. Tell him, above all, to bring his daughter."

Lecamus, the syndic of the guild of furriers, was a handsome old man of
sixty, with white hair, and a broad, open brow. As court furrier for the
last forty years, he had witnessed all the revolutions of the reign of
Francois I. He had seen the arrival at the French court of the young
girl Catherine de' Medici, then scarcely fifteen years of age. He
had observed her giving way before the Duchesse d'Eta