llery in the form of an arcade, where the courtiers
of Louis XII. awaited the reception-hour when it rained, and where, at
the present moment, were several seigneurs attached to the Guises; for
the staircase (so well preserved to the present day) which led to their
apartments is at the end of this gallery in a tower, the architecture of
which commends itself to the admiration of intelligent beholders.

"Well, well! did you come here to study the carving of images?" cried
Pardaillan, as Christophe stopped before the charming sculptures of the
balustrade which unites, or, if you prefer it, separates the columns of
each arcade.

Christophe followed the young officer to the grand staircase, not
without a glance of ecstasy at the semi-Moorish tower. The weather
was fine, and the court was crowded with staff-officers and seigneurs,
talking together in little groups,--their dazzling uniforms and
court-dresses brightening a spot which the marvels of architecture, then
fresh and new, had already made so brilliant.

"Come in here," said Pardaillan, making Lecamus a sign to follow him
through a carved wooden door leading to the second floor, which the
door-keeper opened on recognizing the young officer.

It is easy to imagine Christophe's amazement as he entered the great
_salle des gardes_, then so vast that military necessity has since
divided it by a partition into two chambers. It occupied on the second
floor (that of the king), as did the corresponding hall on the first
floor (that of the queen-mother), one third of the whole front of the
chateau facing the courtyard; and it was lighted by two windows to right
and two to left of the tower in which the famous staircase winds up. The
young captain went to the door of the royal chamber, which opened upon
this vast hall, and told one of the two pages on duty to inform Madame
Dayelles, the queen's bedchamber woman, that the furrier was in the hall
with her surcoat.

On a sign from Pardaillan Christophe placed himself near an officer,
who was seated on a stool at the corner of a fireplace as large as his
father's whole shop, which was at the end of the great hall, opposite
to a precisely similar fireplace at the other end. While talking to this
officer, a lieutenant, he contrived to interest him with an account of
the stagnation of trade. Christophe seemed so thoroughly a shopkeeper
that the officer imparted that conviction to the captain of the Scotch
guard, who came in from