A magnificent portiere, on either
side of which stood two pages and two soldiers of the Scotch guard, then
on duty, showed him the entrance to the royal chamber,--the chamber so
fatal to the son of the present Duc de Guise, the second Balafre, who
fell at the foot of the bed now occupied by Mary Stuart and Francois
II. The queen's maids of honor surrounded the fireplace opposite to that
where Christophe was being "talked with" by the captain of the guard.
This second fireplace was considered the _chimney of honor_. It was
built in the thick wall of the Salle de Conseil, between the door of the
royal chamber and that of the council-hall, so that the maids of honor
and the lords in waiting who had the right to be there were on the
direct passage of the king and queen. The courtiers were certain on this
occasion of seeing Catherine, for her maids of honor, dressed like
the rest of the court ladies, in black, came up the staircase from
the queen-mother's apartment, and took their places, marshalled by the
Comtesse de Fiesque, on the side toward the council-hall and opposite to
the maids of honor of the young queen, led by the Duchesse de Guise,
who occupied the other side of the fireplace on the side of the royal
bedroom. The courtiers left an open space between the ranks of these
young ladies (who all belonged to the first families of the kingdom),
which none but the greatest lords had the right to enter. The Comtesse
de Fiesque and the Duchesse de Guise were, in virtue of their office,
seated in the midst of these noble maids, who were all standing.

The first gentleman who approached the dangerous ranks was the Duc
d'Orleans, the king's brother, who had come down from his apartment on
the third floor, accompanied by Monsieur de Cypierre, his governor. This
young prince, destined before the end of the year to reign under the
title of Charles IX., was only ten years old and extremely timid.
The Duc d'Anjou and the Duc d'Alencon, his younger brothers, also
the Princesse Marguerite, afterwards the wife of Henri IV. (la Reine
Margot), were too young to come to court, and were therefore kept by
their mother in her own apartments. The Duc d'Orleans, richly dressed
after the fashion of the times, in silken trunk-hose, a close-fitting
jacket of cloth of gold embroidered with black flowers, and a little
mantle of embroidered velvet, all black, for he still wore mourning for
his father, bowed to the two ladies of honor and took his