eet, which gave these things their full
effect--that for a moment neither of us answered. Then the King spoke.
"Indeed, M. l'Empereur," he said gravely; "and where is the shutter?"

The boy pointed to an open shutter at the top of the house behind him.

"Ah!" Henry said. "And you wish us to close it?"

"If you please, messieurs."

"We do please," Henry replied, saluting him with mock reverence. "You
may consider the shutter closed. Lead on, Monsieur; we follow."

For the first time the boy looked doubtful; but he turned without
saying anything, and passing through the doorway, was in an instant
lost in the pitchy darkness of the entry. I laid my hand on the King's
arm, and tried to induce him not to follow; fearing much that this
might be some new thieves' trap, leading nowhither save to the POIRE
D'ANGOISSE and the poniard. But the attempt was hopeless from the
first; he broke from me and entered, and I followed him.

We groped for the balustrade and found it, and began to ascend, guided
by the boy's voice; who kept a little before us, saying continually,
"This way, messieurs; this way!" His words had so much the sound of a
signal, and the staircase was so dark and ill-smelling, that, expecting
every moment to be seized or to have a knife in my back, I found it
almost interminable. At last, however, a gleam of light appeared above
us, the boy opened a door, and we found ourselves standing on a mean,
narrow landing, the walls of which had once been whitewashed. The
child signed to us to enter, and we followed him into a bare attic,
where our heads nearly touched the ceiling.

"Messieurs, the air is keen," he said in a curiously formal tone. "Will
you please to close the shutter?"

The King, amused and full of wonder, looked round. The room contained
little besides a table, a stool, and a lamp standing in a basin on the
floor; but an alcove, curtained with black, dingy hangings, broke one
wall. "Your father lies there?" Henry said, pointing to it.

"Yes, monsieur."

"He feels the cold?"

"Yes, monsieur. Will you please to close the shutter?"

I went to it, and, leaning out, managed, with a little difficulty, to
comply. Meanwhile, the King, gazing curiously at the curtains,
gradually approached the alcove. He hesitated long, he told me
afterwards, before he touched the hangings; but at length, feeling sure
that there was something more in the business than appeared, he did so.
Drawing one gent