the King's
bedside, La Trape entered.

Having my eyes turned the other way, I did not at once remark anything.
But the King did; and his look of astonishment, no less than the
exclamation which accompanied it, arrested my attention. "St. Gris,
man!" he cried. "What is the matter? Speak!"

La Trape, who had stopped just within the door, made an effort to do
so, but no sound passed his lips; while his pallor and the fixed glare
of his eyes filled me with the worst apprehensions. It was impossible
to look at him and not share his fright, and I stepped forward and
cried out to him to speak. "Answer the King, man," I said. "What is
it?"

He made an effort, and with a ghastly grimace, "The cat is dead!" he
said.

For a moment we were all silent. Then I looked at the King, and he at
me, with gloomy meaning in our eyes. He was the first to speak. "The
cat to whom you gave the milk?" he said.

"Yes, sire," La Trape answered, in a voice that seemed to come from his
heart.

"But still, courage!" the King cried. "Courage, man! A dose that
would kill a cat may not kill a man. Do you feel ill?"

"Oh, yes, sire," La Trape moaned.

"What do you feel?"

"I have a trembling in all my limbs, and ah--ah, my God, I am a dead
man! I have a burning here--a pain like hot coals in my vitals!" And,
leaning against the wall, the unfortunate man clasped his arms round
his body and bent himself up and down in a paroxysm of suffering.

"A doctor! a doctor!" Henry cried, thrusting one leg out of bed. "Send
for Du Laurens!" Then, as I went to the door to do so, "Can you be
sick, man?" he asked. "Try!"

"No, no; it is impossible!"

"But try, try! when did this cat die?"

"It is outside," La Trape groaned. He could say no more.

I had opened the door by this time, and found the attendants, whom the
man's cries had alarmed, in a cluster round it. Silencing them sternly,
I bade one go for M. Du Laurens, the King's physician, while another
brought me the cat that was dead.

The page who had spent the night in the King's chamber, fetched it. I
told him to bring it in, and ordering the others to let the doctor pass
when he arrived, I closed the door upon their curiosity, and went back
to the King. He had left his bed and was standing near La Trape,
endeavouring to hearten him; now telling him to tickle his throat with
a feather, and now watching his sufferings in silence, with a face of
gloom and despondency that suff