f to Monceaux, claim his wife, and take her on
horseback behind him, were a mere impracticable vision.

The King, having been checkmated twice out of three times by the
Admiral, too honest a man not truly to accept his declaration of not
wanting courtly play, pushed away the board, and was attended by them
all to his COUCHER, which was usually made in public; and the Queen
being absent, the gentlemen were required to stand around him till he
was ready to fall asleep. He did not seem disposed to talk, but begged
Sidney to fetch his lute, and sing to him some English airs that had
taken his fancy much when sung by Sidney and Berenger together.

Berenger felt as if they would choke him in his present turbid state of
resentful uncertainty; but even as the unhappy young King spoke, it was
with a heavy, restless groan, as he added, 'If you know any lullaby that
will give rest to a wretch tormented beyond bearing, let us have it.'

'Alas, Sire!' said the Admiral, seeing that no perilous ears remained
in the room; 'there are better and more soothing words than any mundane
melody.'

'_Peste_! My good father,' said the King, petulantly, 'has not old
Phlipote, my nurse, rocked me to the sound of your Marot's Psalms, and
crooned her texts over me? I tell you I do not want to think. I want
what will drive thought away--to dull---'

'Alas! what dulls slays,' said the Admiral.

'Let it. Nothing can be worse than the present,' said the wretched
Charles; then, as if wishing to break away from Coligny, he threw
himself round towards Berenger, and said, 'Here; stoop down, Ribaumont;
a word with you. Your matters have gone up the mountains, as the
Italians say, with mine. But never fear. Keep silence, and you shall
have the bird in your hand, only you must be patient. Hold! I will make
you and Monsieur Sidney gentlemen of my bed-chamber, which will give you
the _entree_ of the Louvre; and if you cannot get her out of it without
an _eclat_, then you must be a much duller fellow than half my court.
Only that it is not their own wives that they abstract.

With this Berenger must needs content himself; and the certainty of the
poor King's good-will did enable him to do his part with Sidney in the
songs that endeavoured to soothe the torments of the evil spirit which
had on that day effected a fresh lodgment in that weak, unwilling heart.

It was not till the memoirs of the secret actors in this tragedy were
brought to light that the ke