bullet was poisoned; and neither the Admiral nor his people seem to
have rejected the possibility. One suspects, indeed, that capital was
made out of it. It was felt, perhaps, that thus should the Admiral
maintain a greater influence with the King. For in any uncertainty as
to whether Coligny would live or die, the King's feelings must be more
deeply stirred than if he knew that the wound carried no peril to life.

Followed closely by his mother and his brothers, Charles swept through
the spacious ante-chamber, thronged now with grim-faced, resentful
Huguenot gentlemen, and so entered the room where Coligny reclined upon
a day bed near the window. The Admiral made shift to rise, but this the
King hurried forward to prevent.

"Rest yourself, my dear father!" he cried, in accents of deep concern.
"Heart of God! What is this they have done to you? Assure me, at least,
that your life is safe, or, by the Mass, I'll--"

"I hold my life from God," the Admiral replied gravely, "and when He
requires it of me I will yield it up. That is nothing."

"Nothing? God's Blood! Nothing? The hurt is yours, my father, but the
outrage mine; and I swear to you, by the Blood and the Death, that I
will take such a vengeance as shall never be forgotten!"

Thereupon he fell into such a storm of imprecation and blasphemy that
the Admiral, a sincerely devout, God-fearing heretic, shuddered to hear
him.

"Calm, Sire!" he begged at last, laying his sound hand upon the King's
velvet sleeve. "Be calm and listen, for it is not to speak of myself, of
these wounds, or of the wrong done me, that I have presumed to beg you
to visit me. This attempt to murder me is but a sign of the evil that
is stirring in France to sap your authority and power. But--" He checked
and looked at the three who stood immediately behind the King. "What I
have to say is, if you will deign to listen, for your private ear."

The King jerked round in a fashion peculiar to him; his every action was
abrupt and spasmodic. He eyed his mother and brothers shiftily. It was
beyond his power to look any one directly in the face.

"Outside!" he commanded, waving an impatient hand almost in their faces.
"Do you hear? Leave me to talk with my father the Admiral."

The young dukes fell back at once, ever in dread of provoking the
horrible displays of passion that invariably followed upon any
resistance of his feeble will. But the sluggish Catherine was not so
easily moved.

"Is Mon