the number. The Duchesse de Vendome explained to the
king that her daughter was suffering from a slight illness, and apart
from this was anxious to greet her future husband in a conference more
private than the present occasion afforded. This was certainly
reasonable enough, and the important meeting took place the following
afternoon.

Mary of Vendome might truly be called the Pearl of France, if
whiteness of visage gave claim to that title. The king found himself
confronted by a drooping young woman whose stern mother gave her a
support which was certainly needed. Her face was of the pallor of wax;
and never once during that fateful interview did she raise the heavy
lids from her eyes. That she had once been beautiful was undoubted,
but now her face was almost gaunt in its excessive thinness. The
death-like hue of her delicate skin, the fact that she seemed scarce
to breathe, and that she never ventured to speak, gave her suitor the
impression that she more resembled one preparing for the tomb than a
young girl anticipating her bridal. She courtesied like one in a
trance; but the keen eyes of the king saw the tightening of her
mother's firm hand on her wrist while she made the obeisance which
etiquette demanded. Short as was their formal greeting, it was too
long for this anaemic creature, who would have sunk to the floor were
it not for the clutch in which the determined mother held her. Even
the king, self-contained as he usually was, found little to say beyond
empty expressions of concern regarding her recent illness, ending with
a brief remark to the effect that he hoped she would soon recover from
her indisposition. But once the ordeal was over, James was filled with
a frenzy to be alone, tortured as he was by an agony of mind which
made any encounter with his fellows intolerable. He strode through the
seemingly interminable corridors of the great castle, paying slight
heed to his direction. All doors opened before him, and sentinels
saluted as he passed. At last, not knowing where he was, or how to get
outside, he said to one of the human statues who held a pike,--

"Tell me, good fellow, the quickest way to the outer air; some spot
where I can be entirely alone?"

The guard, saluting, called a page, whispered a word to him, and the
boy led the king to a door which gave access to a secluded garden,
enclosed on every side by high battlements, yet nevertheless filled
with great trees, under which ran paths both