you come"--said Marguerite, trembling.

"To remind you of your promise to the younger of the two gentlemen, who
charged me to give you this reliquary. You remember the promise,
madame?"

"Yes, yes," exclaimed the queen, "and never has a noble soul had more
satisfaction than his shall have; but where is"--

"At my house with the body."

"At your house? Why did you not bring it?"

"I might have been stopped at the gate of the Louvre, and compelled to
raise my cloak. What would they have said if they had seen a head under
it?"

"That is right; keep it. I will come for it to-morrow."

"To-morrow, madame," said Caboche, "may perhaps be too late."

"How so?"

"Because the queen mother wanted the heads of the first victims executed
by me to be kept for her magical experiments."

"Oh! What profanation! The heads of our well-beloved! Henriette," cried
Marguerite, turning to her friend, who had risen as if a spring had
placed her on her feet, "Henriette, my angel, do you hear what this man
says?"

"Yes; what must we do?"

"Go with him."

Then uttering a cry of pain by which great sufferers return to life:

"Ah! I was so happy," said Henriette; "I was almost dead."

Meanwhile Marguerite had thrown a velvet cloak over her bare shoulders.

"Come," said she, "we will go and see them once more."

Telling Gillonne to have all the doors closed, the queen gave orders
for a litter to be brought to the private entrance, and taking Henriette
by the arm, she descended by the secret corridor, signing to Caboche to
follow.

At the lower door was the litter; at the gate Caboche's attendant waited
with a lantern. Marguerite's porters were trusty men, deaf and dumb,
more to be depended on than if they had been beasts of burden.

They walked for about ten minutes, preceded by Caboche and his servant,
carrying the lantern. Then they stopped. The hangman opened the door,
while his man went ahead.

Marguerite stepped from the litter and helped out the Duchesse de
Nevers. In the deep grief which bound them together it was the nervous
organism which was the stronger.

The headsman's tower rose before them like a dark, vague giant, giving
out a lurid gleam from two narrow upper windows.

The attendant reappeared at the door.

"You can enter, ladies," said Caboche; "every one is asleep in the
tower."

At the same moment the light from above was extinguished.

The two women, holding to each other, passed through the small