the queen, his wife, and all the court.

King Henry III. could well afford this little pastime, for no serious
business occupied him for the moment. The King of Navarre was in
Navarre, where he had so long desired to be, and where he was said to be
very much taken up with a beautiful girl of the blood of the
Montmorencies whom he called La Fosseuse. Marguerite was with him, sad
and gloomy, finding in the beautiful mountains not distraction but a
softening of the two greatest griefs of life,--absence and death.

Paris was very quiet and the queen mother, really regent since her dear
son Henry had been King, resided sometimes at the Louvre, sometimes at
the Hotel de Soissons, which occupied the site to-day covered by the
Halle au Ble, of which nothing remains beyond the beautiful column which
is still standing.

One evening when she was deeply engaged in studying the stars with Rene,
of whose little act of treason she was still ignorant, and who had been
reinstated in her favor after the false testimony he had so opportunely
given at the trial of Coconnas and La Mole, she was informed that a man
waited for her in her oratory with something to tell her of the greatest
importance.

Hastily descending, the queen found the Sire de Maurevel.

"_He_ is here!" cried the ancient captain of the guards, not giving
Catharine time to address him, according to royal etiquette.

"What _he_?" demanded Catharine.

"Who but the King of Navarre, madame!"

"Here!" said Catharine, "here! He--Henry--And what has he come for, the
madman?"

"If appearances are to be believed, he comes to see Madame de Sauve.
That is all. If probabilities are to be considered, he comes to conspire
against the King."

"How do you know he is here?"

"Yesterday I saw him enter a house, and an instant later Madame de Sauve
joined him there."

"Are you sure it was he?"

"I waited until he came out, that is, part of the night. At three
o'clock the two lovers appeared. The king led Madame de Sauve as far as
the gate of the Louvre, where, thanks to the porter, who no doubt is in
her pay, she was admitted without opposition, and the king returned,
humming a tune, and with a step as free as if he were among his own
mountains."

"Where did he go then?"

"To the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, Hotel de la Belle Etoile, the same inn in
which the two sorcerers used to lodge whom your majesty had executed a
year ago."

"Why did you not come and tell me this at once?"