her on the stairs, he said:

"You have not been followed, have you?"

"_Why, no,_" said Charlotte, "at least, not so far as I know."

"I think I have been," said Henry, "not only to-night but last evening
as well."

"Oh! my God!" said Charlotte, "you frighten me, sire! If this meeting
between you and one of your old friends should bring any harm to you I
should be inconsolable."

"Do not worry, my love," said the Bearnais, "we have three swordsmen
watching in the darkness."

"Three are very few, sire."

"Three are enough when they are De Mouy, Saucourt, and Barthelemy."

"Is De Mouy in Paris with you?"

"Certainly."

"He dared to return to the capital? Has he, then, like you, some poor
woman who is in love with him?"

"No, but he has an enemy whose death he has sworn to have. Nothing but
hate, my dear, commits as many follies as love."

"Thank you, sire."

"Oh," said Henry, "I do not refer to our present follies. I mean those
of the past and the future. But do not let us discuss this; we have no
time to lose."

"You still plan to leave Paris?"

"To-night."

"Are your affairs which brought you back to Paris finished?"

"I came back only to see you."

"Gascon!"

"_Ventre saint gris!_ My love, that is true; but let us put aside such
thoughts. I have still two or three hours in which to be happy; then
farewell forever."

"Ah! sire," said Madame de Sauve, "nothing is forever except my love."

Henry had just said that he had no time for discussion; therefore he did
not discuss this point. He believed, or sceptic that he was, he
pretended to believe.

As the King of Navarre had said, De Mouy and his two companions were
hidden near by.

It was arranged that Henry should leave the small house at midnight
instead of at three o'clock; that, as on the previous night, they would
escort Madame de Sauve back to the Louvre, and from there they would go
to the Rue de la Cerisaie, where Maurevel lived.

It was only during that day that De Mouy had been sure of his enemy's
whereabouts. The men had been on guard about an hour when they perceived
a man, followed at a few feet by five others, who drew near to the door
of the small house and tried several keys successively. De Mouy,
concealed within the shelter of a neighboring door, made one bound from
his hiding-place, and seized the man by the arm.

"One moment," said he; "you cannot enter there."

The man sprang back, and in doing so his hat fell off.