leeve.

Madame de Sauve drew back quickly and with clever dissimulation; yet
Catharine perceived it, and turned round just as the maid of honor was
kissing Marguerite's hand.

The two women saw her glance, which penetrated them like a flash of
lightning, but both remained unmoved; only Madame de Sauve left
Marguerite and resumed her place near Catharine.

When Catharine had finished replying to the address which had just been
made to her she smiled and beckoned the Queen of Navarre to go to her.

"Eh, my daughter," said the queen mother, in her Italian patois, "so
you are on intimate terms with Madame de Sauve, are you?"

Marguerite smiled in turn, and gave to her lovely countenance the
bitterest expression she could, and replied:

"Yes, mother; the serpent came to bite my hand!"

"Aha!" replied Catharine, with a smile; "you are jealous, I think!"

"You are mistaken, madame," replied Marguerite; "I am no more jealous of
the King of Navarre than the King of Navarre is in love with me, but I
know how to distinguish my friends from my enemies. I like those that
like me, and detest those that hate me. Otherwise, madame, should I be
your daughter?"

Catharine smiled so as to make Marguerite understand that if she had had
any suspicion it had vanished.

Moreover, at that instant the arrival of other pilgrims attracted the
attention of the august throng.

The Duc de Guise came with a troop of gentlemen all warm still from
recent carnage. They escorted a richly decorated litter, which stopped
in front of the King.

"The Duchesse de Nevers!" cried Charles IX., "Ah! let that lovely robust
Catholic come and receive our compliments. Why, they tell me, cousin,
that from your own window you have been hunting Huguenots, and that you
killed one with a stone."

The Duchesse de Nevers blushed exceedingly red.

"Sire," she said in a low tone, and kneeling before the King, "on the
contrary, it was a wounded Catholic whom I had the good fortune to
rescue."

"Good--good, my cousin! there are two ways of serving me: one is by
exterminating my enemies, the other is by rescuing my friends. One does
what one can, and I am certain that if you could have done more you
would!"

While this was going on, the populace, seeing the harmony existing
between the house of Lorraine and Charles IX., shouted exultantly:

"_Vive le Roi!_"

"_Vive le Duc de Guise!_"

"_Vive la Messe!_"

"Do you return to the Louvre with us, Henriette?