two keys; one is that of the room in which he is shut up, and the
other is the key of my chamber; when once he has reached my
apartment, I am enjoined to keep him there until six o'clock in the
morning._

"_Let your majesty reflect--let your majesty decide. Let your
majesty esteem my life as nothing._"

"There is now no doubt," murmured Marguerite, "and the poor woman is the
tool of which they wish to make use to destroy us all. But we will see
if the Queen Margot, as my brother Charles calls me, is so easily to be
made a nun of."

"Tell me, whom is the letter from?" asked the Duchesse de Nevers.

"Ah, duchess, I have so many things to say to you!" replied Marguerite,
tearing the note into a thousand bits.

CHAPTER XII.

MUTUAL CONFIDENCES.

"And, first, where are we going?" asked Marguerite; "not to the Pont des
Meuniers, I suppose,--I have seen enough slaughter since yesterday, my
poor Henriette."

"I have taken the liberty to conduct your majesty"--

"First and foremost, my majesty requests you to forget my majesty--you
were taking me"--

"To the Hotel de Guise, unless you decide otherwise."

"No, no, let us go there, Henriette; the Duc de Guise is not there, your
husband is not there."

"Oh, no," cried the duchess, her bright emerald eyes sparkling with joy;
"no, neither my husband, nor my brother-in-law, nor any one else. I am
free--free as air, free as a bird,--free, my queen! Do you understand
the happiness there is in that word? I go, I come, I command. Ah, poor
queen, you are not free--and so you sigh."

"You go, you come, you command. Is that all? Is that all the use of
liberty? You are happy with only freedom as an excuse!"

"Your majesty promised to tell me a secret."

"Again 'your majesty'! I shall be angry soon, Henriette. Have you
forgotten our agreement?"

"No; your respectful servant in public--in private, your madcap
confidante, is it not so, madame? Is it not so, Marguerite?"

"Yes, yes," said the queen, smiling.

"No family rivalry, no treachery in love; everything fair, open, and
aboveboard! An offensive and defensive alliance, for the sole purpose of
finding and, if we can, catching on the fly, that ephemeral thing called
happiness."

"Just so, duchess. Let us again seal the compact with a kiss."

And the two beautiful women, the one so pale, so full of melancholy, the
other so roseate, so fair, so animated, joined their lips as they had
u