myself? It is duty in the exercise of
hospitality to protect one's guest's affections as well as to cure his
wounds, and to care for the spirit just as one cares for the body."

"Alas, madame," said La Mole, "you are laboring under a strange mistake.
I am well nigh alone in the world, and altogether so in Paris, where no
one knows me. My assassin is the first man I have spoken to in this
city; your majesty the first woman who has spoken to me."

"Then," said Marguerite, "why would you go?"

"Because," replied La Mole, "last night you got no rest, and to-night"--

Marguerite blushed.

"Gillonne," said she, "it is already evening and time to deliver that
key."

Gillonne smiled, and left the room.

"But," continued Marguerite, "if you are alone in Paris, without
friends, what will you do?"

"Madame, I soon shall have friends enough, for while I was pursued I
thought of my mother, who was a Catholic; methought I saw her with a
cross in her hand gliding before me toward the Louvre, and I vowed that
if God should save my life I would embrace my mother's religion. Madame,
God did more than save my life, he sent me one of his angels to make me
love life."

"But you cannot walk; before you have gone a hundred steps you will
faint away."

"Madame, I have made the experiment in the closet, I walk slowly and
painfully, it is true; but let me get as far as the Place du Louvre;
once outside, let befall what will."

Marguerite leaned her head on her hand and sank into deep thought.

"And the King of Navarre," said she, significantly, "you no longer speak
of him? In changing your religion, have you also changed your desire to
enter his service?"

"Madame," replied La Mole, growing pale, "you have just hit upon the
actual reason of my departure. I know that the King of Navarre is
exposed to the greatest danger, and that all your majesty's influence as
a daughter of France will barely suffice to save his life."

"What do you mean, sir," exclaimed Marguerite, "and what danger do you
refer to?"

"Madame," replied La Mole, with some hesitation, "one can hear
everything from the closet where I am."

"'Tis true," said Marguerite to herself; "Monsieur de Guise told me so
before."

"Well," added she, aloud, "what did you hear?"

"In the first place, the conversation between your majesty and your
brother."

"With Francois?" said Marguerite, changing color.

"Yes, madame, with the Duc d'Alencon; and then after you went