dame."

"The sign of three cruel deaths in my family," murmured Catharine.

"Alas!" said Rene.

"What then?"

"Then, madame, there was in its entrails that strange displacement of
the liver which we had already observed in the first two--it was wrong
side up!"

"A change of dynasty! Still--still--still the same!" muttered Catharine;
"yet we must fight against this, Rene," she added.

Rene shook his head.

"I have told your majesty," he said, "that fate rules."

"Is that your opinion?" asked Catharine.

"Yes, madame."

"Do you remember Jeanne d'Albret's horoscope?"

"Yes, madame."

"Repeat it to me, I have quite forgotten it."

"_Vives honorata_," said Rene, "_morieris reformidata, regina
amplificabere_."

"That means, I believe," said Catharine, "_Thou shalt live honored_--and
she lacked common necessaries, poor thing! _Thou shalt die feared_--and
we laughed at her. _Thou shalt be greater than thou hast been as a
queen_--and she is dead, and sleeps in a tomb on which we have not even
engraved her name."

"Madame, your majesty does not translate the _vives honorata_ rightly.
The Queen of Navarre lived honored; for all her life she enjoyed the
love of her children, the respect of her partisans; respect and love all
the more sincere in that she was poor."

"Yes," said Catharine, "I grant you the _vives honorata_; but _morieris
reformidata_: how will you explain that?"

"Nothing more easy: _Thou shalt die feared_."

"Well--did she die feared?"

"So much so that she would not have died had not your majesty feared
her. Then--_As a queen thou shalt be greater_; or, _Thou shalt be
greater than thou hast been as a queen_. This is equally true, madame;
for in exchange for a terrestrial crown she has doubtless, as a queen
and martyr, a celestial crown; and, besides, who knows what the future
may reserve for her posterity?"

Catharine was excessively superstitious; she was even more alarmed at
Rene's coolness than at the steadfastness of the auguries, and as in her
case any scrape was a chance for her boldly to master the situation, she
said suddenly to him, without any other transition than the working of
her own thoughts:

"Are any perfumes come from Italy?"

"Yes, madame."

"Send me a boxful."

"Of which?"

"Of the last, of those"--

Catharine stopped.

"Of those the Queen of Navarre was so fond of?" asked Rene.

"Exactly."

"I need not prepare them, for your majesty is now as skilful at