two about Madame de
Sauve's apartment; but the door opened by Dariole to the King of Navarre
closed hermetically behind him, so that these rooms, the scene of the
Bearnais's mysterious amours, are totally unknown to us. The quarters,
like those furnished by princes for their dependents in the palaces
occupied by them in order to have them within reach, were smaller and
less convenient than what she could have found in the city itself. As
the reader already knows, they were situated on the second floor of the
palace, almost immediately above those occupied by Henry himself. The
door opened into a corridor, the end of which was lighted by an arched
window with small leaded panes, so that even in the loveliest days of
the year only a dubious light filtered through. During the winter, after
three o'clock in the afternoon, it was necessary to light a lamp, but as
this contained no more oil than in summer, it went out by ten o'clock,
and thus, as soon as the winter days arrived, gave the two lovers the
greatest security.

A small antechamber, carpeted with yellow flowered damask; a
reception-room with hangings of blue velvet; a sleeping-room, the bed
adorned with twisted columns and rose-satin curtains, enshrining a
_ruelle_ ornamented with a looking-glass set in silver, and two
paintings representing the loves of Venus and Adonis,--such was the
residence, or as one would say nowadays the nest, of the lovely
lady-in-waiting to Queen Catharine de Medicis.

If one had looked sharply one would have found, opposite a toilet-table
provided with every accessory, a small door in a dark corner of this
room opening into a sort of oratory where, raised on two steps, stood a
_priedieu_. In this little chapel on the wall hung three or four
paintings, to the highest degree spiritual, as if to serve as a
corrective to the two mythological pictures which we mentioned. Among
these paintings were hung on gilded nails weapons such as women carried.

That evening, which was the one following the scenes which we have
described as taking place at Maitre Rene's, Madame de Sauve, seated in
her bedroom on a couch, was telling Henry about her fears and her love,
and was giving him as a proof of her love the devotion which she had
shown on the famous night following Saint Bartholomew's, the night
which, it will be remembered, Henry spent in his wife's quarters.

Henry on his side was expressing his gratitude to her. Madame de Sauve
was charming t