Mouy, so you are not pleased
with the King of Navarre?"

"Monseigneur!"

"Come, come! tell me frankly, unless you distrust me; perhaps I am one
of your friends."

"You, monseigneur?"

"Yes, I; so speak."

"I do not know what to say to your highness, monseigneur. The matter I
had to discuss with the King of Navarre concerned interests which your
highness would not comprehend. Moreover," added De Mouy with a manner
which he strove to render indifferent, "they were mere trifles."

"Trifles?" said the duke.

"Yes, monseigneur."

"Trifles, for which you felt you would risk your life by coming back to
the Louvre, where you know your head is worth its weight in gold. We are
not ignorant of the fact that you, as well as the King of Navarre and
the Prince de Conde, are one of the leaders of the Huguenots."

"If you think that, monseigneur, act towards me as the brother of King
Charles and the son of Queen Catharine should act."

"Why should you wish me to act in that way, when I have told you that I
am a friend of yours? Tell me the truth."

"Monseigneur," said De Mouy, "I swear to you"--

"Do not swear, monseigneur; the reformed church forbids the taking of
oaths, and especially of false oaths."

De Mouy frowned.

"I tell you I know all," continued the duke.

De Mouy was still silent.

"You doubt it?" said the prince with affected persistence. "Well, my
dear De Mouy, we shall have to be convinced. Come, now, you shall judge
if I am wrong. Did you or did you not propose to my brother-in-law
Henry, in his room just now," the duke pointed to the chamber of the
Bearnais, "your aid and that of your followers to reinstate him in his
kingdom of Navarre?"

De Mouy looked at the duke with a startled gaze.

"A proposition which he refused with terror."

De Mouy was still amazed.

"Did you then invoke your old friendship, the remembrance of a common
religion? Did you even hold out to the King of Navarre a very brilliant
hope, a hope so brilliant that he was dazzled by it--the hope of winning
the crown of France? Come, tell me; am I well informed? Is that what you
came to propose to the Bearnais?"

"Monseigneur!" cried De Mouy, "this is so true, that I now wonder if I
should not tell your royal highness that you have lied! to arouse in
this chamber a combat without mercy, and thus to make sure of the
extinction of this terrible secret by the death of both of us."

"Gently, my brave De Mouy, gently!" said the