ome, "what do you
mean?"

"What I have just said, that if you will be--I do not mean my love--but
my ally, I can brave everything; while, on the other hand, if you become
my enemy, I am lost."

"Oh, your enemy!--never, sir!" exclaimed Marguerite.

"And my love--never either?"

"Perhaps"--

"And my ally?"

"Most decidedly."

And Marguerite turned round and offered her hand to the king.

Henry took it, kissed it gallantly, and retaining it in his own, more
from a desire of investigation than from any sentiment of tenderness,
said:

"Very well, I believe you, madame, and accept the alliance. They married
us without our knowing each other--without our loving each other; they
married us without consulting us--us whom they united. We therefore owe
nothing to each other as man and wife; you see that I even go beyond
your wishes and confirm this evening what I said to you yesterday; but
we ally ourselves freely and without any compulsion. We ally ourselves,
as two loyal hearts who owe each other mutual protection should ally
themselves; 't is as such you understand it?"

"Yes, sir," said Marguerite, endeavoring to withdraw her hand.

"Well, then," continued the Bearnais, with his eyes fastened on the door
of the cabinet, "as the first proof of a frank alliance is the most
perfect confidence, I will now relate to you, madame, in all its
details, the plan I have formed in order that we may victoriously meet
and overcome all these enmities."

"Sire"--said Marguerite, in spite of herself turning her eyes toward the
closet, whilst the Bearnais, seeing his trick succeed, laughed in his
sleeve.

"This is what I mean to do," he continued, without appearing to remark
his young wife's nervousness, "I intend"--

"Sire," said Marguerite, rising hastily, and seizing the king's arm,
"allow me a little breath; my emotion--the heat--overpowers me."

And, in truth, Marguerite was as pale and trembling as if she was about
to fall on the carpet.

Henry went straight to a window some distance off, and opened it. This
window looked out on the river.

Marguerite followed him.

"Silence, sire,--silence, for your own sake!" she murmured.

"What, madame," said the Bearnais, with his peculiar smile, "did you not
tell me we were alone?"

"Yes, sire; but did you not hear me say that by the aid of a tube
introduced into the ceiling or the wall everything could be heard?"

"Well, madame, well," said the Bearnais, earnestly and i