e inwardly:

"Well," murmured Catharine, "since she has gone out--for she has gone,
you say?"

"Half an hour ago, madame."

"Everything is for the best; you may go."

Gillonne bowed and left.

"Go on with your reading, Charlotte," said the queen.

Madame de Sauve continued. At the end of ten minutes Catharine
interrupted the story.

"Ah, by the way," said she, "have the guards dismissed from the
corridor."

This was the signal for which Maurevel was waiting. The order of the
queen mother was carried out, and Madame de Sauve went on with her
story. She had read for about a quarter of an hour without any
interruption, when a prolonged and terrible scream reached the royal
chamber and made the hair of those present stand on end.

The scream was followed by the sound of a pistol-shot.

"What is it?" said Catharine; "why do you stop reading, Carlotta?"

"Madame," said the young woman, turning pale, "did you not hear?"

"What?" asked Catharine.

"That cry."

"And that pistol-shot?" added the captain of the guards.

"A cry, a pistol-shot?" asked Catharine; "I heard nothing. Besides, is a
shout or a pistol-shot such a very unusual thing at the Louvre? Read,
read, Carlotta."

"But listen, madame," said the latter, while Monsieur de Nancey stood
up, his hand on his sword, but not daring to leave without permission
from the queen, "listen, I hear steps, curses."

"Shall I go and find out about it, madame?" said De Nancey.

"Not at all, monsieur, stay where you are," said Catharine, raising
herself on one hand to give more emphasis to her order. "Who, then,
would protect me in case of an alarm? It is only some drunken Swiss
fighting."

The calmness of the queen, contrasted with the terror on the faces of
all present, was so remarkable that, timid as she was, Madame de Sauve
fixed a questioning glance on the queen.

"Why, madame, I should think they were killing some one."

"Whom do you think they are killing?"

"The King of Navarre, madame; the noise comes from the direction of his
apartments."

"The fool!" murmured the queen, whose lips in spite of her self-control
were beginning to move strangely, for she was muttering a prayer; "the
fool sees her King of Navarre everywhere."

"My God! my God!" cried Madame de Sauve, falling back in her chair.

"It is over, it is over," said Catharine. "Captain," she continued,
turning to Monsieur de Nancey, "I hope if there is any scandal in the
palace you will