"Nothing else."

"That is strange."

"But what is strange? Tell me."

"That nothing has been said to you."

"What has happened?"

"All day, unfortunately, you have been hanging over an abyss."

"I?"

"Yes, you."

"Why?"

"Well, listen. It seems that last night De Mouy was surprised in the
apartments of the King of Navarre, who was to have been arrested. De
Mouy killed three men, and escaped without anything about him having
been recognized except the famous red cloak."

"Well?"

"Well, this red cloak, which once deceived me, has thrown others besides
myself off the track. You have been suspected and even accused of this
triple murder. This morning they wanted to arrest, judge, and perhaps
convict you. Who knows? For in order to save yourself you would not have
told where you were, would you?"

"Tell where I was?" cried La Mole; "compromise you, my beautiful queen?
Oh! you are right. I should have died singing, to spare your sweet eyes
one tear."

"Alas!" said Marguerite, "my sweet eyes would have been filled with
many, many tears."

"But what caused the great storm to subside?"

"Guess."

"How can I tell?"

"There was only one way to prove that you were not in the king's room."

"And that was"--

"To tell where you were."

"Well?"

"Well, I told."

"Whom did you tell?"

"My mother."

"And Queen Catharine"--

"Queen Catharine knows that I love you."

"Oh, madame! after having done so much for me, you can demand anything
from your servant. Ah, Marguerite, truly, what you did was noble and
beautiful. My life is yours, Marguerite."

"I hope so, for I have snatched it from those who wanted to take it from
me. But now you are saved."

"And by you!" cried the young man; "by my adored queen!"

At that instant a sharp noise made them start. La Mole sprang back,
filled with a vague terror. Marguerite uttered a cry, and stood with her
eyes riveted on the broken glass of one of the window-panes.

Through this window a stone the size of an egg had entered and lay on
the floor.

La Mole saw the broken pane, and realized the cause of the noise.

"Who dared to do this?" he cried, springing to the window.

"One moment," said Marguerite. "It seems to me that something is tied
around the stone."

"Yes," said La Mole, "it looks like a piece of paper."

Marguerite went to the strange projectile and removed the thin sheet
which, folded like a narrow band, encircled the middle of the stone