rs.

"Well! what do you say to it?" asked Coconnas, who had not seen the
shrug, or who had pretended not to see it.

"I say," replied La Mole, "that Monsieur d'Alencon will laugh at us."

"At us?"

"Both of us."

"That will be better, it seems to me, than to strangle each of us
separately."

"Bah!" said La Mole, laughing, "the one will not necessarily prevent the
other."

"Well! so much the worse. Come what may, I will send the letter
to-morrow morning. Where shall we sleep when we leave here?"

"At Maitre la Huriere's, in that little room in which you tried to stab
me before we were Orestes and Pylades!"

"Very well, I will send my letter to the Louvre by our host."

Just then the panel moved.

"Well!" asked both princesses at once, "where are Orestes and Pylades?"

"By Heaven! madame," replied Coconnas, "Pylades and Orestes are dying of
hunger and love."

It was Maitre la Huriere himself who, at nine o'clock the following
morning, carried to the Louvre the respectful missive of Count Annibal
de Coconnas.

CHAPTER XLV.

ORTHON.

After the refusal of the Duc d'Alencon, which left everything in peril,
even his life, Henry became more intimate with the prince than ever, if
that were possible. Catharine concluded from the intimacy that the two
princes not only understood each other perfectly, but also that they
were planning some mutual conspiracy. She questioned Marguerite on the
subject, but Marguerite was worthy of her mother, and the Queen of
Navarre, whose chief talent lay in avoiding explanations, parried her
mother's questions so cleverly that although replying to all she left
Catharine more mystified than ever.

The Florentine, therefore, had nothing to guide her except the spirit of
intrigue she had brought with her from Tuscany, the most interesting of
the small states of that period, and the feeling of hatred she had
imbibed from the court of France, which was more divided in its
interests and opinions than any court at that time.

She realized that a part of the strength of the Bearnais came from his
alliance with the Duc d'Alencon, and she determined to separate them.

From the moment she formed this resolution she beset her son with the
patience and the wiles of an angler, who, when he has dropped his bait
near the fish, unconsciously draws it in until his prey is caught.

Francois perceived this increase of affection on the part of his mother
and made advances to her. As fo