your master, and tell him that from to-day you
are in my service. You can get out without me by the door we entered. It
opens from within."

And giving the purse to the astonished youth Catharine walked on a few
steps and placed her hand against the wall.

But the young man stood still, hesitating. He could not believe that the
danger he had felt hovering over him was gone.

"Come, do not tremble so," said Catharine. "Have I not told you that you
were free to go, and that if you wish to come back your fortune is
made?"

"Thank you, madame," said Orthon. "Then you pardon me?"

"I do more, I reward you; you are a faithful bearer of notes, a gentle
messenger of love. But you forget your master is waiting for you."

"Ah! that is true," said the young man, springing towards the door.

But scarcely had he advanced three steps before the floor gave way
beneath his feet. He stumbled, extended both hands, gave a fearful cry,
and disappeared in the dungeon of the Louvre, the spring of which
Catharine had just touched.

"So," murmured the queen, "thanks to the fellow's obstinacy I shall have
to descend a hundred and fifty steps."

The queen mother returned to her apartments, lighted a dark lantern,
came back to the corridor, closed the spring, and opened the door of a
spiral staircase which seemed to lead to the bowels of the earth. Urged
on by the insatiable thirst of a curiosity which was but the minister of
her hatred, she reached an iron door which turned on its hinges and
admitted her to the depths of the dungeon. Bleeding, crushed, and
mutilated by a fall of a hundred feet or more, but still breathing, lay
poor Orthon.

Beyond the thick wall the waters of the Seine were heard roaring,
brought to the foot of the stairs by a subterranean channel.

Catharine entered the damp and unwholesome place, which during her reign
had witnessed many a fall similar to the one it had just seen, searched
the body, seized the letter, made sure that it was the one she desired,
then pushing aside the body with her foot she pressed a spring, the
bottom of the dungeon sank, and the corpse, carried down by its own
weight, disappeared in the direction of the river.

Closing the door again, Catharine ascended, shut herself in her closet,
and read the note, which contained these words:

"_This evening at ten o'clock, Rue de l'Arbre Sec, Hotel de la
Belle Etoile. If you come send no reply; otherwise send back NO by
the