bearer._

"_DE MOUY DE SAINT PHALE._"

As Catharine read this note a smile came to her lips. She was thinking
of the victory she was to gain, forgetting the price at which she had
bought it. But after all what was Orthon? A faithful, devoted follower,
a handsome young boy; that was all.

That, one may well imagine, would not for an instant have turned the
scales on which the fate of empires had been weighed.

The note read, Catharine at once went to Madame de Sauve's and placed it
behind the mirror.

As she came down she found the captain of the guards at the entrance of
the corridor.

"Madame," said Monsieur de Nancey, "according to your majesty's orders
the horse is ready."

"My dear baron," said Catharine, "we shall not need it. I have made the
boy speak, and he is really too stupid to be charged with the errand I
wanted to entrust to him. I thought he was a lackey, but he is nothing
but a groom at best. I gave him some money and dismissed him by the
private gate."

"But," said Monsieur de Nancey, "the errand?"

"The errand?" asked Catharine.

"The one on which he was to go to Saint Germain. Does your majesty wish
me to undertake it, or shall I have one of my men attend to it?"

"No, no," said Catharine, "this evening you and your men will have
something else to do."

Whereupon the queen mother returned to her room, hoping that evening to
hold in her hands the fate of the accursed King of Navarre.

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE INN OF LA BELLE ETOILE.

Two hours after the event we have described, no trace of which remained
on Catharine's face, Madame de Sauve, having finished her work for the
queen, returned to her own rooms. Henry followed her, and learning from
Dariole that Orthon had been there he went directly to the mirror and
found the note.

It was, as we have said, couched in these terms:

"_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
bearer._"

There was no address.

"Henry will not fail to keep the appointment," said Catharine, "for even
had he not wished to do so there is no longer a messenger to take back
his answer."

Catharine was not mistaken.

Henry inquired for Orthon. Dariole said that he had gone out with the
queen mother; but as the note had been found in its place, and as the
poor boy was known to be incapable of treason, Henry felt no anxiety.

He