ht to it than I? Henry is only your brother by marriage. I am your
brother by blood, and more than this, my love--Sire, I beg you, keep me
near you."

"No, no, Francois," replied Charles; "that would be to your
unhappiness."

"How so?"

"For many reasons."

"But, sire, shall you ever find as faithful a companion as I am? From my
childhood I have never left your Majesty."

"I know that very well; and sometimes I have wished you farther away."

"What does your Majesty mean?"

"Nothing, nothing; I understand myself. Oh, what fine hunts you will
have there, Francois! How I envy you! Do you know that in those devilish
mountains they hunt the bear as here we do the wild boar? You will send
us all such magnificent skins! They hunt there with a dagger, you know;
they wait for the animal, excite him, irritate him; he advances towards
the hunter, and when within four feet of him he rises on his hind legs.
It is then that they plunge the steel into his heart as Henry did to the
boar at our last hunt. It is dangerous sport, but you are brave,
Francois, and the danger will be a real pleasure for you."

"Ah! your Majesty increases my grief, for I shall hunt with you no
more."

"By Heaven! so much the better!" said the King. "It helps neither of us
to hunt together."

"What does your Majesty mean?"

"That hunting with me causes you such pleasure and rouses in you such
emotion that you who are the personification of skill, you who with any
musket can bring down a magpie a hundred feet away, the last time we
hunted together failed at twenty paces to hit a wild boar; but with your
weapon, a weapon, too, with which you are familiar, you broke the leg of
my best horse. The devil, Francois, that makes one reflect, you know!"

"Oh! sire, pardon me, it was from emotion," said D'Alencon, who had
become livid.

"Yes," replied Charles, "I can well imagine what the emotion was; and it
is on account of this emotion that I realize all that it means when I
say to you: 'Believe me, Francois, when one has such emotions it is best
for us to hunt at a distance from each other. Think about it, brother,
not while you are with me, because I can see my presence troubles you,
but when you are alone, and you will see that I have every reason to
fear that in another hunt you might be seized with another emotion.
There is nothing like emotion for causing the hand to rise, and you
might kill the rider instead of the horse, the king instead of th