the queen
was going, but in the same alley, there passed at full speed a troop of
horsemen whom the two friends recognized as ardent, almost rabid
Protestants. Their steeds bounded like the locusts of which Job said,
'They came and went.'"

"The deuce! the affair is growing serious," said Coconnas, rising. "Let
us go to the pavilion of Francois I."

"No," said La Mole; "if we are discovered it will be towards the
pavilion that the attention of the King will be at first directed, since
that is the general meeting-place."

"You may be right, this time," grumbled Coconnas.

Scarcely had Coconnas uttered these words before a horseman passed among
the trees like a flash of lightning, and leaping ditches, bushes, and
all barriers reached the two gentlemen.

He held a pistol in each hand and with his knees alone guided his horse
in its furious chase.

"Monsieur de Mouy!" exclaimed Coconnas, uneasy and now more on the alert
than La Mole; "Monsieur de Mouy running away! Every one for himself,
then!"

"Quick! quick!" cried the Huguenot; "away! all is lost! I have come
around to tell you so. Away!"

As if he had not stopped to utter these words, he was gone almost before
they were spoken, and before La Mole and Coconnas realized their
meaning.

"And the queen?" cried La Mole.

But the young man's voice was lost in the distance; De Mouy was too far
away either to hear or to answer him.

Coconnas had speedily made up his mind. While La Mole stood motionless,
gazing after De Mouy, who had disappeared among the trees, he ran to the
horses, led them out, sprang on his own, and, throwing the bridle of the
other to La Mole, prepared to gallop off.

"Come! come!" cried he; "I repeat what De Mouy said: Let us be off! De
Mouy knows what he is doing. Come, La Mole, quick!"

"One moment," said La Mole; "we came here for something."

"Unless it is to be hanged," replied Coconnas, "I advise you to lose no
more time. I know you are going to parse some rhetoric, paraphrase the
word 'flee,' speak of Horace, who hurled his buckler, and Epaminondas,
who was brought back on his. But I tell you one thing, when Monsieur de
Mouy de Saint Phale flees all the world may run too."

"Monsieur de Mouy de Saint Phale," said La Mole, "was not charged to
carry off Queen Marguerite! Nor does Monsieur de Mouy de Saint Phale
love Queen Marguerite!"

"By Heaven! he is right if this love would make him do such foolish
things as you plan doing. M