gnal
agreed on to indicate that all was lost.

At this signal the king had turned back and disappeared. De Mouy at once
dug the two wide rowels of his spurs into the sides of his horse and
galloped away, shouting as he went the words of warning which we have
mentioned, to La Mole and Coconnas.

Now the King, who had noticed the absence of Henry and Marguerite,
arrived, escorted by Monsieur d'Alencon, just as the two men came out of
the hut to which he had said that all those found, not only in the
pavilion but in the forest, were to be conducted.

D'Alencon, full of confidence, galloped close by the King, whose sharp
pains were augmenting his ill humor. Two or three times he had nearly
fainted and once he had vomited blood.

"Come," said he on arriving, "let us make haste; I want to return to the
Louvre. Bring out all these rascals from their hole. This is Saint
Blaise's day; he was cousin to Saint Bartholomew."

At these words of the King the entire mass of pikes and muskets began to
move, and one by one the Huguenots were forced out not only from the
forest and the pavilion but from the hut.

But the King of Navarre, Marguerite, and De Mouy were not there.

"Well," said the King, "where is Henry? Where is Margot? You promised
them to me, D'Alencon, and, by Heaven, they will have to be found!"

"Sire, we have not even seen the King and the Queen of Navarre."

"But here they are," said Madame de Nevers.

At that moment, at the end of an alley leading to the river, Henry and
Margot came in sight, both as calm as if nothing had happened; both with
their falcons on their wrists, riding lovingly side by side, so that as
they galloped along their horses, like themselves, seemed to be
caressing each other.

It was then that D'Alencon, furious, commanded the forest to be
searched, and that La Mole and Coconnas were found within their ivy
bower. They, too, in brotherly proximity entered the circle formed by
the guards; only, as they were not sovereigns, they could not assume so
calm a manner as Henry and Marguerite. La Mole was too pale and Coconnas
too red.

CHAPTER LII.

THE EXAMINATION.

The spectacle which struck the young men as they entered the circle,
although seen but for a few moments, was one never to be forgotten.

As we have said, Charles IX. had watched the gentlemen as the guards led
them one by one from the pricker's hut.

Both he and D'Alencon anxiously followed every movement, waitin