with your life."

Henry assumed an air of consternation, and followed Monsieur de Nancey.

CHAPTER LIII.

ACTEON.

Charles, left alone, wondered greatly at not having seen either of his
favorites, his nurse Madeleine or his greyhound Acteon.

"Nurse must have gone to chant psalms with some Huguenot of her
acquaintance," said he to himself; "and Acteon is probably still angry
with me for the whipping I gave him this morning."

Charles took a candle and went into his nurse's room. The good woman was
not there. From her chamber a door opened into the armory, it may be
remembered. The King started towards this door, but as he did so he was
seized with one of those spasms he had already felt, and which seemed to
attack him suddenly. He felt as if his entrails were being run through
with a red-hot iron, and an unquenchable thirst consumed him. Seeing a
cup of milk on the table, he swallowed it at a gulp, and felt somewhat
relieved.

Taking the candle he had set down, he entered the armory.

To his great astonishment Acteon did not come to meet him. Had he been
shut up? If so, he would have known that his master had returned from
hunting, and would have barked.

Charles called and whistled, but no animal appeared. He advanced a few
steps, and as the light from the candle fell upon a corner of the room,
he perceived an inert something lying there on the floor.

"Why! hello, Acteon!" cried Charles. He whistled again, but the dog did
not stir. Charles hastened forward and touched him; the poor beast was
stiff and cold. From his throat, contracted by pain, several drops of
gall had fallen, mixed with foamy and bloody saliva. The dog had found
an old cap of his master's in the armory, and had died with his head
resting on this object, which represented a friend.

At the sight, which made him forget his own pain and restored all his
energy, rage boiled in Charles's veins. He would have cried out; but,
restrained as they are in their greatness, kings are not free to yield
to that first impulse which every man turns to the profit of his passion
or to his defence. Charles reflected that there had been some treason,
and was silent.

Then he knelt down before his dog and with experienced eye examined the
body. The eyes were glassy, the tongue red and covered with pustules. It
was a strange disease, and one which made Charles shudder. The King put
on his gloves, which he had taken off and slipped into his belt, opene