this animal has between his teeth, I
beg you, and tell me of what he died."

While Rene, candle in hand, bent over the floor as much to hide his
emotion as to obey the King, Charles stood up, his eyes fixed on the
man, waiting with an impatience easy to understand for the reply which
was to be his sentence of death or his assurance of safety.

Rene drew a kind of scalpel from his pocket, opened it, and with the
point detached from the mouth of the greyhound the particles of paper
which adhered to the gums; then he looked long and attentively at the
humor and the blood which oozed from each wound.

"Sire," said he, trembling, "the symptoms are very bad."

Charles felt an icy shudder run through his veins to his very heart.

"Yes," said he, "the dog has been poisoned, has he not?"

"I fear so, sire."

"With what sort of poison?"

"With mineral poison, I think."

"Can you ascertain positively that he has been poisoned?"

"Yes, certainly, by opening and examining the stomach."

"Open it. I wish there to be no doubt."

"I must call some one to assist me."

"I will help you," said Charles.

"You, sire!"

"Yes. If he has been poisoned, what symptoms shall we find?"

"Red blotches and herborizations in the stomach."

"Come, then," said Charles, "begin."

With a stroke of the scalpel Rene opened the hound's body and with his
two hands removed the stomach, while Charles, one knee on the floor,
held the light with clenched and trembling hand.

"See, sire," said Rene; "here are evident marks. These are the red spots
I spoke of; as to these bloody veins, which seem like the roots of a
plant, they are what I meant by herborizations. I find here everything I
looked for."

"So the dog was poisoned?"

"Yes, sire."

"With mineral poison?"

"In all probability."

"And what symptoms would a man have who had inadvertently swallowed some
of the same poison?"

"Great pain in the head, internal burning as if he had swallowed hot
coals, pains in the bowels, and vomiting."

"Would he be thirsty?" asked Charles.

"Intensely thirsty."

"That is it! that is it!" murmured the King.

"Sire, I seek in vain for the motive for all these questions."

"Of what use to seek it? You need not know it. Answer my questions, that
is all."

"Yes, sire."

"What is the antidote to give a man who may have swallowed the same
substance as my dog?"

Rene reflected an instant.

"There are several mineral poisons," said he;