u and I. A word in your ear,
son-in-law: Madame Isabeau's soul formerly inhabited a sow, as
Pythagoras teaches, and when our Saviour cast it out at Gadara, the
influence of the moon drew it hither."

Henry did not say anything. Always his calm blue eyes appraised Dame
Katharine.

"Oho, these Latinists cannot hoodwink me, you observe, though by
ordinary it chimes with my humor to appear content. Policy again,
messire: for once roused, I am terrible. To-day in the great
hall-window, under the bleeding feet of Lazarus, I slew ten flies--very
black they were, the black shrivelled souls of parricides--and
afterward I wept for it. I often weep; the Mediterranean hath its
sources in my eyes, for my daughter cheats at cards. Cheats, sir!--and
I her father!" The incessant peering, the stealthy cunning with which
Charles whispered this, the confidence with which he clung to his
destroyer's hand, was that of a conspiring child.

"Come, father," Katharine said. "Come away to bed, dear."

"Hideous basilisk!" he spat at her; "dare you rebel against me? Am I
not King of France, and is it not blasphemy a King of France should be
thus mocked? Frail moths that flutter about my splendor." He
shrieked, in an unheralded frenzy, "beware of me, beware! for I am
omnipotent! I am King of France, God's regent. At my command the
winds go about the earth, and nightly the stars are kindled for my
recreation. Perhaps I am mightier than God, but I do not remember now.
The reason is written down and lies somewhere under a bench. Now I
sail for England. Eia! eia! I go to ravage England, terrible and
merciless. But I must have my mouse-traps, Goodman Devil, for in
England the cats o' the middle-sea wait unfed." He went out of the
room, giggling, and in the corridor began to sing:

"_Adieu de fois plus de cent mile!
Aillors vois oir l'Evangile,
Car chi fors mentir on ne sait...._"

All this while Henry remained immovable, his eyes fixed upon Katharine.
Thus (she meditated) he stood among Frenchmen; he was the boulder, and
they the waters that babbled and fretted about him. But she turned and
met his gaze squarely.

"And that," she said, "is the king whom you have conquered! Is it not
a notable conquest to overcome so sapient a king? to pilfer renown from
an idiot? There are pickpockets in Troyes, rogues doubly damned, who
would scorn the action. Now shall I fetch my mother, sire? the
commander of that great army w