-she"----continued Charles unheeding her, and,
drawing forth his emaciated hand from beneath the coverlid, he held it
forth towards the old woman, who lay stretched across his feet.

"Charlot," said the old woman, raising up her head with a haggard look,
"they told me that thou wast dying; and I forgot all--all that thou hast
done of evil--to see thee once more--to hear the words of repentance
from thy own lips--to console and guide. They would have opposed my
coming. They had placed guards about my door; but my Jocelyne, my
grandchild, found means to lure them from their post, and I escaped
them. I had promised her--what had I promised her? Oh, my poor Charlot!
my brain wanders strangely at times. No matter. Here, in your palace of
the Louvre, too, they would have shut the doors to me; but they knew you
loved me, Charlot, and they dared not refuse my supplications. Oh my
boy, my boy, that I should see you thus!"

"Perrotte! hast thou forgiven me?" said the king with a violent effort,
for his breath was now fast failing him. His mother watched the scene
with folded arms and haughty mien. Each ebbing of the breath brought her
nearer to her much-desired power.

"Hast thou forgiven me?" sobbed the king.

"May God forgive the injuries thou hast done to others, as I now forgive
thee on thy bed of suffering, those thou hast done to mine," said the
old woman solemnly; and rising from her recumbent position, she advanced
to the head of the couch, and took the dying man in her arms, as it were
an infant she clasped to her bosom.

"And how can I repay thee, mother?" said Charles to his nurse; "speak
quickly, for my moments are but few!"

"By thy repentance, my poor son," replied the Huguenot woman earnestly.
"There is still time to repair thy errors. If thy remorse has reconciled
thee to thy God, let thy last act reconcile thee to thy injured
fellow-creatures. Ay! it is of that I would have spoken. That was my
promise. Let thy last act of government as King, depute thy power into
the hands of him who alone can pacify the unhappy religious discords of
thy state, and thus thou mayst still save the life of the innocent and
unjustly condemned."

"Woman! do you dare even in my presence?" said Catherine advancing.

"Silence, madam. I have heard you," interrupted her son: "let me now
hear her who has been my real mother."

"My son, can you listen to the vile insinuations of an accursed heretic?
Think on your soul," cried Cathe