ain--I
staggered to the King of Navarre's side, and, falling on my knees,
seized his stirrup. 'Sire, I bring you news! great news! dreadful news!'
I cried, clinging to it. 'His Majesty was but a quarter of an hour ago
stabbed in the body in his chamber by a villain monk. And is dying, or,
it may be, dead.'

'Dead? The King!' Turenne cried with an oath. 'Impossible!'

Vaguely I heard others crying, some this, some that, as surprise and
consternation, or anger, or incredulity moved them. But I did not answer
them, for Henry, remaining silent, held me spellbound and awed by the
marvellous change which I saw fall on his face. His eyes became on a
sudden suffused with blood, and seemed to retreat under his heavy brows;
his cheeks turned of a brick-red colour; his half-open lips showed his
teeth gleaming through his beard; while his great nose, which seemed
to curve and curve until it well-nigh met his chin, gave to his mobile
countenance an aspect as strange as it was terrifying. Withal he uttered
for a time no word, though I saw his hand, grip the riding-whip he held
in a convulsive grasp, as though his thought were ''Tis mine! Mine!
Wrest it away who dares!'

'Bethink you, sir,' he said at last, fixing his piercing eyes on me, and
speaking in a harsh, low tone, like the growling of a great dog, 'this
is no jesting-time. Nor will you save your skin by a ruse. Tell me, on
your peril, is this a trick?'

'Heaven forbid, sire!' I answered with passion. 'I was in the chamber,
and saw it; with my own eyes. I mounted on the instant, and rode hither
by the shortest route to warn your Highness to look to yourself. Monks
are many, and the Holy Union is not apt to stop half-way.'

I saw he believed me, for his face relaxed. His breath seemed to come
and go again, and for the tenth part of a second his eyes sought M. de
Rosny's. Then he looked at me again.

'I thank you, sir, he said, bowing gravely and courteously, 'for your
care for me--not for your tidings, which are of the sorriest. God grant
my good cousin and king may be hurt only. Now tell us exactly--for these
gentlemen are equally interested with myself--had a surgeon seen him?'

I replied in the negative, but added that the wound was in the groin,
and bled much.

'You said a few minutes ago, "dying or already dead!"' the King of
Navarre rejoined. 'Why?'

'His Majesty's face was sunken,' I stammered.

He nodded. 'You may be mistaken,' he said. 'I pray that you are.