ut explain to
me the operation which Ambroise means to perform upon the king, and in
return I will promise you the life of your son."

"Faithfully?" exclaimed the old furrier.

"Shall I swear it to you?" said Ruggiero.

Thereupon the poor old man repeated his conversation with Ambroise Pare
to the astrologer, who, the moment that the secret of the great surgeon
was divulged to him, left the poor father abruptly in the street in
utter despair.

"What the devil does he mean, that miscreant?" cried Lecamus, as he
watched Ruggiero hurrying with rapid steps to the place de l'Estape.

Lecamus was ignorant of the terrible scene that was taking place around
the royal bed, where the imminent danger of the king's death and the
consequent loss of power to the Guises had caused the hasty erection
of the scaffold for the Prince de Conde, whose sentence had been
pronounced, as it were by default,--the execution of it being delayed by
the king's illness.

Absolutely no one but the persons on duty were in the halls, staircases,
and courtyard of the royal residence, Le Bailliage. The crowd of
courtiers were flocking to the house of the king of Navarre, on whom the
regency would devolve on the death of the king, according to the laws of
the kingdom. The French nobility, alarmed by the audacity of the Guises,
felt the need of rallying around the chief of the younger branch, when,
ignorant of the queen-mother's Italian policy, they saw her the apparent
slave of the duke and cardinal. Antoine de Bourbon, faithful to his
secret agreement with Catherine, was bound not to renounce the regency
in her favor until the States-general had declared for it.

The solitude in which the king's house was left had a powerful effect
on the mind of the Duc de Guise when, on his return from an inspection,
made by way of precaution through the city, he found no one there but
the friends who were attached exclusively to his own fortunes. The
chamber in which was the king's bed adjoined the great hall of the
Bailliage. It was at that period panelled in oak. The ceiling, composed
of long, narrow boards carefully joined and painted, was covered with
blue arabesques on a gold ground, a part of which being torn down about
fifty years ago was instantly purchased by a lover of antiquities. This
room, hung with tapestry, the floor being covered with a carpet, was
so dark and gloomy that the torches threw scarcely any light. The vast
four-post bedstead with its