ut a penny, possessing only a miserable
little kingdom in Spain where he never sets his foot, and Bearn in
France which doesn't give him revenue enough to feed him, I should be
happy, much happier than if I were really Queen of France."

"But you are more than the Queen of France. She has King Charles for the
sake of the kingdom only; royal marriages are only politics."

Marie smiled and made a pretty little grimace as she said: "Yes, yes, I
know that, sire. And my sonnet, have you written it?"

"Dearest, verses are as difficult to write as treaties of peace; but you
shall have them soon. Ah, me! life is so easy here, I wish I might never
leave you. However, we must send for those Italians and question them.
_Tete-Dieu_! I thought one Ruggiero in the kingdom was one too many, but
it seems there are two. Now listen, my precious; you don't lack sense,
you would make an excellent lieutenant of police, for you can penetrate
things--"

"But, sire, we women suppose all we fear, and we turn what is probable
into truths; that is the whole of our art in a nutshell."

"Well, help me to sound these men. Just now all my plans depend on the
result of their examination. Are they innocent? Are they guilty? My
mother is behind them."

"I hear Jacob's voice in the next room," said Marie.

Jacob was the favorite valet of the king, and the one who accompanied
him on all his private excursions. He now came to ask if it was the
king's good pleasure to speak to the two prisoners. The king made a sign
in the affirmative, and the mistress of the house gave her orders.

"Jacob," she said, "clear the house of everybody, except the nurse and
Monsieur le Dauphin d'Auvergne, who may remain. As for you, stay in
the lower hall; but first, close the windows, draw the curtains of the
salon, and light the candles."

The king's impatience was so great that while these preparations were
being made he sat down upon a raised seat at the corner of a lofty
fireplace of white marble in which a bright fire was blazing, placing
his pretty mistress by his side. His portrait, framed in velvet, was
over the mantle in place of a mirror. Charles IX. rested his elbow on
the arm of the seat as if to watch the two Florentines the better under
cover of his hand.

The shutters closed, and the curtains drawn, Jacob lighted the wax
tapers in a tall candelabrum of chiselled silver, which he placed on the
table where the Florentines were to stand,--an object, by th