ere silent. Discussion was not their business. They
worked honestly from ten in the morning till five in the afternoon.
Therefore, they deserved their rest, and if Mariana persisted in talking
they would not get it. Still, they were eager to hear what the servant
of Raphael Llorient had to say.

Mariana made Jean a signal to go on with his tale. He continued:

"So being used to run on the mountains, I outstripped the crowd and came
to the door of the chapel where the Other King, he in the cloak of blue
and gold, was at his prayers. The crowd pressed and thronged--all
looking the other way.

"And I waited. But not long. From very far away there came a crying of
many people--a great soughing whisper first, then a sound like the
strength of the wind among high trees, and last, loud as the roar of
many waters--'The White Plume! The White Plume! Navarre! Navarre!'

"Then the Other King, whom no one cheered greatly nor took much heed of,
came out from his mass and strove to meet the king of the brisk and
smiling countenance. But for a long time they could not. For the crowd
broke in and pressed them so tight that during a good quarter of an hour
these two Kings, the White Plume, and the Man-all-covered-with-Lilies,
stood within half-a-dozen paces of each other, unable to embrace or even
to touch hands. Whereat the White Plume laughed and jested with those
about, bidding them remember that he had come without his breakfast, and
such-like. But the Man-with-the-Lilies was sullen and angry with the
concourse."

"Ah, for a couple of good disciplined Leaguers with long knives!"
muttered the Chief of the Inquisitors regretfully.

"And then," continued Jean-aux-Choux, "the angry Soldier-Man, who had
stood on the bridge with sword and baton, thrust back the people,
speaking many words hotly, which are not fit that I should repeat in
your reverend ears. So finally the two Kings met and embraced, and the
people shouted, so that none might know what his neighbour said. And
presently I saw these two walk arm-in-arm through the press, and so up
into the chateau, out of my sight. They abode there long time talking,
and then after eating they came out. For it was time that the
King-covered-with-Lilies should go back to his chapel, being a man
apparently very devout."

The expression on the faces of the two inquisitors was dreadful to
behold in its contempt and hate. But Mariana laughed.

"So he came out again, and the King with the