by a number
of Huguenot gentlemen, the young princess always showed them marked
friendliness.

As the time for the marriage approached, the king became more and
more estranged from the Admiral. Queen Elizabeth, while professing
her friendship for the Netherlands, had forbidden English
volunteers to sail to the assistance of the Dutch; and had written
to Alva offering, in token of her friendship, to hand over Flushing
to the Spaniards. This proof of her duplicity, and of the
impossibility of trusting her as an ally, was made the most of by
Catherine; and she easily persuaded the weak-minded king that
hostilities with the Spaniards would be fatal to him, and that,
should he yield to the Admiral's entreaties, he would fall wholly
into the power of the Huguenots. The change in the king's
deportment was so visible that the Catholics did not conceal their
exultation, while a feeling of uneasiness spread among some of the
Huguenot gentlemen at Paris.

"What are you doing, Pierre!" Philip said one day, when he found
his servant occupied in cleaning up the two pairs of heavy pistols
they carried in their holsters.

"I am getting them ready for action, master. I always thought that
the Huguenots were fools to put their heads into this cage; and the
more I see of it, the less I like it."

"There can be no reason for uneasiness, Pierre. The king himself
has, over and over, declared his determination to maintain the
truce and, even did he harbour ill designs against us, he would not
mar his sister's marriage by fresh steps against the Huguenots.
What may follow, after we have all left Paris, I cannot say."

"Well, sir, I hope it may be all right, but since I got a sight of
the king's face the other day, I have no faith in him; he looks
like one worried until well nigh out of his senses--and no wonder.
These weak men, when they become desperate, are capable of the most
terrible actions. A month since he would have hung up his mother
and Anjou, had they ventured to oppose him; and there is no saying,
now, upon whom his wrath may fall.

"At any rate, sir, with your permission I mean to be prepared for
the worst; and the first work is to clean these pistols."

"There can be no harm in that anyhow, Pierre, but I have no shadow
of fear of any trouble occurring. The one thing I am afraid of is
that the king will keep Coligny near him, so that if war should
break out again, we shall not have him for our general. With the
Queen of