e influence of the Admiral was
greater than her own, and it had become a battle of life and death
with her; for Coligny, in his fearless desire to do what was right,
and for the service of France, was imprudent enough over and over
again to warn the king against the evil influence of the queen
mother and the Duke d'Anjou; and Charles, in his fits of temper,
did not hesitate to divulge these counsels. The Duke d'Anjou and
his mother, therefore, came to the conclusion that Coligny must be
put out of the way.

The duke, afterwards, did not scruple to avow his share in the
preparations for the massacre of Saint Bartholomew. The Duchess of
Nemours, her son Henri of Guise, and her brother-in-law the Duc
d'Aumale were taken into their counsels, and the plan was speedily
settled.

Few as were the conspirators taken into the confidence of the queen
mother, mysterious rumours of danger reached the ears of the
Huguenots. Some of these, taking the alarm, left Paris and made for
their estates; but by far the greater portion refused to believe
that there could be danger to those whom the king had invited to be
present upon such an occasion. In another week, Coligny would be
leaving, having, as he hoped, brought the king entirely round to
his views; and the vast majority of the Huguenot gentlemen resolved
to stay until he left.

Pierre grew more and more serious. Francois had left the lodgings,
being one of the Huguenot gentlemen whom Henri of Navarre had
chosen to lodge with him at the Louvre.

"You are getting quite unbearable, Pierre, with your long face and
your grim looks," Philip said to him on the Friday morning, half in
joke and half in earnest. "Why, man, in another week we shall be
out of Paris, and on our way south."

"I hope so, Monsieur Philip, with all my heart I hope so; but I
feel just as I used to do when I was a boy living in the woods, and
I saw a thundercloud working up overhead. I cannot tell you why I
feel so. It is something in the air. I wish sir, oh, so much! that
you would leave at once."

"That I cannot do, Pierre. I have no estates that demand my
attention, no excuse whatever for going. I came here with my
cousin, and shall leave with him."

"Well, sir, if it must be, it must."

"But what is that you fear, Pierre?"

"When one is in a town, sir, with Catharine de Medici, and her son
Anjou, and the Guises, there is always something to fear. Guise is
the idol of the mob of Paris, who have always