efore the detected nobles had recovered from their
consternation, the Cardinal was solemnly traversing the crowded halls
surrounded by the adulation of the assembled Court. As he advanced to
pay his respects to the sovereigns, he encountered Bassompierre, whom he
greeted with a smile of more than usual cordiality; and the Duc de
Guise, to whom he addressed a few words of courteous recognition; but
the one felt that the smile was a stab, and the other that the greeting
was a menace.

History has taught us the justice of those forebodings.

And still the festival went on; the fairest women of the Court fluttered
and glittered like gilded butterflies from place to place; princes and
nobles, attired in all the gorgeous magnificence of the time, formed a
living mosaic of splendour on the marble floors; floating perfumes
escaped from jewelled _cassolettes_; light laughter was blent with music
and with song; the dance sped merrily; and heaps of gold rapidly
exchanged owners at the play tables. Nor was the scene less dazzling
without; the environs of the Louvre were brilliantly illuminated;
fireworks ascended from floating rafts anchored in the centre of the
river; and troops of comedians, conjurers, and soothsayers thronged all
the approaches to the palace. It was truly a regal _fete_; and when the
dawn began to gleam, pale and calm through the open casements, a hundred
voices echoed the parting salutation of the Cardinal-Minister to his
royal host, as he said, bowing profoundly, "None save yourself, Sire,
could have afforded to his guests so vivid a glimpse of fairy-land as we
have had to-night. Not a shade of gloom, nor a care for the future, can
have intruded itself in such a scene of enchantment. I appeal to those
around me. How say you, M. de Guise? and you, M. de Bassompierre? Shall
we not depart hence with light hearts and tranquil spirits, grateful for
so many hours of unalloyed and almost unequalled happiness?"

The silence of the two nobles to whom his Eminence had thus addressed
himself fortunately passed unobserved amid the chorus of assenting
admiration which burst forth on all sides; and with this final strain of
the moral rack the Cardinal took his leave of the two foredoomed victims
of his vengeance.

FOOTNOTES:

[130] Gaston d'Orleans, _Mem_. pp. 89, 90.

[131] Jean de Saint-Bonnet, Seigneur de Thoiras. He was created Marshal
of France in 1630, and was killed in Italy, in 1636.

[132] Ambroise, Marqu