really feared he had
the court madam on his hands after all, but he forgot all about his
fears, as she stood laughing and talking, and by her pretty airs and
gestures, smiles and signs, making him enter into her mirth with Philip,
almost as well as if she had not spoken French.

Even Berenger started, when he came up after the counsel to fetch her
to the banqueting-hall. She was more entirely the Eustacie of the Louvre
than he had ever realized seeing her, and yet so much more; and when the
Duchess beheld the sensation she produced among the _noblesse_, it was
with self-congratulation in having kept her in retirement while it
was still not known that she was not a widow. The King of Navarre had
already found her the only lady present possessed of the peculiar aroma
of high-breeding which belonged to the society in which both he and she
had been most at home, and his attentions were more than she liked from
one whose epithet of Eurydice she had never quite forgiven; at least,
that was the only reason she could assign for her distaste, but the
Duchess understood her better than did Berenger, nay, better than she
did herself, and kept her under the maternal wings of double form and
ceremony.

Berenger, meanwhile, was in great favour. A command had been offered him
by the King of Navarre, who had promised that if he would cast in his
lot with the Huguenots, his claims on all the lands of Ribaumont should
be enforced on the King of France when terms were wrung from him, and
Narcisse's death removed all valid obstacle to their recognition; but
Berenger felt himself bound by all home duties to return to England, nor
had he clear convictions as to the absolute right of the war in which
he had almost unconsciously drawn his sword. Under the Tudors the divine
right of kings was strongly believed in, and it was with many genuine
misgivings that the cause of Protestant revolt was favoured by Elisabeth
and her ministers; and Berenger, bred up in a strong sense of loyalty,
as well as in doctrines that, as he had received them, savoured as
little of Calvinism as of Romanism, was not ready to espouse the
Huguenot cause with all his heart; and as he could by no means have
fought on the side of King Henry III. or of the Guises, felt thankful
that the knot could be cut by renouncing France altogether, according
to the arrangement which had been defeated by the Chevalier's own
supper-subtle machinations.

At the conference of gentlemen