amplight beaming on
his high white brow and clear eye, stood before his two comrades in
captivity, their true-hearted faces composed to reverence, and as he
read, 'I have hated them that hold of superstitious vanities, and my
trust hath been in the Lord. I will be glad and rejoice in Thy
mercy, for Thou hast considered my trouble and hast known my soul in
adversities,' feeling that here was the oracle by which he was willing
to abide--Diane de Selinville was entering the cabinet where the secrets
of the future were to be unveiled.

There she stood--the beautiful court lady--her lace coif (of the Mary
of Scotland type) well framed the beautiful oval of her face, and set of
the clear olive of her complexion, softened by short jetty curls at the
temples, and lighted splendid dark eyes, and by the smiles of a
perfect pair of lips. A transparent veil hung back over the ruff like
frostwork-formed fairy wings, and over the white silk bodice and sleeves
laced with violet, and the violet skirt that fell in ample folds on the
ground; only, however, in the dim light revealing by an occasional gleam
that it was not black. It was a stately presence, yet withal there was
a tremor, a quiver of the downcast eyelids, and a trembling of the fair
hand, as though she were ill at ease; even though it was by no means the
first time she had trafficked with the dealers in mysterious arts who
swarmed around Catherine de Medicis. There were words lately uttered
that weighed with her in their simplicity, and she could not forget them
in that gloomy light, as she gazed on the brown face of the Italian,
Ercole, faultless in outline as a classical mask, but the black depths
of the eyes sparkling with intensity of observation, as if they were
everywhere at once and gazed through and through. He wore his national
dress, with the short cloak over one shoulder; but the little boy,
who stood at the table, had been fantastically arrayed in a sort
of semi-Albanian garb, a red cap with a long tassel, a dark,
gold-embroidered velvet jacket sitting close to his body, and a white
kilt over his legs, bare except for buskins stiff with gold. The poor
little fellow looked pale in spite of his tawny hue, his enormous black
eyes were heavy and weary, and he seemed to be trying to keep aloof from
the small brazen vessel formed by the coils of two serpents that held
the inky liquid of which Philip had spoken.

No doubt of the veritable nature of the charm crossed Di