in those old buildings; but, even for
that reason, rather more comfortable than the waste hall through which
they had passed. Some hasty preparations had been here made for the
King's accommodation. Arras had been tacked up, a fire lighted in the
rusty grate, which had been long unused, and a pallet laid down for
those gentlemen who were to pass the night in his chamber, as was then
usual.

"We will get beds in the hall for the rest of your attendants," said the
garrulous old man; "but we have had such brief notice, if it please your
Majesty.--And if it please your Majesty to look upon this little wicket
behind the arras, it opens into the little old cabinet in the thickness
of the wall where Charles was slain; and there is a secret passage
from below, which admitted the men who were to deal with him. And your
Majesty, whose eyesight I hope is better than mine, may see the blood
still on the oak floor, though the thing was done five hundred years
ago."

While he thus spoke, he kept fumbling to open the postern of which he
spoke, until the King said, "Forbear, old man--forbear but a little
while, when thou mayst have a newer tale to tell, and fresher blood to
show.--My Lord of Crevecoeur, what say you?"

"I can but answer, Sire, that these two interior apartments are as much
at your Majesty's disposal as those in your own Castle at Plessis, and
that Crevecoeur, a name never blackened by treachery or assassination,
has the guard of the exterior defences of it."

"But the private passage into that closet, of which the old man speaks?"
This King Louis said in a low and anxious tone, holding Crevecoeur's arm
fast with one hand, and pointing to the wicket door with the other.

"It must be some dream of Mornay's," said Crevecoeur, "or some old and
absurd tradition of the place; but we will examine."

He was about to open the closet door, when Louis answered, "No,
Crevecoeur, no.--Your honour is sufficient warrant.--But what will your
Duke do with me, Crevecoeur? He cannot hope to keep me long a prisoner;
and--in short, give me your opinion, Crevecoeur."

"My Lord, and Sire," said the Count, "how the Duke of Burgundy must
resent this horrible cruelty on the person of his near relative and
ally, is for your Majesty to judge; and what right he may have to
consider it as instigated by your Majesty's emissaries, you only can
know. But my master is noble in his disposition, and made incapable,
even by the very strength of hi