unmasked. At this period women spoke not only freely, but well, and the
mask hid neither folly nor inferiority of rank, for the women of that
day were all witty, and if they were handsome, they were soon titled:
witness, the Duchesse de Chateauroux and the Comtesse Dubarry.

Gaston knew no one, but he felt instinctively that he was among the most
select society of the day. Among the men were Novilles, Brancas,
Broglie, St. Simon, and Biron. The women might be more mixed, but
certainly not less spirituelles, nor less elegant.

No one knew how to organize a fete like the regent. The luxury of good
taste, the profusion of flowers, the lights, the princes and
ambassadors, the charming and beautiful women who surrounded him, all
had their effect on Gaston, who now recognized in the regent, not only a
king, but a king at once powerful, gay, amiable, beloved, and above all,
popular and national.

Gaston's heart beat when, seeking among these heads the one for which
his blows were destined, he saw a black domino.

Without the mask which hid his face and concealed from all eyes its
changing expression, he would not have taken four steps through the
rooms without some one pointing him out as an assassin.

Gaston could not conceal from himself that there was something cowardly
in coming to a prince, his host, to change those brilliant lights into
funeral torches, to stain those dazzling tapestries with blood, to
arouse the cry of terror amid the joyous tumult of a fete--and at this
thought his courage failed him, and he stepped toward the door.

"I will kill him outside," said he, "but not here."

Then he remembered the duke's directions, his card would open to him the
isolated conservatory, and he murmured--

"He foresaw that I should be a coward."

He approached a sort of gallery containing buffets where the guests came
for refreshment. He went also, not that he was hungry or thirsty, but
because he was unarmed. He chose a long, sharp and pointed knife, and
put it under his domino, where he was sure no one could see it.

"The likeness to Ravaillac will be complete," said he.

At this moment, as Gaston turned, he heard a well-known voice say--

"You hesitate?"

Gaston opened his domino and showed the duke the knife which it
concealed.

"I see the knife glisten, but I also see the hand tremble."

"Yes, monseigneur, it is true," said Gaston; "I hesitated, I trembled,
I felt inclined to fly--but thank God you are he