ions of Margot with Turenne,
that she does not bring shame on the house of Bourbon. Act as soon
as you shall be sure of the fact, into which I pray you to inquire
as soon as Chicot shall have explained to you my letter.

"'Those whom as brother and king I denounce to you, generally meet
at a little chateau called Loignac, the pretext being generally the
chase. This chateau is, besides, the focus for intrigues to which
the Guises are not strangers, and you know the strange love with
which my sister pursued Henri de Guise. I embrace you, and am ever
ready to aid you in all, and for all; meanwhile aid yourself by
the advice of Chicot, whom I send to you. Your affectionate,' etc.

"_Age auctore Chicot_," said Chicot, "here am I, installed counselor of
the king of Navarre! This seems to me a bad commission, and in flying
one ill, I have fallen into a worse one. Really, I should almost prefer
Mayenne. But the letter is clever, and if Henriot be like other
husbands, it will embroil him at once with his wife, Turenne, the
Guises, and even with Spain. But if Henri de Valois is so well informed
of all that passes in Navarre, he must have some spy there.

"Then, again," continued he, "this letter will lead me into mischief if
I meet a Spaniard, a Lorraine, a Bearnais, or a Fleming curious enough
to wish to know what brings me here, and I should be very foolish not to
remember that there is a chance of that. M. Borromee, above all, I
suspect may play me some trick. Besides, what did I seek in asking the
king for this mission? Tranquillity. And now I am going to embroil the
king of Navarre with his wife. However, that is not my affair, except
that I shall make mortal enemies, who will prevent me from ever reaching
the happy age of eighty.

"Ma foi! but that is not much, for it is only worth living when you are
young. But then I might as well have waited for the knife of M. de
Mayenne. However, I will take precautions, and will translate this fine
letter into Latin, and engrave it on my memory; then I will buy a horse,
because from Juvisy to Pau I should have too often to put the right foot
before the left if I walked--but first I will destroy this letter."

This he proceeded to do; tearing it into an infinite number of little
pieces, sending some into the river, others into the air, and burying
the rest in holes in the ground.

"Now let me think of my Latin theme," said he; and