er thongs, and had glanced
into the street to see that there were no lookers-on, he aided his
mistress to mount.

"I believe, madame," said he, "that this is the last house in which we
shall live so long."

"The last but one, Remy."

"And what will be the other?"

"The tomb, Remy."

CHAPTER LXI.

WHAT MONSEIGNEUR FRANCOIS, DUC D'ANJOU, DUC DE BRABANT AND COMTE DE
FLANDERS, WAS DOING IN FLANDERS.

Our readers must now permit us to leave the king at the Louvre, Henri of
Navarre at Cahors, Chicot on the road, and Diana in the street, to go to
Flanders to find M. le Duc d'Anjou, recently named Duc de Brabant, and
to whose aid we have sent the great admiral of France--Anne, duc de
Joyeuse.

At eighty leagues from Paris, toward the north, the sound of French
voices was heard, and the French banner floated over a French camp on
the banks of the Scheldt. It was night; the fires, disposed in an
immense circle, bordered the stream, and were reflected in its deep
waters.

From the top of the ramparts of the town the sentinels saw shining, by
the bivouac fires, the muskets of the French army. This army was that of
the Duc d'Anjou. What he had come to do there we must tell our readers;
and although it may not be very amusing, yet we hope they will pardon it
in consideration of the warning; so many people are dull without
announcing it.

Those of our readers who have read "Chicot," already know the Duc
d'Anjou, that jealous, egotistical, ambitious prince, and who, born so
near to the throne, had never been able to wait with resignation until
death offered him a free passage to it. Thus he had desired the throne
of Navarre under Charles IX., then that of Charles IX. himself, then
that of his brother Henri III. For a time he had turned his eyes toward
England, then governed by a woman, and to possess this throne he was
ready to have married this woman, although she was Elizabeth, and was
twenty years older than himself. In this plan destiny was beginning to
smile on him, and he saw himself in the favor of a great queen, until
then inaccessible to all human affections. Besides this, a crown was
offered to him in Flanders.

He had seen his brother Henri embarrassed in his quarrel with the
Guises, but had soon discovered that they had no other aim than that of
substituting themselves for the Valois. He had then separated himself
from them, although not without danger; besides, Henri III. had at last
opened his eye