umniate the Joyeuses, my true friends."

"I do not say no."

"Then you launched a shaft at the Guises."

"Ah! you love them now; you love all the world to-day, it seems."

"No, I do not love them; but, as just now they keep themselves close and
quiet, and do not do me the least harm, I do not fear them, and I cling
to all old and well-known faces. All these Guises, with their fierce
looks and great swords, have never done me any harm, after all, and they
resemble--shall I tell you what?"

"Do, Henri; I know how clever you are at comparisons."

"They resemble those perch that they let loose in the ponds to chase
the great fish and prevent them growing too fat; but suppose that the
great fish are not afraid?"

"Well!"

"Then the teeth of the perch are not strong enough to get through their
scales."

"Oh! Henri! my friend, how clever you are!"

"While your Bearnais--"

"Well, have you a comparison for him also?"

"While your Bearnais, who mews like a cat, bites like a tiger."

"Well, my son, I will tell you what to do; divorce the queen and marry
Madame de Montpensier; was she not once in love with you?"

"Yes, and that is the source of all her menaces, Chicot; she has a
woman's spite against me, and she provokes me now and then, but luckily
I am a man, and can laugh at it."

As Henri finished these words, the usher cried at the door, "A messenger
from M. le Duc de Guise for his majesty."

"Is it a courier or a gentleman?" asked the king.

"It is a captain, sire."

"Let him enter; he is welcome."

CHAPTER LXXIX.

THE TWO COMPANIONS.

Chicot, at this announcement, sat down and turned his back to the door;
but the first words pronounced by the duke's messenger made him start.
He opened his eyes. The messenger could see nothing but the eye of
Chicot peering from behind the chair, while Chicot could see him
altogether.

"You come from Lorraine?" asked the king of the new comer, who had a
fine and warlike appearance.

"Not so, sire; I come from Soissons, where M. le Duc, who has been a
month in that city, gave me this letter to deliver to your majesty."

The messenger then opened his buff coat, which was fastened by silver
clasps, and drew from a leather pouch lined with silk not one letter,
but two; for they had stuck together by the wax, and as the captain
advanced to give the king one letter, the other fell on the carpet.
Chicot's eyes followed the messenger, and saw the color spread o