court lady.

The _priedieu_ on which she knelt was of oak, marvellously carved,
covered with velvet and with gold fringes, while the Bible from which
she was reading (for she was of the reformed religion) was very old and
torn, like those found in the poorest cottages; now everything in the
room was typified by the _priedieu_ and the Bible.

"Eh, Madelon!" said the King.

The kneeling woman lifted her head smilingly at the well-known voice,
and rising from her knees,--

"Ah! it is you, my son," said she.

"Yes, nurse; come here."

Charles IX. let fall the curtain, and sat down on the arm of an
easy-chair. The nurse appeared.

"What do you want with me, Charlot?"

"Come near, and answer in a low tone."

The nurse approached him with a familiarity such as might come from that
maternal affection felt by a woman for her nursling, but attributed by
the pamphlets of the time to a source infinitely less pure.

"Here I am," said she; "speak!"

"Is the man I sent for come?"

"He has been here half an hour."

Charles rose, approached the window, looked to assure himself there were
no eavesdroppers, went to the door and looked out there also, shook the
dust from his trophies of arms, patted a large greyhound which followed
him wherever he went, stopping when he stopped and moving when he
moved,--then returning to his nurse:

"Very well, nurse, let him come in," said he.

The worthy woman disappeared by the same passage by which she had
entered, while the king went and leaned against a table on which were
scattered arms of every kind.

Scarcely had he done so when the portiere was again lifted, and the
person whom he expected entered.

He was a man of about forty, his eyes gray and false, his nose curved
like the beak of a screech-owl, his cheek-bones prominent. His face
tried to look respectful, but all that he could do was to wear a
hypocritical smile on his lips blanched with fear.

Charles gently put his hand behind him, and grasped the butt of a
pistol of a new construction, that was discharged, not by a match, as
formerly, but by a flint brought in contact with a wheel of steel. He
fixed his dull eyes steadily on the newcomer; meantime he whistled, with
perfect precision and with remarkable sweetness, one of his favorite
hunting-airs.

After a pause of some minutes, during which the expression of the
stranger's face grew more and more discomposed,

"You are the person," said the King, "called Franc