before ten to-morrow, or are _not_ heard of afterward, there is a
dungeon at the Louvre."

And Charles IX. calmly began to whistle, with more than usual precision,
his favorite air.

CHAPTER IV.

THE EVENING OF THE 24TH OF AUGUST, 1572.

Our readers have not forgotten that in the previous chapter we mentioned
a gentleman named De la Mole whom Henry of Navarre was anxiously
expecting.

This young gentleman, as the admiral had announced, entered Paris by the
gate of Saint Marcel the evening of the 24th of August, 1572; and
bestowing a contemptuous glance on the numerous hostelries that
displayed their picturesque signs on either side of him, he spurred his
steaming horse on into the heart of the city, and after having crossed
the Place Maubert, Le Petit Pont, the Pont Notre-Dame, and skirted the
quays, he stopped at the end of the Rue de Bresec, which we have since
corrupted into the Rue de l'Arbre Sec, and for the greater convenience
of our readers we will call by its modern name.

The name pleased him, no doubt, for he entered the street, and finding
on his left a large sheet-iron plate swinging, creaking on its hinges,
with an accompaniment of little bells, he stopped and read these words,
"_La Belle Etoile_," written on a scroll beneath the sign, which was a
most attractive one for a famished traveller, as it represented a fowl
roasting in the midst of a black sky, while a man in a red cloak held
out his hands and his purse toward this new-fangled constellation.

"Here," said the gentleman to himself, "is an inn that promises well,
and the landlord must be a most ingenious fellow. I have always heard
that the Rue de l'Arbre Sec was near the Louvre; and, provided that the
interior answers to the exterior, I shall be admirably lodged."

While the newcomer was thus indulging in this monologue another horseman
who had entered the street at the other end, that is to say, by the Rue
Saint-Honore, stopped also to admire the sign of _La Belle Etoile_.

The gentleman whom we already know, at least by name, rode a white steed
of Spanish lineage and wore a black doublet ornamented with jet; his
cloak was of dark violet velvet; his boots were of black leather, and he
had a sword and poniard with hilts of chased steel.

Now if we pass from his costume to his features we shall conclude that
he was twenty-four or twenty-five years of age. His complexion was dark;
his eyes were blue; he had a delicate mustache an