rquis. Nevers's dead body was found, indeed, in the neighborhood of
the castle, with three sword wounds on it, one inflicted from the back
and two from the front, but who inflicted or caused to be inflicted those
wounds it was impossible to assert with knowledge, though it was easy
enough to hazard a conjecture.

Anyway, Louis de Nevers was dead. It was amazing news enough for Paris,
but there was more amazing news to follow. To begin with, Louis de
Nevers's young wife was now formally recognized even by the old marquis
as Louis de Nevers's young widow. It was true that there was no
documentary evidence of the marriage, but Prince Louis de Gonzague, who
happened to be a guest of the Marquis de Caylus at the time of the
murder, and who seemed little less than inconsolable for the death of his
friend, came forward in the handsomest, gallantest fashion to give his
evidence. He told how he and his faithful henchman Peyrolles had been the
witnesses of the secret wedding. He succeeded in placating the wrath of
the Marquis of Caylus. He succeeded in obtaining the sanction of the
king, and, which was more important, the sanction of the cardinal, to the
recognition of the marriage of Mademoiselle de Caylus with the late Duke
Louis de Nevers. All this was thrilling news enough, but news more
thrilling was to follow. The newly recognized Duchess of Nevers soon, to
the astonishment and, at first, the blank incredulity of all hearers,
took to herself a third name, and became Madame la Princesse de Gonzague.
There was soon no doubt about it. She had consented to marry, and had
married, Prince Louis de Gonzague, who, as all the world knew, had been
the closest friend of the dead Louis of Nevers with one exception, and
that was Louis of Bourbon, that was King of France. People who talked of
such things said, and in this they were generally inspired in some way,
directly or indirectly, by friends of Prince Louis de Gonzague, that the
Duke de Nevers had been murdered by an exiled captain of Light-Horse, who
was little else than a professional bully, and who for some purpose or
purposes of his own had, at the same time, succeeded in stealing the
duke's infant daughter. What the reasons might be for this mysterious
act of kidnapping they either were not able or did not choose always to
explain. It was an undoubted fact that the late duke's daughter had
disappeared, for the grief of the whilom Duchess de Nevers and present
Princess de Gonzag