uildings of the inn at which I proposed to stay
came in sight, at the crossing of the road and river. The place looked
blank and cheerless, for the dusk was thickening; but as we trailed one
by one into the courtyard a stream of firelight burst on us from doors
and windows, and a dozen sounds of life and comfort greeted our ears.

Noticing that mademoiselle was benumbed and cramped with long sitting, I
would have helped her to dismount; but she fiercely rejected my aid, and
I had to content myself with requesting the landlord to assign the best
accommodation he had to the lady and her attendant, and secure as much
privacy for them as possible. The man assented very civilly and said all
should be done; but I noticed that his eyes wandered while I talked, and
that he seemed to have something on his mind. When he returned, after
disposing of them, it came out.

'Did you ever happen to see him, sir?' he asked with a sigh; yet was
there a smug air of pleasure mingled with his melancholy.

'See whom?' I answered, staring at him, for neither of us had mentioned
any one.

'The Duke, sir.'

I stared again between wonder and suspicion. 'The Duke of Nevers is not
in this part, is he?' I said slowly. 'I heard he was on the Brittany
border, away to the westward.'

'Mon Dieu!' my host exclaimed, raising his hands in astonishment. 'You
have not heard, sir?'

'I have heard nothing,' I answered impatiently.

'You have not heard, sir, that the most puissant and illustrious lord
the Duke of Guise is dead?'

'M. de Guise dead? It is not true!' I cried astonished.

He nodded, however, several times with an air of great importance, and
seemed as if he would have gone on to give me some particulars. But,
remembering, as I fancied, that he spoke in the hearing of half-a-dozen
guests who sat about the great fire behind me, and had both eyes and
ears open, he contented himself with shifting his towel to his other arm
and adding only, 'Yes, sir, dead as any nail. The news came through here
yesterday, and made a pretty stir. It happened at Blois the day but one
before Christmas, if all be true.'

I was thunderstruck. This was news which might change the face of
France. 'How did it happen?' I asked.

My host covered his mouth with his hand and coughed, and, privily
twitching my sleeve, gave me to understand with some shamefacedness
that he could not say more in public. I was about to make some excuse to
retire with him, when a harsh