ried all with one accord; and they signed
imperiously to me to go back the way I had come.

But having the king's appointment safe in my pouch, I thought I had good
reason to disbelieve them; and taking advantage of their surprise--for
they had not expected so bold a step on my part--I was at the door
before they could prevent me. I heard Mathurine, the fool, who had
sprung to her feet, cry 'Pardieu! he will take the Kingdom of Heaven
by force!' and those were the last words I heard; for, as I lifted the
latch--there was no one on guard there--a sudden swift silence fell upon
the room behind me.

I pushed the door gently open and went in. There were two men sitting
in one of the windows, who turned and looked angrily towards me. For the
rest the room was empty. The king's walking-shoes lay by his chair, and
beside them the boot-hooks and jack. A dog before the fire got up slowly
and growled, and one of the men, rising from the trunk on which he
had been sitting, came towards me and asked me, with every sign of
irritation, what I wanted there, and who had given me leave to enter.

I was beginning to explain, with some diffidence the stillness of
the room sobering me--that I wished to see the king, when he who had
advanced took me up sharply with, 'The king? the king? He is not here,
man. He is hunting at St. Valery. Did they not tell you so outside?'

I thought I recognised the speaker, than whom I have seldom seen a man
more grave and thoughtful for his years, which were something less than
mine, more striking in presence, or more soberly dressed. And being
desirous to evade his question, I asked him if I had not the honour to
address M. du Plessis Mornay; for that wise and courtly statesman, now a
pillar of Henry's counsels, it was.

'The same, sir,' he replied, abruptly, and without taking his eyes from
me. 'I am Mornay. What of that?'

'I am M. de Marsac,' I explained. And there I stopped, supposing that,
as he was in the king's confidence, this would make my errand clear to
him.

But I was disappointed. 'Well, sir?' he said, and waited impatiently.

So cold a reception, following such treatment as I had suffered outside,
would have sufficed to have dashed my spirits utterly had I not felt
the king's letter in my pocket. Being pretty confident, however, that a
single glance at this would alter M. du Mornay's bearing for the better,
I hastened, looking on it as a kind of talisman, to draw it out and
present i