Part 37 (1/2)

While this was going on, the populace, seeing the harmony existing between the house of Lorraine and Charles IX., shouted exultantly:

”_Vive le Roi!_”

”_Vive le Duc de Guise!_”

”_Vive la Messe!_”

”Do you return to the Louvre with us, Henriette?” inquired the queen mother of the lovely d.u.c.h.ess.

Marguerite touched her friend on the elbow, and she, understanding the sign, replied:

”No, madame, unless your majesty desire it; for I have business in the city with her majesty the Queen of Navarre.”

”And what are you going to do together?” inquired Catharine.

”To see some very rare and curious Greek books found at an old Protestant pastor's, and which have been taken to the Tower of Saint Jacques la Boucherie,” replied Marguerite.

”You would do much better to see the last Huguenots flung into the Seine from the top of the Pont des Meuniers,” said Charles IX.; ”that is the place for all good Frenchmen.”

”We will go, if it be your Majesty's desire,” replied the d.u.c.h.esse de Nevers.

Catharine cast a look of distrust on the two young women. Marguerite, on the watch, remarked it, and turning round uneasily, looked about her.

This a.s.sumed or real anxiety did not escape Catharine.

”What are you looking for?”

”I am seeking--I do not see”--she replied.

”Whom are you seeking? Who is it you fail to see?”

”La Sauve,” said Marguerite; ”can she have returned to the Louvre?”

”Did I not say you were jealous?” said Catharine, in her daughter's ear.

”Oh, _bestia_! Come, come, Henriette,” she added, shrugging her shoulders, ”begone, and take the Queen of Navarre with you.”

Marguerite pretended to be still looking about her; then, turning to her friend, she said in a whisper:

”Take me away quickly; I have something of the greatest importance to say to you.”

The d.u.c.h.ess courtesied to the King and queen mother, and then, bowing low before the Queen of Navarre:

”Will your majesty deign to come into my litter?”

”Willingly, only you will have to take me back to the Louvre.”

”My litter, like my servants and myself, are at your majesty's orders.”