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"Most likely."

"Zounds!" said Maurevel; "in that case

"In what case?" asked Catherine.

"In case he resists."

"What do you do when you have the king's warrant, and a simple gentleman resists you?"

“I kill him, madame,” returned the bravo.

"I told you just now that every one in France is, in the king's eyes, but a simple gentleman."

Maurevel turned pale, for he began to understand.

“Oh, oh!" said he, "kill the king of Navarre!"

"Who spoke of killing him? This order is only to conduct him to the Bastille. If he suffers himself to be arrested quietly, well and good; but if he resists, and seeks to kill you

Maurevel grew still paler.

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"You will, of course, defend yourself? A brave soldier like you cannot be expected to suffer himself to be killed; and then in your own defence, happen what will-you understand?"

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Yes, madame."

Come, you want me to write on the order the wordsDead or alive?"

"I confess that would remove my scruples."

“Well—I must do it, I suppose."

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And unrolling the warrant with one hand, with the other she wrote "Dead or alive."

"Is the order sufficiently formal now?" she asked.

"Yes, madame; but I pray you, let me have the execution of it entirely to myself."

"Will anything I have said interfere?"

"Your majesty bade me take twelve men." "Well!"

"I request your permission to take only six." "Why?"

"Because six guards may be excused for being afraid of losing a prisoner; twelve would never be."

"Do as you will," said Catherine.

must not quit the Louvre."

"But how shall I collect my men?"

"Meantime, you

"Have you no person you can employ in this?"

"There is my servant, a trusty fellow, who sometimes

aids me in such things."

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"Send for him and arrange your plans. You will breakfast in the king's armoury. When he returns from hunting, you can go to my oratory, and wait there till the hour comes."

"How shall we get into the king's chamber? he, doubtless, has his suspicions, and fastens the door within.”

"I have keys that open all the doors in the Louvre; and the bolts have been removed from his door. Adieu, M. de Maurevel. Remember, any failure would compromise the king's honour."

And Catherine, without leaving Maurevel time to reply, called M. de Nancey, the captain of her guards, and bade him conduct Maurevel into the king's armoury.

"Mordieu!" said Maurevel. "I am rising in my profession. First I killed a simple gentleman, then I shot at an admiral, now 'tis a king without a crown: who knows but some day I may have to settle a king with a crown!"

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE BOAR-HUNT.

THE huntsman was not deceived when he affirmed that the game had not broken covert. Scarcely had the hounds entered, when the boar, which was, as the huntsman had said, one of the largest size, appeared.

The animal passed within fifty paces of the king, followed only by the hound which had roused him; but twenty dogs were speedily uncoupled, and laid on his track.

The chase was Charles's passion; and scarcely had the animal appeared than he dashed after him, followed by the duke d'Alençon and Henry, who had received a sign from Marguerite, warning him not to lose sight of the king. The other huntsmen followed.

In a quarter of an hour some impassable thickets presented themselves, and Charles returned to the glade, cursing and swearing as was his wont:

"Zounds! d'Alençon, zounds! Harry, here you are, calm

and milklike as nuns following the abbess in procession. Do you call that hunting? You, d'Alençon, look as if you had just come out of a box; you are so perfumed, that if you get between the boar and the dogs, you will spoil the scent; and you, Harry, where is your boar-spear? where is your arquebuse?"

"Sire," said Henry, "what is the use of an arquebuse? I know your majesty likes to shoot the boar at bay. As for the boar-spear, it is never used in my country, where we hunt the bear with the simple poniard."

"Mordieu!" replied Charles, "you must send me a cartload of bears when you go back to the Pyrenees. It must be glorious sport to contend foot to foot with an animal that may strangle one in a minute. Hark! I think I hear them. No!"

The king blew a blast on his horn that was answered by several others. At this moment a huntsman appeared, and sounded another note.

"Seen! seen!" cried the king; and he set spurs to his horse, followed by all around him.

The huntsman was right; as the king advanced, the pack, now composed of more than sixty dogs, was heard distinctly. The king no sooner saw the boar pass a second time, than he pursued him at full speed, blowing his horn with all his might.

The princes followed him some time; but the king's horse was so strong, and bore him over such difficult ways, through such thick coverts, that first the ladies, then the duke de Guise and his gentlemen, and then the two princes, were fain to draw rein. Tavannes followed him awhile longer, but he, in his turn, was compelled to give it up.

All then, except the king and a few huntsmen, incited by the hope of reward, found themselves near the glade they had started from.

The two princes were side by side in a long, broad forestpath; the duke de Guise and his attendants at some little distance on.

"Does it not seem," said the duke d'Alençon to Henry, "that this man, with his armed retinue, is the real king? He does not deign to glance at us poor princes."

"Why should he treat us better than we are treated by our own relations? You and I are but the hostages of our party at the court.”

The duke started and looked at Henry, as if calling for further explanation, but the latter remained silent.

"What mean you?" asked François, evidently chagrined at his brother-in-law's compelling him to pursue the subject.

"I mean," returned Henry, "that all these armed men seem like guards stationed to prevent two persons from escaping."

"From escaping! why? how?" asked the duke, with admirably affected surprise.

"You have a magnificent genet there, d'Alençon," said Henry, affecting to change the conversation, and yet adroitly pursuing the subject; "I am sure he would do fourteen miles in an hour, and forty between this and midday. See, what a beautiful cross-road there is that way: does it not invite you to loosen rein? As for me, I should like a gallop vastly."

François made no reply, but turned very red, and affected to listen for the hunters.

He is

"The news from Poland has taken effect," thought Henry. "My dear brother-in-law has a plan of his own. willing enough I should be off; but I don't fly alone, he may rely upon it."

At this moment, several converts from Protestantism, who had been but a short time at the court, came up, and saluted the princes with a meaning smile.

The duke d'Alençon needed but to say one word, to make but one sign; for it was evident that the thirty or forty cavaliers collected, as if by chance, round him, were ready to oppose M. de Guise's troop, and favour his flight. The duke, however, turned his head, and placing his horn to his lips, blew a recall.

Still, the new-comers, as if they believed the duke's hesitation arose from the presence of the Guisards, gradually placed themselves between that party and the princes, in a manner that showed they were well accustomed to military manœuvres. In order to reach the duke d'Alençon and the king of Navarre, it would be necessary for the Guise party to pass through them; whilst as far as the eye could reach, the crossroad was free.

Suddenly, between the trees, at ten paces from the king, appeared a gentleman, whom the two princes had not yet seen. Whilst Henry was conjecturing who he could be, he

raised his hat, and displayed the features of the vicomte de Turenne, one of the Protestant leaders, who was believed to be in Poictou.

The vicomte made a sign that asked—

"Will you come?"

But Henry, after consulting the immovable visage of the duke d'Alençon, turned his head two or three times, as if something in his collar hurt him.

The vicomte understood him, and instantly disappeared.

Suddenly the hounds were again heard; and at the extremity of the ride, in which were the princes, the boar passed, and then the dogs, and then, looking like the wild huntsman, Charles, bareheaded, and blowing his horn furiously: three or four huntsmen rode after him: Tavannes was not there.

"The king!" cried d'Alençon, and he instantly gallopped after him.

Re-assured by the presence of his friends, whom he motioned not to leave him, Henry advanced to the ladies.

"Well," said Marguerite.

"Well, madame," said Henry, we are hunting the boar." "Is that all?"

"The wind has changed since the morning, as I predicted to you it would.”

"These changes of the wind are very bad for hunting, are they not, sir?" said Marguerite.

"Yes, sometimes they disturb all our arrangements, and we have to form a new plan altogether."

The pack was now heard, and every one turned to listen. Suddenly the boar broke out of the wood, and dashed by the ladies and their gallants.

Behind him, close on his haunches, came forty or fifty hounds, and then the king, bareheaded, without hat or mantle, his dress torn by the thorns, his hands and face all bloody; only one or two huntsmen kept up with him.

"Hallali! hallali!" cried he, as he passed, placing his horn to his bleeding lips, and boar, dogs, and king disappeared like a vision.

Immediately after them came d'Alençon, and two or three piqueurs.

Every one followed, for it was plain the boar would soon be brought to bay.

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