And the prelate smiled in a manner which the most worldly disposed favorites of Henri III. would have envied.

“Brother,” said De Bouchage, resisting.

“I will not accept any excuse; you have no one but myself here, since you have just arrived from Flanders, and your own house cannot be in order just yet.”

With these words the cardinal rose, and drawing aside a portiere, which hung before a large cabinet sumptuously furnished, he said: 

“Come, comtesse, let us persuade Monsieur le Comte du Bouchage to stay with us.”

At the very moment, however, when the count drew aside the portiere, Henri had observed, half reclining upon the cushions, the page who had with the gentleman entered the gate adjoining the banks of the river, and in this page, before even the prelate had announced her sex, he had recognized a woman.

An indefinable sensation, like a sudden terror, or an overwhelming feeling of dread, seized him, and while the worldly cardinal advanced to take the beautiful page by the hand, Henri du Bouchage darted from the apartment, and so quickly, too, that when Francois returned with the lady, smiling with the hope of winning a heart back again to the world, the room was perfectly empty.

Francois frowned; then, seating himself before a table covered with papers and letters, he hurriedly wrote a few lines.

“May I trouble you to ring, dear countess,” he said, “since you have your hand near the bell.”

And as the page obeyed, a valet-de-chambre in the confidence of the cardinal appeared.

“Let a courier start on horseback, without a moment’s loss of time,” said Francois, “and take this letter to Monsieur le Grand-amiral a Chateau-Thierry.”

CHAPTER LXXXV.

NEWS FROM AURILLY.

On the following day the king was working at the Louvre with the superintendent of finances, when an attendant entered to inform his majesty that Monsieur de Joyeuse, the eldest son of that family, had just arrived, and was waiting for him in the large audience chamber, having come from Chateau-Thierry, with a message from Monsieur le Duc d’Anjou.

The king precipitately left the business which occupied him, and ran to meet a friend whom he regarded with so much affection.

A large number of officers and courtiers crowded the cabinet; the queen-mother had arrived that evening, escorted by her maids of honor, and these light-hearted girls were, like suns, always attended by their satellites.

The king gave Joyeuse his hand to kiss, and glanced with a satisfied expression around the assembly.

In the angle of the entrance door, in his usual place, stood Henry du Bouchage, rigorously discharging his service and the duties which were imposed on him.

The king thanked him, and saluted him with a friendly recognition, to which Henri replied by a profound reverence.