"Here they are."
Rene drew a paper from his pocket and handed it to Catharine, who hastily unfolded it.
"An _m_ and an _o_," said she. "Could it have been La Mole, and was all that acting of Marguerite done to throw me off the track?"
"Madame," said Rene, "if I dared to express my opinion in a matter about which your majesty hesitates to give yours I should say that I believe Monsieur de la Mole is too much in love to be seriously interested in politics."
"You think so?"
"Yes, and above all too much in love with the Queen of Navarre to serve the King very devotedly; for there is no real love without jealousy."
"You think that he is very much in love, then?"
"I am sure of it."
"Has he been to you?"
"Yes."
"Did he ask you for some potion or philter?"
"No, we kept to the wax figure."
"Pierced to the heart?"
"To the heart."
"And this figure still exists?"
"Yes."
"Have you it?"
"It is in my rooms."
"It would be strange," said Catharine, "if these cabalistic preparations really had the power attributed to them."
"Your majesty is a better judge of that than I."
"Is the Queen of Navarre in love with Monsieur de la Mole?"
"She loves him enough to ruin herself for him. Yesterday she saved him from death at the risk of her honor and her life. You see, madame, and yet you still doubt."
"Doubt what?"
"Science."
"Science also deceives me," said Catharine, looking steadily at Rene, who bore her gaze without flinching.
"About what?"
"Oh! you know what I mean; unless, of course, it was the scholar and not science."
"I do not know what you mean, madame," replied the Florentine.
"Rene, have your perfumes lost their odor?"
"No, madame, not when I use them; but it is possible that in pa.s.sing through the hands of others"--
Catharine smiled and shook her head.
"Your opiate has done wonders, Rene," said she; "Madame de Sauve"s lips are fresher and rosier than ever."
"It is not my opiate that is responsible for that, madame. The Baroness de Sauve, using the privilege of every pretty woman to be capricious, has said nothing more to me about this opiate, and after the suggestion from your majesty I thought it best to send her no more of it. So that all the boxes are still in my house just as you left them, with the exception of one which disappeared, I know not how or why."
"That is well, Rene," said Catharine; "perhaps later we may return to this. In the meantime, let us speak of the other matter."
"I am all attention, madame."
"What is necessary to gain an idea of the length of any one"s life?"
"In the first place to know the day of his birth, his age, and under what condition he first saw light."
"And then?"
"To have some of his blood and a lock of his hair."
"If I bring you some of his blood and a lock of his hair, if I tell you the circ.u.mstance connected with his birth, the time, and his present age, will you tell me the probable date of his death?"
"Yes, to within a few days."
"Very well; I have a lock of his hair and will get some of his blood."
"Was he born during the day or night?"
"At twenty-three minutes past five in the afternoon."
"Be at my room at five o"clock to-morrow. The experiment must be made at the hour of his birth."
"Very well," said Catharine, "_we_ will be there."
Rene bowed, and withdrew without apparently noticing the "_we_ will be there," which, however, contrary to her usual habit, indicated that Catharine would not go alone.
The following morning at dawn Catharine went to her son"s apartments. At midnight she had sent to inquire after him, and had been told that Maitre Ambroise Pare was with him, ready to bleed him if the nervous troubles continued.
Still starting up from his sleep, and still pale from loss of blood, Charles dozed on the shoulder of his faithful nurse, who leaning against the bed had not moved for three hours for fear of waking her dear child.
A slight foam appeared from time to time on the lips of the sick man, and the nurse wiped it off with a fine embroidered linen handkerchief.