"'Oh! impregnable! But if I had an army, which I have not--' "'Listen, Sire. We are not here to flatter each other. To take Cahors, which is held by M. de Vezin, one must be a Hannibal or a Cæsar; and your Majesty--' "'Well?' said Henri, with a smile. "'Has just said you do not like war.'... "'Cahors is so well guarded, because it is the key of the south.'" Chapter fifty-three of the above book recounts the siege itself,--as we know it in history,--but with all that added picturesqueness which Dumas commanded. "'Henri will not pay me his sister's dowry, and Margot cries out for her dear Cahors. One must do what one's wife wants, for peace's sake; therefore I am going to try to take Cahors.'... "Henri set off at full gallop, and Chicot followed him. On arriving in front of his little army, Henri raised his visor, and cried: "'Out with the banner! out with the new banner!' "They drew forth the banner, which had the double scutcheon of Navarre and Bourbon; it was white, and had chains of gold on one side, and _fleurs-de-lis_ on the other. "Again the cannon from Cahors were fired, and the balls tore through a file of infantry near the king.... "'Oh!' cried M. de Turenne, 'the siege of the city is over, Vezin.' And as he spoke he fired at him and wounded him in the arm.... "'You are wrong, Turenne,' cried M. de Vezin; 'there are twenty sieges in Cahors; so, if one is over, there are nineteen to come.' "M. de Vezin defended himself during five days and nights from street to street and from house to house. Luckily for the rising fortunes of Henri of Navarre, he had counted too much on the walls and garrison of Cahors, and had neglected to send to M. de Biron.... "During these five days and nights, Henri commanded like a captain and fought like a soldier, slept with his head on a stone, and awoke sword in hand. Each day they conquered a street or a square, which each night the garrison tried to retake. On the fourth night the enemy seemed willing to give some rest to the Protestant army. Then it was Henri who attacked in his turn. He forced an intrenched position, but it cost him seven hundred men. M. de Turenne and nearly all the officers were wounded, but the king remained untouched." * * * * * The Pyrenean city of Pau is more than once referred to by Dumas in the Valois romances, as was but natural, considering that its ancient château was the _berceau_ of that Prince of Béarn who later married the intriguing Marguerite, and became ultimately Henri IV. This fine old structure--almost the only really splendid historical monument of the city--had for long been the residence of the Kings of Navarre; was rebuilt in the fourteenth century by the brilliant Gaston Phoebus; and enlarged and luxuriously embellished by the beautiful Marguerite herself in the sixteenth century, after she had become _la femme de Henri d'Albert_, as her spouse was then known.