"Shew me the bodies," said the lady. "Ah! madame, but consider. It is terrible!" said the headsman, not altogether unmoved. "You would scarcely support the sight." "Shew them to me," said the lady. Taking a lighted torch, the headsman pointed to a door in a corner of the room, dark and humid. "In there!" he said. The lady who had not yet spoken broke into an hysterical sob. "I dare not! I dare not! I am terrified!" she cried. "Who loves should love unto death ... and in death," said she of the imperious voice. The headsman pushed open the door of a cellar-like apartment, held the torch above his head, and from the black doorway the two ladies gazed in silent horror upon the mutilated spoils of the scaffold. In the red ooze upon the bare stone floor the bodies of La Môle and Coconas lay side by side. The severed heads were almost in their places, a circular black line dividing them from the white shoulders. The first of the two ladies, with heaving bosom, stooped over La Môle, and raised the pale right hand to her lips. "Poor La Môle! Poor La Môle! I will avenge you!" she murmured. Then to the executioner: "Give me the head! Here is the double of your gold." "Ah! madame, I cannot. I dare not! Suppose the Provost——" "If the Provost demands this head of you, tell him to whom you gave it!" and the lady swept the veil from her face. The headsman bent to the earth: "Madame the Queen of Navarre!" "And the head of Coconas to me, maître," said the Duchesse de Nevers.[6] Footnote 6: In effect, Margaret of Navarre bore away the head of La Môle, and the Duchesse de Nevers that of Coconas. It is said that La Môle on the scaffold bequeathed his head to the Queen. ------- Amongst Louis XV.'s State prisoners, a long and picturesque array, may be singled out for the present Prince Charles Edward, son of the Pretender. Under the wind of adversity, after Culloden, Prince Charles was blown at length upon French soil. Louis was gracious in his offer of an asylum, and courtly France was enthusiastic over the exploits and fantastic wanderings of the young hero. All went gaily with him in Paris until the signatures had been placed to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Then the wind began to blow from the east again. One morning the visit was announced of MM. de Maurepas and the Duc de Gèvres. "Gentlemen," said Prince Charles to his friends, "I know what this visit bodes. His Majesty proposes to withdraw his hospitality. We are to be driven out of France." His handful of followers were stupefied, but the Prince was right. M. de Maurepas announced himself as commanded by the King to request Prince Charles Edward's immediate departure from France. "Sir," returned the Prince, "your King has given me shelter, and the title of brother." "Monseigneur," said M. de Maurepas, "circumstances have changed——"