PAGE THE FLORENTINES IN THE HÔTEL DE MAYENNE. . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ "WITH A CRY MONSIEUR SPRANG TOWARD ME" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 "IN A FLASH HE WAS OUT OF THEIR GRASP, FLYING DOWN THE ALLEY". . . 117 "I DO NOT FORGIVE HIS DESPATCHING ME HIS HORSE-BOY". . . . . . . . 149 MLLE. DE MONTLUC AND FÉLIX BROUX IN THE ORATORY. . . . . . . . . . 169 "SORRY TO DISTURB MONSIEUR, BUT THE HORSES MUST BE FED". . . . . . 205 "HE WAS DEPOSITED IN THE BIG BLACK COACH". . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 "WE CLIMBED OUT INTO A SILK-MERCER'S SHOP" . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 AT THE "BONNE FEMME" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313 "IT DESOLATES ME TO HEAR OF HER EXTREMITY" . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 ON THE WAY TO ST. DENIS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411 THE MEETING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 THE HELMET OF NAVARRE THE HELMET OF NAVARRE. [Illustration] I _A flash of lightning._ At the stair-foot the landlord stopped me. "Here, lad, take a candle. The stairs are dark, and, since I like your looks, I would not have you break your neck." "And give the house a bad name," I said. "No fear of that; my house has a good name. There is no fairer inn in all Paris. And your chamber is a good chamber, though you will have larger, doubtless, when you are Minister of Finance." This raised a laugh among the tavern idlers, for I had been bragging a bit of my prospects. I retorted: "When I am, Maître Jacques, look out for a rise in your taxes." The laugh was turned on mine host, and I retired with the honours of that encounter. And though the stairs were the steepest I ever climbed, I had the breath and the spirit to whistle all the way up. What mattered it that already I ached in every bone, that the stair was long and my bed but a heap of straw in the garret of a mean inn in a poor quarter? I was in Paris, the city of my dreams! I am a Broux of St. Quentin. The great world has never heard of the Broux? No matter; they have existed these hundreds of years, Masters of the Forest, and faithful servants of the dukes of St. Quentin. The great world has heard of the St. Quentins? I warrant you! As loudly as it has of Sully and Villeroi, Trémouille and Biron. That is enough for the Broux. I was brought up to worship the saints and M. le Duc, and I loved and revered them alike, by faith, for M. le Duc, at court, seemed as far away from us as the saints in heaven. But the year after King Henry III was murdered, Monsieur came to live on his estate, to make high and low love him for himself.