"I should say as much!" said the cardinal. "Monsieur de Montmorency has been up to his old tricks down yonder with the army. He undertook to fly to the relief of St. Quentin, which was in a state of siege, did the gallant constable! Don't go so fast, I beg you, Monsieur d'Exmès, for I no longer have the sprightly legs of twenty years. I was saying that he offered battle to the enemy, the intrepid general! It was day before yesterday, August 10, St. Laurent's Day. He had almost as many troops as the Spaniards, a superb body of cavalry,--the very pick and flower of the French nobility. Oh, well! he had so skilfully arranged matters, experienced commander that he is, that he sustained a most overwhelming defeat in the plains of Gibercourt and Lizerolles; that he was himself wounded and made prisoner, and with him all the leading officers and generals who did not remain on the field. Monsieur d'Enghien is among the latter; and of the whole infantry not a hundred men have come back. And that explains why everybody is so absorbed, Monsieur d'Exmès, and why his Majesty needs me, no doubt." "Great God!" cried Gabriel, appalled, even in the depths of his own sorrow, by this great public calamity; "Great God! are the days of Poitiers and Agincourt returning upon poor France? But St. Quentin, Monseigneur?" "St. Quentin," the cardinal replied, "was still holding out when the courier left; and the constable's nephew, Monsieur l'Amiral Gaspard de Coligny, who is defending the town, has sworn to lessen the result of his uncle's defeat by allowing himself to be buried in the ruins of the place rather than surrender it. But I am much afraid that he may be buried already, and the last rampart which kept the enemy out carried." "In that case the kingdom is lost!" said Gabriel. "May God protect France!" rejoined the cardinal. "But here we are at the king's apartments; and we will see what steps he proposes to take to protect himself." The guards, as well they might, allowed the cardinal to pass with a bow, for they saw in him the man necessary for the emergency, and whose brother was the only man who could save the country. Charles de Lorraine, followed by Gabriel, entered unopposed the king's apartments, where they found him alone with Madame de Poitiers, and a prey to most profound dismay. Henri, as he saw the cardinal, rose and came eagerly forward to meet him. "Your Eminence has arrived most opportunely," said he. "Well, well, Monsieur de Lorraine, what a frightful disaster! Who could have imagined it, I ask you?" "I, Sire," replied the cardinal, "if your Majesty had asked me the question a month ago, at the time of Monsieur de Montmorency's departure--" "No useless recrimination, cousin!" said the king; "we have not to do with the past, but with the threatening future and the dangerous present. Monsieur le Duc de Guise is on his way from Italy, is he not?" "Yes, Sire; and he should be at Lyons now."