Out of eight courses that were run, the honors remained with the king in three and with Monsieur le Colonel-Général de Bonnivet in a like number. The ninth and last was to be the decisive one; but Monsieur de Bonnivet was no less respectful than Monsieur de Vieilleville had been; and notwithstanding the very willing disposition of his horse, he came in third, and again Henri won the prize. This time the king sat down beside Diane de Poitiers, and put upon her arm without concealment the bracelet he had received. The queen turned pale with rage. Gaspard de Tavannes, who was just behind her, leaned forward and whispered in Catherine de Médicis's ear,-- "Madame, follow me with your eyes, and see what I am going to do." "And what is it that you are going to do, my good Gaspard?" said the queen. "To cut off Madame de Valentinois's nose," replied Tavannes, with the utmost gravity and seriousness. He was just about to leave her, when Catherine, half terrified and half delighted, held him back. "But, Gaspard, do you realize that it will be your destruction?" "I do, Madame; but I will save the king and France!" "Thanks, Gaspard," replied Catherine; "you are a valiant friend no less than a rough soldier. But I command you to be still, Gaspard, and have patience." "Patience." In truth, that was the watchword by which Catherine de Médicis seemed to have ordered her life up to that time. She, who subsequently was so forward to take her place in the very first rank, had not yet appeared to have any ambition to emerge from the obscurity of the second. She bided her time. And yet she was at this time in the full bloom of a beauty of which Sieur de Bourdeille has left us most minute details; but she sedulously avoided all parade, and it is probably to this modesty that she owed the utter absence of slander in relation to her during her husband's lifetime. There was no one but the brute of a constable who would have dared to call the king's attention to the fact that the ten children that Catherine de Médicis had bestowed on France after ten years of sterility were very little like their father. No other person would have been bold enough to breathe a word against the queen. It was always Catherine's custom to appear, as she did on this day, not even to notice the attentions which the king lavished on Diane de Poitiers in the sight and bearing of the whole court. After she had soothed the fiery indignation of the marshal she went on talking with her ladies of the races that had taken place, and of the address displayed by Henri. CHAPTER VIII A FORTUNATE TOURNEY The tournaments proper were not to take place until the next and following days; but several gentlemen attached to the court asked the king's leave, as it was still quite early, to break a lance or two in honor of the ladies and for their entertainment.