"So you have returned at last, Monsieur le Vicomte d'Exmès," said she. "I am very glad to see you again; I have heard much talk about you of late. But what are you doing at the Louvre at this early hour, and what is your wish?" "To speak to the king! to speak to the king, Madame!" Gabriel replied in a stifled voice. "Monsieur d'Exmès," it was the admiral who spoke, "has really much need to speak to the king without delay. It is a very serious matter for him, and for the king as well; but all these guards prevent his entering, and attempt to put him off till this evening." "As if I could wait till evening!" cried Gabriel. "I believe," said Mary Stuart, "that his Majesty is just finishing some important despatches. Monsieur le Connétable de Montmorency is still with the king, and really I am afraid--" A piteous glance from Gabriel prevented Mary from finishing her sentence. "Well, we will see," she resumed. "I will take the risk." She made a sign with her little hand. The guards respectfully fell back, and Gabriel and the admiral were at liberty to pass. "Oh, thanks, Madame!" said the eager youth. "Thank you, who, in every respect like an angel, always appear to comfort or to aid me in my suffering." "The way is clear," responded Mary Stuart, smiling. "If his Majesty is very angry, do not betray the angel's share in your entrance, except at the last extremity, I beg of you." She inclined her head graciously to Gabriel and his companion, and was gone. Gabriel was already at the door of the king's cabinet. There was in the last antechamber one more usher who undertook to oppose their entrance. But just then the door opened; and Henri himself appeared on the threshold, just giving some last instructions to the constable. The king's distinguishing characteristic was not resolution. At the sudden appearance of Vicomte d'Exmès, he recoiled, and even forgot to be angry. Gabriel's great virtue was firmness. He bowed low before the king in the first place. "Sire," said he, "deign to accept my most respectful homage." Then turning to Monsieur de Coligny, who was following him, and whom he wished to relieve from the embarrassment of speaking first,-- "Come, Monsieur l'Amiral," said he, "and in accordance with the kind promise you made me, be kind enough to remind his Majesty of the part that I took in the defence of St. Quentin." "What is all this, Monsieur?" cried Henri, beginning to recover his self-control. "How is it that you intrude yourself thus upon us, without authorization or announcement? How do you dare to call upon Monsieur l'Amiral in our presence?" Gabriel, who was as bold at such momentous crises as he was before the enemy, and who well understood that it was no time to lose his courage, replied in a perfectly respectful but determined tone,-- "I thought, Sire, that your Majesty was always ready when justice was to be done, even to the meanest of your subjects."