He crumpled in his hand uneasily the useless, fatal decree, which without the king's signature might well serve for his own death-warrant. He watched the torches gradually burn out or grow pale, as the cold December dawn whitened the windows. At last, as eight o'clock struck, the king moved, then opened his eyes, and called, "Mary! are you there, Mary?" "Always at your side," replied the queen. Charles de Lorraine rushed forward with the paper in his hand. Perhaps there was time even yet; a scaffold is soon erected. But at that instant Catherine de Médicis re-entered the royal apartments by the door leading to her own. "Too late!" muttered the cardinal. "Ah, fortune turns her back upon us! Now, if Ambroise does not save the king's life, we are lost indeed!" CHAPTER XXXIII A KING'S DEATH-BED The queen-mother during that night had not thrown away her time. In the first place, she had sent her creature, Cardinal de Tournon, to the King of Navarre, and had settled terms with the Bourbons in writing. Then before daybreak she had received the Chancellor l'Hôpital, and had learned from him of the expected arrival at Orléans of her ally, the constable; L'Hôpital, by her instructions, promised to be in the great hall, which was next to the king's apartments, at nine o'clock, and to have with him as many of her partisans as he could find. Last of all, she had made an appointment for half after eight with Chapelain and two or three others of the royal physicians, whose mediocre talent was the natural-born enemy of the genius of Ambroise Paré. Having thus taken her precautions, she was the first, as we have seen, to enter the king's chamber just as he awoke. She went at once to her son's bedside, gazed at him for a few moments with bent head, like a grief-stricken mother, pressed a kiss upon his hand, which was hanging listlessly down, and wiping away a tear or two, took her seat in such a position as to have him always in sight. She, as well as Mary Stuart, was determined from that time on to watch over that bed of suffering, for her own purposes. The Duc de Guise entered almost immediately. After exchanging a few words with Mary, he walked toward his brother. "Have you done nothing?" he asked. "Alas! I have not been able to do anything," was the reply. "Fortune is turning against us, then," said the duke. "There is a great crowd in Antoine de Navarre's antechamber this morning." "Have you any news of De Montmorency?" "None at all. I have tried in vain to learn something thus far. He could not have taken the most direct road, and he may be even now at the gates of the city. If Ambroise Paré is not successful in his operation, farewell to our fortune." At this moment the physicians who had been summoned by Catherine de Médicis entered. The queen-mother herself led them to the bedside of the king, whose suffering and groaning had begun again.