The door of the King's closet was hidden by the bed. This closet was subsequently called the old closet (_le Cabinet vieux_) to distinguish it from the splendid painted closet constructed for Henri III. on the other side of the room adjoining the hall of the States-General. Henri III. hid the assassins in the old closet, and sent to desire the Duc de Guise to attend him there; while he, during the murder, remained concealed in the new closet, whence he emerged only to see this overweening subject die--a subject for whom there could be no prison, no tribunal, no judges, no laws in the kingdom. But for these dreadful events, the historian could now hardly identify the former uses of these rooms and halls filled with soldiers. A sergeant writes to his sweetheart on the spot where Catherine gravely considered her struggle with parties. "Come, my boy," said the Queen-mother; "I will see that you are paid. Trade must flourish, and money is its main sinew." "Ay, go, my good youth," said the young Queen, laughing; "my august mother understands matters of trade better than I do." Catherine was about to leave the room without replying to this innuendo; but it struck her that her indifference might arouse suspicions, and she retorted on her daughter-in-law: "And you, my dear, trade in love." Then she went downstairs. "Put all those things away, Dayelle.--And come to the council-room, Sire," said the young Queen to the King, enchanted at having to decide the important question of the lieutenancy of the kingdom in her mother-in-law's absence. Mary Stuart took the King's arm. Dayelle went out first, speaking a word to the pages, and one of them--young Téligny, fated to perish miserably on the night of Saint-Bartholomew--shouted out: "The King." On hearing the cry, the two musketeers carried arms, and the two pages led the way towards the council-chamber between the line of courtiers on one side and the line formed by the maids of honor to the two Queens on the other. All the members of the Council then gathered round the door of the hall, which was at no great distance from the staircase. The Grand Master, the Cardinal, and the Chancellor advanced to meet the two young sovereigns, who smiled to some of the maids, or answered the inquiries of some of the Court favorites more intimate than the rest. The Queen, however, evidently impatient, dragged Francis II. on towards the vast council-room. As soon as the heavy thud of the arquebuses dropping on the floor again announced that the royal pair had gone in, the pages put on their caps, and the conversations in the various groups took their course again on the gravity of the business about to be discussed. "Chiverni was sent to fetch the Connétable, and he has not come," said one. "There is no prince of the blood present," remarked another. The Chancellor and Monsieur de Tournon looked anxious.