glad her anger is so lasting; if she would only knock down a page in her fury à la Montpensier, my good fortune would be placed beyond a doubt."

The seneschal was not more surprised than pleased at the request of the baron to accompany him to a secret interview with the Queen of Navarre. In the interval, Margaret had prepared herself for her spiriting. When her expected guests entered the saloon, she was observed looking earnestly through the window at the darkened night. De Nevailles approached her with the calmness of one accustomed to intercourse with royalty; Pomini could not keep pace with him, nor indeed could any one in his place, who bowed at every second step.

"Pomini!" exclaimed the queen, turning round, and exhibiting a fierceness of expression, and speaking in a more determined tone than the seneschal had ever witnessed in a lady of rank.

The incipient L'Isle du Marais stopped short.

"Are you not discontented with your present rank in this castle?" continued Margaret.

"Very much so," replied the surprised Pomini; " I may tell your majesty that I am in a wrong position in the world-I am in an intermediate condition-worse than slavery."

"I am aware of it," rejoined the queen; "you are nothing, when you deserve to be something. Do you dare climb to a nobler elevation ?"

"I would rub the skin off my limbs to do so," answered the wondering seneschal, who was, however, determined to chime in closely with her majesty's questions.

"To what extent does your conscience stretch-in plain words, how far would you go to attain your object? Speak boldly, and quickly too-for I am burning with impatience."

"I would, in the first place, be a credited gentleman of letters-patent," replied Pomini, without taking the least time for pausing;" and I would go as far as my escutcheon would cover my actions."

"Well said!" cried the queen:-" how are you affected towards the marquis?"

"If I were to become a gentleman, I should feel myself forced to call him to account for his abuse of me, though, in my subordinate capacity, I am willing to confess he takes no more than a passing heed of my misdoings, and is fond of my society," replied the seneschal, wondering what more was in store for him.

"Do you expect your letters-patent through the influence of the governor ?" asked Margaret.

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"I did a season ago," answered Pomini; " but if your majesty will excuse my boldness, and a reflection unpleasant to your ears, I should say that the King of France will very soon be in no condition to grant them; and then my long-expectant hopes will be left to the mercy of his great enemy. I have heard your royal brother will be deposed."

"He will not suffer that degradation," said the Queen of Navarre, speciously; "he will resign the throne to save disgrace."

This declaration at once crushed the hopes of the seneschal. "Emilie should be here to receive a lesson from her protectress," thought De Nevailles, looking upon the downcast Pomini.

"If one bridge were to break," said Margaret, “would you throw yourself in despair into the stream, or look above and below for another passage?"

"I wish to be a gentleman of letters-patent," replied Pomini: "I would prefer being ancien gentilhomme, but that I know to be impossible."

"You seem to understand me," said Margaret.

"Your majesty would be more intelligible if you could point out the bridge by which I am to pass the stream of ignoble life,” retorted the imboldened seneschal.

"I will!" replied the Queen of Navarre ;-" the king my husband, whose forces are in this province, and whose counsellor this gentleman is, shall erect a territory for you in any province of his dominions; you could not sit more honourably than among the ancient noblesse of Navarre and Bearn. Say! monseigneur !" continued Margaret, addressing the baron, "is not my proposal practicable?"

"You see before you, Monsieur Pomini, the Baron de Nevailles," said the baron to the astonished seneschal; "all France credits my influence with the King of Navarre, and I promise you that you shall have your letters-patent."

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"But my lands are in Languedoc," exclaimed Pomini, branch of the Rhone encircles my corn-fields-and the old seigniorage was L'Isle du Marais. I would be called by that name."

The baron turned, apparently to adjust the belt of his sword, but in reality to conceal a smile, which he found it impossible to repress.

"You shall have any name you please in Navarre, and if

my power reaches as far, in France," said Margaret-" but now for the service-for you must be aware that all honours are held by such a tenure."

Pomini bowed, and resolved to trust to fortune for the Languedoc creation.

In a few words, the queen narrated the quarrel with her family and the deprivation which she had suffered from the non-payment of her father's legacy; her determination to rescue whatever was available out of the wreck of the fortunes of the Valois dynasty; and that her choice had fallen on the Château D'Usson, which, once in her possession, could never be retaken.

"Let me be Chatelaine D'Usson," exclaimed the queen, in an impassioned tone," and you shall be all that Navarre can make you, and the governor of the fortress."

Despairing as Pomini did of the re-establishment of Valois, and fascinated also with the offers of the princess, who gave him no time for reflection, he closed with the terms proposed.

"Is the Lady Gabrielle to reside here ?" asked the seneschal, during the discussion of the steps necessary to be taken.

"Mademoiselle d'Estrées has many friends, I perceive," said the queen, darting a sly look at the baron. She may live at D'Usson if she so desire it; but I can scarcely believe she would wish to dwell elsewhere than with the marquis."

The night was chiefly spent in preparing for the morrow's coup-de-main. While Margaret was left to gather what rest she might in the few eventful hours which intervened before the moment selected for striking the blow, De Nevailles, Pomini, and Antoine, to whom the plot was communicated, and who entered into it with all the zeal of a Gascon, repaired to the armory, and having selected arms and armour sufficient to equip the servants of her majesty and of the baron, which was all the force the confederates could bring into the field against the remnant of the garrison, they proceeded to visit the battlements, to examine every point available for resistance or offence.

This survey completed, there remained only to arm their adherents and wait patiently till the early, parade, the hour chosen for the coup d'essai.

"You will gain more in one day, Monsieur Pomini," said the baron, "than you have done in all your life beside."

"And yet," replied the seneschal, "I shall have to wait with uncertainty for what I have toiled for from my youth." This reply was dictated by a lurking remonstrance of con

science, which would not be altogether quieted; but with such a man as Pomini, the "still small voice within" was obliged to be circumspect; it durst not attack its master openly on the score of infidelity to the governor ;-that was an admitted crime, and one contemned also by the ambitious seneschal, who would allow of nothing to stand in the way of his long cherished hopes; but the monitor, resolute not to give up the contest without a struggle for the honour of human nature, learned a lesson of art, and whispered its owner that he was sacrificing his character and reputation fruitlessly—that all would be lost, without the recompense for which he had surrendered up his honour being gained. This was a most reasonable twinge; one to which no man could object; and gave birth to the dissatisfied speech in reply to the triumphing assertion of the baron.

But Pomini was too far gone to recede; he neglected the monitor by feasting in imagination on the flattering prospects held out to his ambition; though his features still retained a moody expression, which gave great alarm to De Nevailles.

By break of day the servants of the visiters were perfectly instructed in the venturous part they had to perform; nothing remained but to wait patiently till the signal was uttered for their active co-operation with the chiefs of the plot.

Margaret was seated in her chamber when the beat of the drum summoned the little garrison to the inner court of the fortress. Gabrielle had not shown herself to her visiters since the previous evening. Emilie was avenging herself on the baron by avoiding his presence; and the queen sat alone, her trembling frame and anxious countenance unobserved of any one.

--

It was the crisis of her fortune, and she sat listening to catch the expected sounds of contest or triumph; her friends were so few, scarcely six or seven able hands against three times their number, that she almost dreaded to hear of the result; though ever and anon, as her spirit rose high, she felt an inclination to rush to the scene of action, and cheer on her friends to victory.

She listened in vain. No sound broke upon her ear; neither of tumult, of fire-arms, nor the cries of combatants; all was as still as on ordinary occasions. After a while the very repose became alarming; she imagined that her friends had despaired of success, and given up the attempt.

This idea was worse than the contemplation of defeat; she could bear it no longer, and rushed to the door to quiet or confirm her distracting fears. But the appearance of Lisette, with

looks indicative of alarm, checked her intention, and she staid to question the girl.

"What has frightened you?" said the queen, in a hurried voice.

"Antoine!" replied the waiting-maid of Emilie, after a pause, in which it seemed doubtful whether she was not inventing a reply.

"Antoine!" exclaimed Margaret; "but you need not have feared him--he is one of our friends."

"That is just what he said," rejoined the girl; "but he put his arm round my waist, and said my foot was the prettiest in D'Usson-and so I ran away."

Margaret turned away in a rage at being thus baffled in the object of her inquiry; but a moment's consideration brought her again to the examination of Lisette, who stood in doubt whether to address her majesty.

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What, still in terror," cried the queen, "because you were told of the beauty of your feet! Has the garrison mustered this morning?"

"Mon Dieu!" exclaimed Lisette, dropping on her knees ;"pray forgive me! Antoine put all that out of my head !" "Put what out of your head?" said the queen, almost phrensied.

"What I saw-and what monseigneur desired me to tell your majesty," replied Lisette, frightened at the queen's anger: "he has taken every thing prisoner, and is afraid to leave them till he till he knows whether the old soldiers will be quiet."

"Rise!" exclaimed the agitated princess; "let me hear what you know of this."

Lisette, who had been thrice frightened,-first, with the hostilities between the queen's party and the garrison; secondly, with Antoine, who overtook her in her way to the queen's chamber; and lastly, with the apprehension of her majesty's anger, for not thinking of her message in place of other matters, was not in a condition to relate a succinct narrative of the adventure; but Margaret was enabled, by a series of questions and replies, which we need not detail, to glean the following particulars :

It was the daily amusement of the female domestics of the fortress to be present at the review of the garrison, to enjoy a laugh among themselves at the old soldiers. Lisette, who happened to be one of this merry company, observed the troops march into the court-yard, where Pomini was waiting to inspect them. After the usual evolutions had been gone through,