Tavannes, who was going by, stopped.
"Where is Henry of Navarre?"
"Faith," he replied, in a loud voice, "I believe he is somewhere in the city with the Messieurs d'Alençon and de Condé."
And then he added, in a tone so low that the queen alone could hear:
"Your majesty, if you would see him,—to be in whose place I would give my life,—go to the king's armory."
"Thanks, Tavannes, thanks!" said Marguerite, who, of all that Tavannes had said, had heard only the chief direction; "thank you, I will go there."
And she went on her way, murmuring:
"Oh, after all I promised him—after the way in which he behaved to me when that ingrate, Henry de Guise, was concealed in the closet—I cannot let him perish!"
And she knocked at the door of the King's apartments; but they were encompassed within by two companies of guards.
"No one is admitted to the King," said the officer, coming forward.