"Yet"—
"Silence!—I hear her."
And putting her mouth close to Henry's ear, she whispered something which the young king heard with attention mingled with astonishment. Then he hid himself behind the curtains of the bed.
Meantime, with the quickness of a panther, Marguerite sprang to the closet, where La Mole was waiting in a fever of excitement, opened the door, found the young man, and pressing his hand in the darkness—"Silence," said she, approaching her lips so near that he felt her warm and balmy breath; "silence!"
Then returning to her chamber, she tore off her head-dress, cut the laces of her dress with her poniard, and sprang into bed.
It was time—the key turned in the lock. Catharine had a key for every door in the Louvre.
"Who is there?" cried Marguerite, as Catharine placed on guard at the door the four gentlemen by whom she was attended.
And, as if frightened by this sudden intrusion into her chamber, Marguerite sprang out from behind the curtains of her bed in a white dressing-gown, and then recognizing Catharine, came to kiss her hand with such well-feigned surprise that the wily Florentine herself could not help being deceived by it.