"Run," said Coconnas to La Mole; "quick! quick!"
La Mole did not wait to be told twice. Springing to the side of the wall, he began groping with his hands for the sleeping-room, that he might hide in the cabinet that opened out of it and which he knew so well. But as he stepped across the threshold he ran against a man who had just entered by the secret corridor.
"What does all this mean?" asked Charles, in the darkness, in a tone which was beginning to betray a formidable accent of impatience. "Am I such a mar-joy that the sight of me causes all this confusion? Come, Henriot! Henriot! where are you? Answer me."
"We are saved!" murmured Marguerite, seizing a hand which she took for that of La Mole. "The King thinks my husband is one of our guests."
"And I shall let him think so, madame, you may be sure," said Henry, answering the queen in the same tone.
"Great God!" cried Marguerite, hastily dropping the hand she held, which was that of the King of Navarre.
"Silence!" said Henry.
"In the name of a thousand devils! why are you whispering in this way?" cried Charles. "Henry, answer me; where are you?"
"Here, sire," said the King of Navarre.
"The devil!" said Coconnas, who was holding the Duchesse de Nevers in a corner, "the plot thickens."