"We think so, madame," replied the valet respectfully, "but we could not discreetly assure ourselves of the fact."
"But in removing the things from the table, you must have seen whether my son had supped alone?"
"We have not yet removed the things, madame, since the orders of monseigneur were that no one should enter the pavilion."
"Very good," said Catherine; "no one, therefore, has been here?"
"No one, madame."
"You may go."
And Catherine was now left quite alone in the room. Leaving the prince lying on the bed where he had been placed, she immediately commenced the minutest investigation of each symptom or of each of the traces to which her attention was directed, as the result of her suspicions or apprehensions.
She had remarked that Francois' forehead was stained or dyed of a bister color, his eyes were bloodshot and encircled with blue lines, his lips marked with furrows, like the impression which burning sulphur leaves on living flesh.
She observed the same sign upon his nostrils and upon the sides of the nose.
"Now let me look carefully," she said, gazing about her on every side.