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"What does Pardaillan want?" said the duke, observing the approach of the young nobleman who was later to become celebrated by his encounter with La Renaudie, in which they both lost their lives. "Monseigneur, a man sent by the queen's furrier is at the gate, and says he has an ermine suit to convey to her. Am I to let him enter?"
"Well, well! did you come here to study the carving of images?" cried Pardaillan, as Christophe stopped before the charming sculptures of the balustrade which unites, or, if you prefer it, separates the columns of each arcade. Christophe followed the young officer to the grand staircase, not without a glance of ecstasy at the semi-Moorish tower.
This was occasioned by the wound received by the Admiral, which had wrought the Huguenots up to a degree of desperation. The Queen my mother was reproached on that account in such terms by the elder Pardaillan and some other principal Huguenots, that she began to apprehend some evil design.
"Go and tell the king and the grand-master and the cardinal, from me, to come here at once, and say that I should not take the liberty of sending for them if something of the utmost importance had not occurred. Go, Pardaillan. As for you, Lewiston, keep guard over that traitor of a Reformer," she said to the Scotchman in his mother-tongue, pointing to Christophe.
"Come in here," said Pardaillan, making Lecamus a sign to follow him through a carved wooden door leading to the second floor, which the door-keeper opened on recognizing the young officer. It is easy to imagine Christophe's amazement as he entered the great salle des gardes, then so vast that military necessity has since divided it by a partition into two chambers.
"Let him wait in the salle des gardes," he said aloud. "Is he young, Pardaillan?" "Yes, monseigneur; he says he is a son of Lecamus the furrier." "Lecamus is a good Catholic," remarked the cardinal, who, like his brother the duke, was endowed with Caesar's memory. "The rector of Saint-Pierre-aux-Boeufs relies upon him; he is the provost of that quarter."
"Ah! yes, the ermine coat she spoke of yesterday," returned the cardinal; "let the shop-fellow pass; she will want the garment for the voyage down the Loire." "How did he get here without being stopped until he reached the gate?" asked the duke. "I do not know," replied Pardaillan. "I'll ask to see him when he is with the queen," thought the Balafre.
This was occasioned by the wound received by the Admiral, which had wrought the Huguenots up to a degree of desperation. The Queen my mother was reproached on that account in such terms by the elder Pardaillan and some other principal Huguenots, that she began to apprehend some evil design.
At length Pardaillan, disclosing by his menaces, during the supper of the Queen my mother, the evil intentions of the Huguenots, she plainly perceived that things were brought to so near a crisis, that, unless steps were taken that very night to prevent it, the King and herself were in danger of being assassinated.
Pardaillan, who had gone to order the officer of the guard at the gate of the chateau to let the clerk of the queen's furrier enter, found Christophe open-mouthed before the portal, staring at the facade built by the good king Louis XII., on which there was at that time a much greater number of grotesque carvings than we see there to-day, grotesque, that is to say, if we may judge by those that remain to us.
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