Page:Mysterious cavern.pdf/11

 have lost a night:—he is still safe, and at this moment conspires against the happiness of the people." He then mentioned to them, that the Count de Nevers and the Seur de Joinville, these two young and steady supporters of tyranny—these enthusiastic adorers of the prerogatives of the crown—were just arrived on their parole; of the joy Charles de Valois displayed on their arrival, and that.he had abruptly quitted the ball, and was now shut up with them. The King of Navarre concluded by saying, "This is not all, Vaudois; I have not destroyed the Regent, but it is Alice we must destroy." Vaudois started, and grew pale. Turning to the King of Navarre, he enquired—"Could no other method be adopted?—Must the niece of Marcel also bleed?" The King of Navarre shuddered. After a pause, he proposed, as the only remedy for this danger, to prevent any intercourse between Alice and the Count de Nevers; and the only way he could devise this was, to convey her to one of his estates, where she should be treated with the respect due to the niece of Marcel. Vaudois objected to this scheme. Marcel would never consent to such a measure; he would sooner separate from his party than sacrifice her. The King of Navarre, wishing to know her story, asked Vaudois to give him a detail of her family.

Vaudois told the King of Navarre, "that Alice was the daughter of a sister of Marcel’s, who was married at Venice;—that her mother died in giving Alice birth, and she lost her father before she attained the age of fifteen, who left her the sole possessor of immense riches he had acquired in the East India trade. Immediately after the death of her father, she arrived in Paris, accompanied by an Italian lady, who had brought her up.—