'The Duke of Nevers is not in this part, is he ?' I said slowly.

'I heard he was on the Brittany border, away to the westward.' 'Mon Dieu!' my host exclaimed, raising his hands in astonishment.

'You have not heard, sir ?' 'I have heard nothing,' I answered impatiently.
'You have not heard, sir, that the most puissant and illustrious lord the Duke of Guise is dead ?' 'M.

de Guise dead?
It is not true!' I cried astonished.
He nodded, however, several times with an air of great importance, and seemed as if he would have gone on to give me some particulars.

But, remembering, as I fancied, that he spoke in the hearing of half-a-dozen guests who sat about the great fire behind me, and had both eyes and ears open, he contented himself with shifting his towel to his other arm and adding only, 'Yes, sir, dead as any nail.