Transcriber's Notes:
1. Page scan source:
http://www.archive.org/details/kingsstratagema00weymgoog
(Harvard University)
"HE WAS ALONE WITH HIS TRIUMPH."
THE
KING'S STRATAGEM
AND OTHER STORIES
BY
STANLEY J. WEYMAN
Author of "A Gentleman of France," "Under the Red Robe,"
"My Lady Rotha," etc., etc.
NEW YORK
A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY
70 Fifth Avenue
Copyright, 1891,
BY
A. E. CLUETT & COMPANY.
CONTENTS.
THE KING'S STRATAGEM.
In the days when Henry IV. of France was King of Navarre only, and inthat little kingdom of hills and woods which occupies the southwestcorner of the larger country, was with difficulty supporting theHuguenot cause against the French court and the Catholic League--inthe days when every isolated castle, from the Garonne to the Pyrenees,was a bone of contention between the young king and the craftyqueen-mother, Catherine de Medicis, a conference between these notablepersonages took place in the picturesque town of La Réole.
La Réole still rises gray, time-worn, and half-ruined on a lofty cliffabove the broad green waters of the Garonne, forty odd miles fromBordeaux. But it is a small place now. In the days of which we arespeaking, however, it was important, strongly fortified, and guardedby a castle which looked down on a thousand red-tiled roofs, rising interraces from the river. As the meeting-place of the two sovereigns itwas for the time as gay as Paris itself, Catherine having brought withher a bevy of fair maids of honor, in the effect of whose charms sheperhaps put as much trust as in her own diplomacy. But the peacefulappearance of the town was delusive, for even while every other housein it rang with music and silvery laughter, each party was ready tofly to arms without warning, if it saw that any advantage was to begained thereby.
On an evening shortly before the end of the conference two men sat atplay in a room, the d