第67章 IN THE KING'S CHAMBER.(5)

'I will make it twenty-five,as I am a good Churchman!'his Majesty exclaimed,dropping the little dog he was nursing into the duchess's lap,and taking out his comfit-box.'Rambouillet,'he added languidly,'your friend is a treasure!'

I bowed my acknowledgments,and took occasion as I did so to step a pace aside,so as to command a view of Madame de Bruhl,as well as her husband.Hitherto madame,willing to be accounted a part in so pretty a romance,and ready enough also,unless I was mistaken,to cause her husband a little mild jealousy,had listened to the story with a certain sly demureness.But this Iforesaw would not last long;and I felt something like compunction as the moment for striking the blow approached.But I had now no choice.'The best is yet to come,sire,'I went on,'as I think you will acknowledge in a moment.Dromio,though he had discovered his mistress,was still in the depths of despair.

He wandered round and round the house,seeking ingress and finding none,until at length,sunset approaching,and darkness redoubling his fears for the nymph,fortune took pity on him.As he stood in front of the house he saw the abductor come out,lighted by two servants.Judge of his surprise,sire,'Icontinued,looking round and speaking slowly,to give full effect to my words,'when he recognised in him no other than the husband of the lady who,by picking up and again dropping the velvet knot,had contributed so much to the success of his search!'

'Ha!these husbands!'cried the king.And slapping his knee in an ecstasy at his own acuteness,he laughed in his seat till he rolled again.'These husbands!Did I not say so?'

The whole Court gave way to like applause,and clapped.their hands as well,so that few save those who stood nearest took notice of Madame de Bruhl's faint cry,and still fewer understood why she rose up suddenly from her stool and stood gazing at her husband with burning cheeks and clenched hands.She took no heed of me,much less of the laughing crowd round her,but looked only at him with her soul in her eyes.He,after uttering one hoarse curse,seemed to have no thought for any but me.To have the knowledge that his own wife had baulked him brought home to him in this mocking fashion,to find how little a thing had tripped him that day,to learn how blindly he had played into the hands of fate,above all to be exposed at once to his wife's resentment and the ridicule of the Court--for he could not be sure that Ishould not the next moment disclose his name--all so wrought on him that for a moment I thought he would strike me in the presence.

His rage,indeed,did what I had not meant to do.For the king,catching sight of his face,and remembering that Madame de Bruhl had elicited the story,screamed suddenly,'Haro!'and pointed ruthlessly at him with his finger.After that I had no need to speak,the story leaping from eye to eye,and every eye settling on Bruhl,who sought in vain to compose his features.Madame,who surpassed him,as women commonly do surpass men,in self-control,was the,first to recover herself,and sitting down as quickly as she had risen,confronted alike her husband and her rivals with a pale smile.

For a moment curiosity and excitement kept all breathless,the eye alone busy.Then the king laughed mischievously.'Come,M.

de Bruhl,'he cried,'perhaps you will finish the tale for us?'

And he threw himself back in his chair,a sneer on his lips.

'Or why not Madame de Bruhl?'said the duchess,with her head on one side and her eyes glittering over her fan.'Madame would,Iam sure,tell it so well.'

But madame only shook her head,smiling always that forced smile.

For Bruhl himself,glaring from face to face like a bull about to charge,I have never seen a man more out of countenance,or more completely brought to bay.His discomposure,exposed as he was to the ridicule of all present,was such that the presence in which he stood scarcely hindered him from some violent attack;and his eyes,which had wandered from me at the king's word,presently returning to me again,he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand furiously,uttering at the same time a savage oath.

The king cried out angrily,'Have a care,sir!'But Bruhl only heeded this so far as to thrust aside those who stood round him and push his way hurriedly through the circle.

'Arnidieu!'cried the king,when he was gone.'This is fine conduct!I have half a mind to send after him and have him put where his hot blood would cool a little.Or--'

He stopped abruptly,his eyes resting on me.The relative positions of Bruhl and myself as the agents of Rosny and Turenne occurred to him for the first time,I think,and suggested the idea,perhaps,that I had laid a trap for him,and that he had fallen into it.At any rate his face grew darker and darker,and at last,'A nice kettle of fish this is you have prepared for us,sir!'he muttered,gazing at me gloomily.

The sudden change in his humour took even courtiers by surprise.

Faces a moment before broad with smiles grew long again.The less important personages looked uncomfortably at one another,and with one accord frowned on me.'If your Majesty would please to hear the end of the story at another time?'I suggested humbly,beginning to wish with all my heart that I had never said a word.

'Chut!'he answered,rising,his face still betraying his perturbation,'Well,be it so.For the present you may go,sir.

Duchess,give me Zizi,and come to my closet.I want you to see my puppies.Retz,my good friend,do you come too.I have something to say to you.Gentlemen,you need not wait.It is likely I shall be late.'

And,with the utmost abruptness,he broke up the circle.