and of
a Great Unknown Painter.

Whilst the Comte de la Fere with Raoul visits the new buildings he
has had erected, and the new horses he has bought, with the reader's
permission we will lead him back to the city of Blois, and make him a
witness of the unaccustomed activity which pervades that city.

It was in the hotels that the surprise of the news brought by Raoul was
most sensibly felt.

In fact, the king and the court at Blois, that is to say, a hundred
horsemen, ten carriages, two hundred horses, as many lackeys as
masters--where was this crowd to be housed? Where were to be lodged all
the gentry of the neighborhood, who would gather in two or three
hours after the news had enlarged the circle of its report, like the
increasing circumference produced by a stone thrown into a placid lake?

Blois, as peaceful in the morning, as we have seen, as the calmest lake
in the world, at the announcement of the royal arrival, was suddenly
filled with the tumult and buzzing of a swarm of bees.

All the servants of the castle, under the inspection of the officers,
were sent into the city in quest of provisions, and ten horsemen
were dispatched to the preserves of Chambord to seek for game, to the
fisheries of Beuvion for fish, and to the gardens of Chaverny for fruits
and flowers.

Precious tapestries, and lusters with great gilt chains, were drawn from
the cupboards; an army of the poor were engaged in sweeping the courts
and washing the stone fronts, whilst their wives went in droves to the
meadows beyond the Loire, to gather green boughs and field-flowers. The
whole city, not to be behind in this luxury of cleanliness, assumed its
best toilette with the help of brushes, brooms, and water.

The kennels of the upper town, swollen by these continued lotions,
became rivers at the bottom of the city, and the pavement, generally
very muddy, it must be allowed, took a clean face, and absolutely shone
in the friendly rays of the sun.

Next the music was to be provided; drawers were emptied; the
shop-keepers did a glorious trade in wax, ribbons, and sword-knots;
housekeepers laid in stores of bread, meat, and spices. Already numbers
of the citizens whose houses were furnished as if for a siege, having
nothing more to do, donned their festive clothes and directed their
course towards the city gate, in order to be the first to signal or see
the cortege. They knew very well that the king would not arrive before
night, per