trembling culprits. "Off, and do your duty, or I will have your backs
bare."

But the wretch, as cowardly as he had been cruel, flung himself down
and crawled, sobbing and crying, to my feet. I had no mercy, however.
"Take him away," I said, "It is such men as these give kings a bad
name. Take him away, and see you flay him well."

He sprang up then, forgetting his gout, and made a frantic attempt to
escape. But in a moment he was overcome, hauled away, and tied up; and
though I did not wait to see the sentence carried out, but entered the
inn, the shrill screams he uttered under the punishment reached me,
even there, and satisfied me that Fonvelle and his fellows were not;
holding their hands.

It is a sad reflection, however, that for one such sinner brought to
justice ten, who commit the same crimes, go free, and flourishing on
iniquity, bring the King's service, and his officers, into evil repute.

XI.

THE CAT AND THE KING.

It was in the spring of the year 1609 that at the King's instance I had
a suite of apartments fitted up for him at the Arsenal, that he might
visit me, whenever it pleased him, without putting my family to
inconvenience; in another place will be found an account of the six
thousand crowns a year which he was so obliging as to allow me for this
purpose. He honoured me by using these rooms, which consisted of a
hall, a chamber, a wardrobe, and a closet, two or three times in the
course of that year, availing himself of my attendants and cook; and
the free opportunities of consulting me on the Great Undertaking, which
this plan afforded, led me to hope that notwithstanding the envy of my
detractors, he would continue to adopt it. That he did not do so, nor
ever visited me after the close of that year, was due not so much to
the lamentable event, soon to be related, which within a few months
deprived France of her greatest sovereign, as to a strange matter that
attended his last stay with me. I have since had cause to think that
this did not receive at the time as much attention as it deserved; and
have even imagined that had I groped a little deeper into the mystery I
might have found a clue to the future as well as the past, and averted
one more, and the last, danger from my beloved master. But Providence
would not have it so; a slight indisposition under which I was
suffering at the time rendered me less able, both in mind and body; the
result being that Henry, who was alw