ing, if I remember rightly,
the last occasion on which I ever saw him take a lance. Before supper
he walked for a time in the hall, with Sillery, for whom he had sent;
and after supper, pronouncing himself tired, he dismissed all, and
retired with me to his chamber. Here we had some talk on a subject
that I greatly dreaded--I mean his infatuation for Madame de Conde; but
about eleven o'clock he yawned, and, after thanking me for a reception
which he said was quite to his mind, he bade me go to bed.

I was half way to the door when he called me back. "Why, Grand
Master," he said, pointing to the little table by the head of the bed
on which his night drinks stood, "you might be going to drown me. Do
you expect me to drink all these in the night?"

"I think that there is only your posset, sire," I said, "and the
lemon-water which you generally drink."

"And two or three other things?"

"Perhaps they have given your majesty some of the Arbois wine that you
were good enough to--"

"Tut-tut!" he said, lifting the cover of one of the cups. "This is not
wine. It may be a milk-posset."

"Yes, sire; very likely," I said drowsily.

"But it is not!" he answered, when he had smelled it. "It is plain
milk! Come, my friend," he continued, looking drolly at me, "have you
turned leech, or I babe is arms that you put such strong liquors before
me? However, to show you that I have some childish tastes left, and am
not so depraved as you have been trying to make me out for the last
hour--I will drink your health in it. It would serve you right if I
made you pledge me in the same liquor!"

The cup was at his lips when I sprang forward and, heedless of
ceremony, caught his arm. "Pardon, sire!" I cried, in sudden
agitation. "If that is milk, I gave no order that it should be placed
here; and I know nothing of its origin. I beg that you will not drink
it, until I have made some inquiry."

"They have all been tasted?" he asked, still holding the cup in his
hand with the lid raised, but looking at it gravely.

"They should have been!" I answered. "But La Trape, whom I made
answerable for that, is outside. I will go and question him. If you
will wait, sire, a moment--"

"No," Henry said. "Have him here."

I gave the order to the pages who were waiting outside, and in a moment
La Trape appeared, looking startled and uncomfortable. Naturally, his
first glance was given to the King, who had taken his seat on the edge