o?"

"You know why better than any one else, since you caught me on the wall
paying my addresses to Mademoiselle de Montalais; it would, therefore,
be an excess of kindness, on my part, you will admit, since I am paying
my attentions to her, to open the door of her room to you."

"But who told you it was on her account I asked you for the key?"

"For whom, then?"

"She does not lodge there alone, I suppose?"

"No, certainly; for Mademoiselle de la Valliere shares her rooms with
her; but, really, you have nothing more to do with Mademoiselle de la
Valliere than with Mademoiselle de Montalais, and there are only two men
to whom I would give this key; to M. de Bragelonne, if he begged me to
give it him, and to the king if he ordered me to do so."

"In that case, give me the key, monsieur, I order you to do so," said
the king, advancing from the obscurity, and partially opening his cloak.
"Mademoiselle de Montalais will step down to talk with you, while we go
upstairs to Mademoiselle de la Valliere, for, in fact, it is she only
whom we require."

"The king," exclaimed Malicorne, bowing down to the very ground.

"Yes, the king," said Louis, smiling, "the king, who is as pleased with
your resistance as with your capitulation. Rise, monsieur, and render
us the service we request of you."

"I obey your majesty," said Malicorne, leading the way up the staircase.

"Get Mademoiselle de Montalais to come down," said the king, "and do not
breathe a word to her of my visit."

Malicorne bowed in sign of obedience, and proceeded up the staircase.
But the king, after a hasty reflection, followed him, and that, too,
with such rapidity, that although Malicorne was already more than
half-way up the staircase, the king reached the room at the same moment
he did. He then observed by the door which remained half-opened behind
Malicorne, La Valliere, sitting in an armchair with her head thrown
back, and in the opposite corner Montalais, who, in her dressing-gown,
was standing before a looking-glass, engaged in arranging her hair, and
parleying all the while with Malicorne. The king hurriedly opened the
door, and entered the room. Montalais called out at the noise made by
the opening of the door, and, recognizing the king, made her escape. La
Valliere rose from her seat, like a dead person who had been galvanized,
and then fell back again in her armchair. The king advanced slowly
toward her.

"You wished for an audience, I believe