," he said, coldly; "I am ready to
hear you. Speak."

Saint-Aignan, faithful to his character of being deaf, blind, and dumb,
had stationed himself in a corner of the door, upon a stool which he
fortuitously found there. Concealed by the tapestry which covered the
doorway, and leaning his back against the wall, he could in this way
listen without been seen; resigning himself to the post of a good
watch-dog, who patiently waits and watches without ever getting in his
master's way.

La Valliere, terror-stricken at the king's irritated aspect, again rose
a second time, and assuming a posture of humility and entreaty,
murmured, "Forgive me, sire."

"What need is there for my forgiveness?" asked Louis.

"Sire, I have been guilty of a great fault; nay, more than a great
fault, a great crime."

"You?"

"Sire, I have offended your majesty."

"Not the slightest degree in the world," replied Louis XIV.

"I implore you, sire, not to maintain toward me that terrible
seriousness of manner which reveals your majesty's just anger. I feel I
have offended you, sire; but I wish to explain to you how it was that I
have not offended you of my own accord."

"In the first place," said the king, "in what way can you possibly have
offended me? I cannot perceive how. Surely not on account of a young
girl's harmless and very innocent jest? You turned the credulity of a
young man into ridicule--it was very natural to do so; any other woman
in your place would have done the same."

"Oh! your majesty overwhelms me by your remark."

"Why so?"

"Because if I had been the author of the jest, it would not have been
innocent."

"Well! is that all you had to say to me in soliciting an audience?" said
the king, as though about to turn away.

Thereupon, La Valliere, in an abrupt and broken voice, her eyes dried up
by the fire of her tears, made a step toward the king, and said, "Did
your majesty hear everything?"

"Everything, what?"

"Everything I said beneath the royal oak."

"I did not lose a syllable."

"And when your majesty heard me, you were able to think I had abused
your credulity."

"Credulity; yes, indeed you have selected the very word."

"And your majesty did not suppose that a poor girl like myself might
possibly be compelled to submit to the will of others."

"Forgive me," returned the king; "but I shall never be able to
understand that she, who of her own free will could express herself so
unreservedly beneath