journey in six hours, he had taken four-and-twenty.

"Have you seen Mademoiselle de la Valliere?" Saint-Aignan asked him.

Whereupon Manicamp, dreamy and absent as usual, answered, thinking that
some one was asking him about De Guiche, "Thank you, the comte is a
little better."

And he continued on his way until he reached the antechamber where
D'Artagnan was, and whom he asked to explain how it was the king looked,
as he thought, so bewildered; to which D'Artagnan replied that he was
quite mistaken; that the king, on the contrary, was as lively and merry
as he could possibly be.

In the midst of all this, eight o'clock struck. It was usual for the
king to take his breakfast at this hour, for the code of etiquette
prescribed that the king should always be hungry at eight o'clock. His
breakfast was laid upon a small table in his bedroom, and he ate very
fast. Saint-Aignan, of whom he would not lose sight, held his napkin in
his hand. He then disposed of several military audiences, during which
he dispatched Saint-Aignan to see what he could find out. Then, still
occupied, still full of anxiety, still watching Saint-Aignan's return,
who had sent out his servants in every direction, to make inquiries, and
who had also gone himself, the hour of nine struck, and the king
forthwith passed into his large cabinet.

As the clock was striking nine the ambassadors entered, and as it
finished the two queens and Madame made their appearance. There were
three ambassadors from Holland, and two from Spain. The king glanced at
them, and then bowed: and, at the same moment, Saint-Aignan entered--an
entrance which the king regarded as far more important, in a different
sense, however, than that of the ambassadors, however numerous they
were, and from whatever country they came: and so, setting everything
else aside, the king made a sign of interrogation to Saint-Aignan, which
the latter answered by a most decisive negative. The king almost
entirely lost his courage; but as the queens, the members of the
nobility who were present, and the ambassadors, had their eyes fixed
upon him, he overcame his emotion by a violent effort, and invited the
latter to speak. Whereupon one of the Spanish deputies made a long
oration, in which he boasted the advantages which the Spanish alliance
would offer.

The king interrupted him, saying, "Monsieur, I trust that whatever is
advantageous for France must be exceedingly advantageous for Spain."

Thi