lieve you were jesting."

"You do not, I know, fear such a thing; I am quite sure of that,"
exclaimed Louis.

"I shall be obliged to believe it, if your majesty continues to hold
such language toward me."

"I am most unhappy, then," said the king, in a tone of regret which was
not assumed: "I am the unhappiest prince in the whole Christian world,
since I am powerless to induce belief in my words in one whom I love the
best in the wide world, and who almost breaks my heart by refusing to
credit my regard for her."

"Oh, sire!" said La Valliere, gently putting the king aside, who had
approached nearer to her, "I think the storm has passed away now, and
the rain has ceased." At the very moment, however, as the poor girl,
fleeing, as it were, from her own heart, which doubtlessly throbbed too
much in unison with the king's, uttered these words, the storm undertook
to contradict her. A bluish flash of lightning illumined the forest with
a wild, weird-like glare, and a peal of thunder, like a discharge of
artillery, burst over their very heads, as if the height of the oak
which sheltered them had attracted the storm. The young girl could not
repress a cry of terror. The king with one hand drew her toward his
heart, and stretched the other above her head, as though to shield her
from the lightning. A moment's silence ensued, as the group, delightful
as everything young and loving is delightful, remained motionless, while
Fouquet and Aramis contemplated it in attitudes as motionless as La
Valliere and the king. "Oh, sire, sire!" murmured La Valliere, "do you
hear?" and her head fell upon his shoulder.

"Yes," said the king. "You see the storm has not passed away."

"It is a warning, sire." The king smiled. "Sire, it is the voice of
Heaven in anger."

"Be it so," said the king. "I agree to accept that peal of thunder as a
warning, and even as a menace, if, in five minutes from the present
moment, it is renewed with equal violence; but if not, permit me to
think that the storm is a storm simply, and nothing more." And the king,
at the same moment, raised his head, as if to interrogate the heavens.
But, as if the remark had been heard and accepted, during the five
minutes which elapsed after the burst of thunder which had alarmed them
no renewed repeal was heard; and when the thunder was again heard, it
was passing away in so audible a manner, as if, during those same five
minutes, the storm, put to flight, had traversed t