"Oh, thank you, sir, thank you, Monsieur Broussel," said Friquet; "I am
so fond of apricots!"

Broussel then proceeded to his wife's room and asked for breakfast;
it was nine o'clock. The councillor placed himself at the window; the
street was completely deserted, but in the distance was heard, like
the noise of the tide rushing in, the deep hum of the populous waves
increasing now around Notre Dame.

This noise redoubled when D'Artagnan, with a company of musketeers,
placed himself at the gates of Notre Dame to secure the service of the
church. He had instructed Porthos to profit by this opportunity to see
the ceremony; and Porthos, in full dress, mounted his finest horse,
taking the part of supernumerary musketeer, as D'Artagnan had so often
done formerly. The sergeant of this company, a veteran of the Spanish
wars, had recognized Porthos, his old companion, and very soon all
those who served under him were placed in possession of startling facts
concerning the honor of the ancient musketeers of Treville. Porthos had
not only been well received by the company, but he was moreover looked
on with great admiration.

At ten o'clock the guns of the Louvre announced the departure of the
king, and then a movement, similar to that of trees in a stormy wind
that bend and writhe with agitated tops, ran though the multitude, which
was compressed behind the immovable muskets of the guard. At last the
king appeared with the queen in a gilded chariot. Ten other carriages
followed, containing the ladies of honor, the officers of the royal
household, and the court.

"God save the king!" was the cry in every direction; the young monarch
gravely put his head out of the window, looked sufficiently grateful and
even bowed; at which the cries of the multitude were renewed.

Just as the court was settling down in the cathedral, a carriage,
bearing the arms of Comminges, quitted the line of the court carriages
and proceeded slowly to the end of the Rue Saint Christophe, now
entirely deserted. When it arrived there, four guards and a police
officer, who accompanied it, mounted into the heavy machine and closed
the shutters; then through an opening cautiously made, the policeman
began to watch the length of the Rue Cocatrix, as if he was waiting for
some one.

All the world was occupied with the ceremony, so that neither the
chariot nor the precautions taken by those who were within it had
been observed. Friquet, whose eye, ever on