surface of which, within view of the whole hall, was to serve as the
theatre, and whose interior, masked by tapestries, was to take the place
of dressing-rooms for the personages of the piece. A ladder, naively
placed on the outside, was to serve as means of communication between
the dressing-room and the stage, and lend its rude rungs to entrances as
well as to exits. There was no personage, however unexpected, no sudden
change, no theatrical effect, which was not obliged to mount that
ladder. Innocent and venerable infancy of art and contrivances!

Four of the bailiff of the palace's sergeants, perfunctory guardians of
all the pleasures of the people, on days of festival as well as on days
of execution, stood at the four corners of the marble table.

The piece was only to begin with the twelfth stroke of the great palace
clock sounding midday. It was very late, no doubt, for a theatrical
representation, but they had been obliged to fix the hour to suit the
convenience of the ambassadors.

Now, this whole multitude had been waiting since morning. A goodly
number of curious, good people had been shivering since daybreak before
the grand staircase of the palace; some even affirmed that they had
passed the night across the threshold of the great door, in order to
make sure that they should be the first to pass in. The crowd grew more
dense every moment, and, like water, which rises above its normal level,
began to mount along the walls, to swell around the pillars, to spread
out on the entablatures, on the cornices, on the window-sills, on
all the salient points of the architecture, on all the reliefs of the
sculpture. Hence, discomfort, impatience, weariness, the liberty of a
day of cynicism and folly, the quarrels which break forth for all sorts
of causes--a pointed elbow, an iron-shod shoe, the fatigue of long
waiting--had already, long before the hour appointed for the arrival
of the ambassadors, imparted a harsh and bitter accent to the clamor of
these people who were shut in, fitted into each other, pressed, trampled
upon, stifled. Nothing was to be heard but imprecations on the Flemish,
the provost of the merchants, the Cardinal de Bourbon, the bailiff of
the courts, Madame Marguerite of Austria, the sergeants with their rods,
the cold, the heat, the bad weather, the Bishop of Paris, the Pope of
the Fools, the pillars, the statues, that closed door, that open window;
all to the vast amusement of a band of schola