his place. Yonder is the river. You have not a
river like that?"

"Oh, we have the Seine."

Carrbroke made a movement of dissent.

"They laugh at me here," he said, "because I fish. Lord Hurst would
have one always wearing one's best and acting the courtier; but the King
loves sport, and so do I. Let's go this way, and enter the palace by
another door. There will be supper soon, and one must eat."

A moment before, Denis was beginning to think that the place was not so
attractive after all, but the word supper seemed to accord well with his
sensations.

He was weary with the excitement of the day, and he suddenly felt that
some of his distaste was due to hunger, which he was ready enough to
appease, being well looked after by his new friend; while the rest of
the evening was filled up by faintly heard sounds of music and
conversation which seemed to be buzzing around him, as he sat back in
one of the many chairs of the grand _salon_, completely overcome by an
invincible sense of drowsiness which seemed dark and cloudy, while out
of it came a familiar voice, saying:

"Why, Denis, boy, I have been seeking you everywhere. Saint Simon was
looking for you too, and said you must have gone off to bed."

"Bed--bed?" the boy remembered saying, and then all was confused again
till Master Leoni's voice whispered in his ear:

"Come, wake up."

"Where's Carrbroke?" he said drowsily.

"Gone away in attendance on the King, who will soon be leaving the
_salon_. Come, we must be in attendance too."

The next thing that occurred was the sudden starting up of the boy in
his bed, with the bright morning sun shining in through the window.

"Where am I?" he muttered. "How did I come here?" And then by degrees
he began to have some faint recollection of Leoni helping him to his
room.

"Why, I must have disgraced myself in some way," he muttered. "What
could I have done? Gone to sleep in the middle of that _fete_? I don't
know; everything seems a blank."

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

CARRBROKE TELLS SECRETS.

The days passed quickly, with the Kings the best of friends, for Francis
proved himself a boon companion, a good horseman, and quite after the
King's own heart.

He made himself a favourite too, and the most courtly at the Court,
ready if he had been present to have brought a sneering smile to the
lips of Sir Robert Garstang, who, when the minstrels were busy in their
gallery, might have seen some justifica