s. His dress was a long overcoat of mouse-coloured velvet
slashed with gold, beneath which were high leather boots, which, with
his little gold-laced, three-cornered hat, gave a military tinge to his
appearance. In his gait and bearing he had a dainty strut and backward
cock of the head, which, taken with his sharp black eyes, his high thin
features, and his assured manner, would impress a stranger with the
feeling that this was a man of power. And, indeed, in France or out of
it there were few to whom this man's name was not familiar, for in all
France the only figure which loomed up as large as that of the king was
this very little gentleman who stood now, with gold snuff-box in one
hand, and deep-laced handkerchief in the other, upon the landing of the
Huguenot's house. For who was there who did not know the last of the
great French nobles, the bravest of French captains, the beloved Conde,
victor of Recroy and hero of the Fronde? At the sight of his pinched,
sallow face the dragoons and their leader had stood staring, while De
Catinat raised the stump of his sword in a salute.

"Heh, heh!" cried the old soldier, peering at him.

"You were with me on the Rhine--heh? I know your face, captain.
But the household was with Turenne."

"I was in the regiment of Picardy, your Highness. De Catinat is my
name."

"Yes, yes. But you, sir, who the devil are you?"

"Captain Dalbert, your Highness, of the Languedoc Blue Dragoons."

"Heh! I was passing in my carriage, and I saw you standing on your head
in the air. The young man let you up on conditions, as I understood."

"He swore he would go from the house," cried the young stranger.
"Yet when I had let him up, he set his men upon me, and we all came
downstairs together."

"My faith, you seem to have left little behind you," said Conde,
smiling, as he glanced at the litter which was strewed all over the
floor. "And so you broke your parole, Captain Dalbert?"

"I could not hold treaty with a Huguenot and an enemy of the king," said
the dragoon sulkily.

"You could hold treaty, it appears, but not keep it. And why did you
let him go, sir, when you had him at such a vantage?"

"I believed his promise."

"You must be of a trusting nature."

"I have been used to deal with Indians."

"Heh! And you think an Indian's word is better than that of an officer
in the king's dragoons?"

"I did not think so an hour ago."

"Hem!" Conde took a large pinch of snuff