d lit a tiny taper, which she held in front of her on the plea of
lighting up her missal, but really that her face might be visible to the
king, and inform him that hers was a kindred spirit. A few there may
have been, here and there, whose prayers rose from their hearts, and who
were there of their own free will; but the policy of Louis had changed
his noblemen into courtiers and his men of the world into hypocrites,
until the whole court was like one gigantic mirror which reflected his
own likeness a hundredfold.

It was the habit of Louis, as he walked back from the chapel, to receive
petitions or to listen to any tales of wrong which his subjects might
bring to him. His way, as he returned to his rooms, lay partly across
an open space, and here it was that the suppliants were wont to
assemble. On this particular morning there were but two or three--a
Parisian, who conceived himself injured by the provost of his guild, a
peasant whose cow had been torn by a huntsman's dog, and a farmer who
had had hard usage from his feudal lord. A few questions and then a
hurried order to his secretary disposed of each case, for if Louis was a
tyrant himself, he had at least the merit that he insisted upon being
the only one within his kingdom. He was about to resume his way again,
when an elderly man, clad in the garb of a respectable citizen, and with
a strong deep-lined face which marked him as a man of character, darted
forward, and threw himself down upon one knee in front of the monarch.

"Justice, sire, justice!" he cried.

"What is this, then?" asked Louis. "Who are you, and what is it that
you want?"

"I am a citizen of Paris, and I have been cruelly wronged."

"You seem a very worthy person. If you have indeed been wronged you
shall have redress. What have you to complain of?"

"Twenty of the Blue Dragoons of Languedoc are quartered in my house,
with Captain Dalbert at their head. They have devoured my food, stolen
my property, and beaten my servants, yet the magistrates will give me no
redress.'

"On my life, justice seems to be administered in a strange fashion in
our city of Paris!" exclaimed the king wrathfully.

"It is indeed a shameful case," said Bossuet.

"And yet there may be a very good reason for it," suggested Pere la
Chaise. "I would suggest that your Majesty should ask this man his
name, his business, and why it was that the dragoons were quartered upon
him."

"You hear the reverend fat