ts were rigorously devoted to the prince. On the second
day, however, Monsieur, finding no one near him, inquired where the
chevalier was. He was told that no one knew.

De Guiche, after having spent the morning in selecting embroideries and
fringes with Madame, went to console the prince. But after dinner,
as there were some amethysts to be looked at, De Guiche returned to
Madame's cabinet. Monsieur was left quite to himself during the time
devoted to dressing and decorating himself; he felt that he was the most
miserable of men, and again inquired whether there was any news of the
chevalier, in reply to which he was told that no one could tell
where the chevalier was to be found. Monsieur, hardly knowing in what
direction to inflict his weariness, went to Madame's apartments dressed
in his morning-gown. He found a large assemblage of people there,
laughing and whispering in every part of the room; at one end, a group
of women around one of the courtiers, talking together, amid smothered
bursts of laughter; at the other end, Manicamp and Malicorne were being
pillaged at cards by Montalais and Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente,
while two others were standing by, laughing. In another part were
Madame, seated upon some cushions on the floor, and De Guiche, on his
knees beside her, spreading out a handful of pearls and precious stones,
while the princess, with her white and slender fingers pointed out such
among them as pleased her the most. Again, in another corner of the
room, a guitar player was playing some of the Spanish seguedillas, to
which Madame had taken the greatest fancy ever since she had heard them
sung by the young queen with a melancholy expression of voice. But the
songs which the Spanish princess had sung with tears in her eyes, the
young Englishwoman was humming with a smile that well displayed her
beautiful teeth. The cabinet presented, in fact, the most perfect
representation of unrestrained pleasure and amusement. As he entered,
Monsieur was struck at beholding so many persons enjoying themselves
without him. He was so jealous at the sight that he could not resist
exclaiming, like a child, "What! you are amusing yourselves here, while
I am sick and tired of being alone!"

The sound of his voice was like a clap of thunder coming to interrupt
the warbling of birds under the leafy covert of the trees; a dead
silence ensued. De Guiche was on his feet in a moment. Malicorne tried
to hide himself behind Mont