about this Drika.

"They say she is rich?"

"Very rich."

"She has palaces?"

"More magnificent than those of her sister, the queen."

"Whom will she marry?"

"A great lord, the Count Gormo."

"Pretty?"

"Charming."

"Is she young?"

"Very young."

"As beautiful as the queen?"

The ambassador lowered his voice, and replied,--

"More beautiful."

"That is insolent," murmured Barkilphedro.

The queen was silent; then she exclaimed,--

"Those bastards!"

Barkilphedro noticed the plural.

Another time, when the queen was leaving the chapel, Barkilphedro kept
pretty close to her Majesty, behind the two grooms of the almonry. Lord
David Dirry-Moir, crossing the ranks of women, made a sensation by his
handsome appearance. As he passed there was an explosion of feminine
exclamations.

"How elegant! How gallant! What a noble air! How handsome!"

"How disagreeable!" grumbled the queen.

Barkilphedro overheard this; it decided him.

He could hurt the duchess without displeasing the queen. The first
problem was solved; but now the second presented itself.

What could he do to harm the duchess? What means did his wretched
appointment offer to attain so difficult an object?

Evidently none.

CHAPTER XII.

SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND ENGLAND.

Let us note a circumstance. Josiana had _le tour_.

This is easy to understand when we reflect that she was, although
illegitimate, the queen's sister--that is to say, a princely personage.

To have _le tour_--what does it mean?

Viscount St. John, otherwise Bolingbroke, wrote as follows to Thomas
Lennard, Earl of Sussex:--

"Two things mark the great--in England, they have _le tour;_ in France,
_le pour_."

When the King of France travelled, the courier of the court stopped at
the halting-place in the evening, and assigned lodgings to his Majesty's
suite.

Amongst the gentlemen some had an immense privilege. "They have _le
pour_" says the _Journal Historique_ for the year 1694, page 6; "which
means that the courier who marks the billets puts '_pour_' before their
names--as, '_Pour_ M. le Prince de Soubise;' instead of which, when he
marks the lodging of one who is not royal, he does not put _pour_, but
simply the name--as, 'Le Duc de Gesvres, le Duc de Mazarin.'" This
_pour_ on a door indicated a prince or a favourite. A favourite is worse
than a prince. The king granted _le pour_, like a blue ribbon or a
peerage.

_Avoir le tour_ in England