_cortege_ to file past. "Now, there is, in good truth,
a prince all bespangled over with gold and diamonds, enamelled with
flowers like a spring meadow; he is about to plunge his empty hands
into the immense coffer in which his now faithful--but so lately
unfaithful--subjects have amassed one or two cartloads of ingots of
gold. They cast _bouquets_ enough upon him to smother him; and yet, if
he had presented himself to them two months ago, they would have sent as
many bullets and balls at him as they now throw flowers. Decidedly it is
worth something to be born in a certain sphere, with due respect to the
lowly, who pretend that it is of very little advantage to them to be
born lowly." The _cortege_ continued to file on, and, with the king, the
acclamations began to die away in the direction of the palace, which,
however, did not prevent our officer from being pushed about.

"_Mordioux!_" continued the reasoner, "these people tread upon my toes
and look upon _me_ as of very little consequence, or rather of none at
all, seeing that they are Englishmen and I am a Frenchman. If all these
people were asked,--'Who is M. d'Artagnan?' they would reply, '_Nescio
vos_.' But let any one say to them, 'There is the king going by,' 'There
is M. Monk going by,' they would run away, shouting,--'_Vive le roi!_'
'_Vive M. Monk!_' till their lungs were exhausted. And yet," continued
he, surveying, with that look sometimes so keen and sometimes so proud,
the diminishing crowd,--"and yet, reflect a little, my good people, on
what your king has done, on what M. Monk has done, and then think what
has been done by this poor unknown, who is called M. d'Artagnan! It is
true you do not know him, since he is here unknown, and that prevents
your thinking about the matter! But, bah! what matters it! All that does
not prevent Charles II. from being a great king, although he has been
exiled twelve years, or M. Monk from being a great captain, although he
did make a voyage to Holland in a box. Well, then, since it is admitted
that one is a great king and the other a great captain,--'_Hurrah for
King Charles II.!_--_Hurrah for General Monk!_'" And his voice mingled
with the voices of the hundreds of spectators, over which it sounded for
a moment. Then, the better to play the devoted man, he took off his hat
and waved it in the air. Some one seized his arm in the very height of
his expansive loyalism. (In 1660 that was so termed which we now call
royalis