lodged her in his apartments, however, before she
was decoyed away by a trick, and borne off against her will by a young
gallant, who had seen her and been smitten by her charms. Dromio,
returning, and finding his mistress gone, gave way to the most poignant
grief. He ran up and down the city, seeking her in every place, and
filling all places with his lamentations; but for a time in vain, until
chance led him to a certain street, where, in an almost incredible
manner, he found a clew to her by discovering underfoot a knot of
velvet, bearing Phyllida's name wrought on it in delicate needlework,
with the words, "A moi!"'

'Sanctus!' cried the king, amid a general murmur of surprise, 'that
is well devised! Proceed, sir. Go on like that, and we will make your
twenty men twenty-five.'

'Dromio,' I continued, 'at sight of this trifle experienced the most
diverse emotions, for while he possessed in it a clew to his mistress's
fate, he had still to use it so as to discover the place whither she had
been hurried. It occurred to him at last to begin his search with the
house before which the knot had lain. Ascending accordingly to the
second-floor, he found there a fair lady reclining on a couch, who
started up in affright at his appearance. He hastened to reassure
her, and to explain the purpose of his coming, and learned after a
conversation with which I will not trouble your Majesty, though it
was sufficiently diverting, that the lady had found the velvet knot in
another part of the town, and had herself dropped it again in front of
her own house.'

'Pourquoi?' the king asked, interrupting me.

'The swain, sire,' I answered, 'was too much taken up with his own
troubles to bear that in mind, even if he learned it. But this delicacy
did not save him from misconception, for as he descended from the lady's
apartment he met her husband on the stairs.'

'Good!' the king exclaimed, rubbing his hands in glee. 'The husband!'
And under cover of the gibe and the courtly laugh which followed it M.
de Bruhl's start of surprise passed unnoticed save by me.

'The husband,' I resumed, 'seeing a stranger descending his staircase,
was for stopping him and learning the reason of his presence; But
Dromio, whose mind was with Phyllida, refused to stop, and, evading his
questions, hurried to the part of the town where the lady had told him
she found the velvet knot. Here, sire, at the corner of a lane running
between garden-walls, he found