'

'To St. Cloud?' I exclaimed, greatly astonished.

'No, the king of France is here,' he answered.

'At Meudon?'

'To be sure. Why not?'

I expressed my wonder at his Majesty's rapid recovery.

'Pooh!' he answered roughly. 'He is as well as he ever was. I will leave
you my light. Be good enough to descend as soon as you are ready, for it
is ill work keeping kings waiting. Oh! and I had forgotten one thing,'
he continued, returning when he had already reached the door. 'My orders
are to see that you do not hold converse with anyone until you have seen
the king, M. de Marsac. You will kindly remember this if we are kept
waiting in the antechamber.'

'Am I to be transported to--other custody?' I asked, my mind full of
apprehension.

He shrugged his shoulders. 'Possibly,' he replied. 'I do not know.'

Of course there was nothing for it but to murmur that I was at the
king's disposition; after which La Varenne retired, leaving me to put
the best face on the matter I could. Naturally I augured anything
but well of an interview weighted with such a condition; and this
contributed still further to depress my spirits, already lowered by the
long solitude in which I had passed the day. Fearing nothing, however,
so much as suspense, I hastened to do what I could to repair my costume,
and then descended to the foot of the stairs, where I found my custodian
awaiting me with a couple of servants, of whom one bore a link.

We went out side by side, and having barely a hundred yards to go,
seemed in a moment to be passing through the gate of the Castle. I
noticed that the entrance was very strongly guarded, but an instant's
reflection served to remind me that this was not surprising after what
had happened at St. Cloud. I remarked to M. la Varenne as we crossed the
courtyard that I supposed Paris had surrendered; but he replied in the
negative so curtly, and with so little consideration, that I forebore to
ask any other questions; and the Chateau being small, we found ourselves
almost at once in a long, narrow corridor, which appeared to serve as
the antechamber.

It was brilliantly lighted and crowded from end to end, and almost from
wall to wall, with a mob of courtiers; whose silence, no less than
their keen and anxious looks, took me by surprise. Here and there two or
three, who had seized upon the embrasure of a window, talked together in
a low tone; or a couple, who thought themselves sufficiently important
to pace