oners on foot, and was accordingly at a distance behind the
red companies, who followed close upon the King. He meditated on his way
what it could be that the Prince desired to say to him. A ray of hope
presented to his mind the figure of Marie de Mantua in the distance; and
for a moment his thoughts were calmed. But all his future lay in that
brief sentence--"to please the King"; and he began to reflect upon all
the bitterness in which his task might involve him.

At that moment he saw approaching his friend, De Thou, who, anxious at
his remaining behind, had sought him in the plain, eager to aid him if
necessary.

"It is late, my friend; night approaches. You have delayed long; I
feared for you. Whom have you here? What has detained you? The King will
soon be asking for you."

Such were the rapid inquiries of the young counsellor, whose anxiety,
more than the battle itself, had made him lose his accustomed serenity.

"I was slightly wounded; I bring a prisoner, and I was thinking of the
King. What can he want me for, my friend? What must I do if he
proposes to place me about his person? I must please him; and at this
thought--shall I own it?--I am tempted to fly. But I trust that I shall
not have that fatal honor. 'To please,' how humiliating the word!
'to obey' quite the opposite! A soldier runs the chance of death,
and there's an end. But in what base compliances, what sacrifices of
himself, what compositions with his conscience, what degradation of his
own thought, may not a courtier be involved! Ah, De Thou, my dear De
Thou! I am not made for the court; I feel it, though I have seen it but
for a moment. There is in my temperament a certain savageness, which
education has polished only on the surface. At a distance, I thought
myself adapted to live in this all-powerful world; I even desired it,
led by a cherished hope of my heart. But I shuddered at the first step;
I shuddered at the mere sight of the Cardinal. The recollection of the
last of his crimes, at which I was present, kept me from addressing him.
He horrifies me; I never can endure to be near him. The King's favor,
too, has that about it which dismays me, as if I knew it would be fatal
to me."

"I am glad to perceive this apprehension in you; it may be most
salutary," said De Thou, as they rode on. "You are about to enter into
contact with power. Before, you did not even conceive it; now you will
touch it with your very hand. You will see what it is,