in the yard fancied that he recognized M. de la Varenne."

"Ah!" I said. My agitation was indeed so great that, before giving reins
to it, I bade La Trape withdraw. I could scarcely believe that,
acquainted as the King was with the plots which the Catholics were daily
aiming at his life; and possessing such powerful enemies among the great
Protestants as Tremonelle and Bouillon--to say nothing of Mademoiselle
d'Entragues' half-brother, the Count of Auvergne, who hated him--I say,
I could hardly believe that with full knowledge of these facts his
Majesty had been so fool-hardy as to travel without guards to
Fontainebleau. And yet I now felt a certainty that this was the case.
The presence of La Varenne, the confidant of his intrigues, while it
informed me of the cause of the journey, convinced me that his Majesty
had given way to the sole weakness of his nature, and was bent on one of
those adventures of gallantry which had been more becoming in the Prince
of Bearn than in the King of France. Nor was I at a loss to guess the
object of his pursuit. It had been lately whispered in the Court that
the King had fallen in love with his mistress's younger sister, Susette
d'Entragues; whose home at Malesherbes lay but three leagues from
Fontainebleau, on the edge of the forest. This fact placed the King's
imprudence in a stronger light; for he had scarcely in France a more
dangerous enemy than her brother, Auvergne, nor had the immense sums
which he had settled on the elder sister satisfied the avarice or
conciliated the hostility of her father.

I saw that Father Cotton had known more than I had. But his motive in
speaking I found less easy to divine. It might be a wish to baulk this
new passion through my interference, while he exposed me to the risk of
his Majesty's anger. Or it might be the single desire to avert danger
from the King's person. At any rate, constant to my rule of preferring,
come what might, my master's interest to his favour, I sent for Maignan,
my equerry, and bade him have an equipage ready at dawn.

At that hour, next morning, attended only by La Trape, with a groom, a
page, and four Swiss, I started, giving out that I was bound for Sully
to inspect that demesne, which had formerly been the property of my
family, and of which the refusal had just been offered to me. Under
cover of this destination, I was enabled to reach La Ferte Alais
unsuspected. There, pretending that the motion of the coach fatigued