e St. Antoine, and began to approach the more
fashionable part of Paris, the vicinity of the Pont Neuf. Richly gilt
carriages of the _noblesse_ and the _nouveaux riches_ passed each
other frequently, the inmates of the former disdaining to notice the
inmates of the other--human nature was the same then as now--and threw
the January mud upon an extraordinary crowd of foot passengers--a
crowd composed of ladies with mirrors in their hands; men with huge
blonde or white wigs, who would stop suddenly to take a comb from
their servants' hands and arrange their false locks; others of the
commoner sort selling coffee and chocolate on the footway, another
drawing teeth in the open street, two men fighting a duel with short
swords, a woman and a child picking pockets.[5]

[Footnote 5: See engravings of Della Bella, done at the time and
representing such scenes.]

Because it was the Epiphany--the King's Fete--Louis and the court were
at the Louvre this year, occupying the vast and stately palace on
which the Grande Monarque had spent since 1664 the sum of ten million
seven hundred thousand francs; and high festival was being kept. All
the court had come with him, including the wife who was still
suspected by some of being the mistress; the duchesses and countesses
who had been mistresses if they were so no longer; the bishops who
were not in disgrace and under the displeasure of De Maintenon; the
numerous offspring by various mothers; the ministers and
officials--including Louvois. And it was to present himself to the
latter first, and afterward to seek audience with Louis, that St.
Georges now rode toward the palace.

"Surely," he thought to himself as he directed his course through the
heterogeneous mass in the streets, "surely when I relate my tale,
tell of the terrible blow that has fallen upon me, I shall be forgiven
for having halted on my route. I am more than a week behind, have
lagged on my road, yet for what a cause--what a cause! Oh, my child,
my little Dorine, that I should have had to come away and leave you
behind! My child! My child!"

Never for a moment since he had left the peasant's hut had his
thoughts been absent from that child, never had they ceased to dwell
upon the conspiracy that existed without doubt against both him and
her. Moreover, so intricate, so entangled did all appear that the mesh
seemed incapable of being unravelled, and his brain whirled as he
endeavoured to pierce the darkness of it all