itherto entertained;
the former being as gloomy and downcast as the latter was timid and
cringing. It is true he made some attempt at first, and for a time, to
face the matter out; stammering and stuttering, and looking piteously
to the Queen for help. But he could not long delay the crisis, nor
deny that the person he had so cunningly abducted was one of my
waiting-women; and the moment that this confession was made his case
was at an end, the statement being received with so universal a peal of
laughter, the King leading, as at one and the same time discomfited
him, and must have persuaded any indifferent listener that all, from
the first, had been in the secret.

After that he would have spent himself in vain, had he contended that
Mademoiselle D'Oyley was at my house; and so clear was this that he
made no second attempt to do so, but at once admitting that his people
had made a mistake, he proffered me a handsome apology, and desired the
King to speak to me in his behalf.

This I, on my side, was pleased to take in good part; and having let
him off easily with a mild rebuke, turned from him to the Queen, and
informed her with much respect that I had learned at length where
Mademoiselle D'Oyley had taken refuge.

"Where, sir?" she asked, eyeing me suspiciously and with no little
disfavour.

"At the Ursulines, Madame," I answered,

She winced, for she had already quarrelled with the abbess without
advantage. And there for the moment the matter ended. At a later
period I took care to confess all to the King, and he did not fail to
laugh heartily at the clever manner in which I had outwitted Pimentel.
But this was not until the Portuguese had left the country and gone to
Italy, the affair between him and Mademoiselle D'Oyley (which resolved
itself into a contest between the Queen and the Ursulines) having come
to a close under circumstances which it may be my duty to relate in
another place.

X.

FARMING THE TAXES.

In the summer of the year 1608, determining to take up my abode, when
not in Paris, at Villebon, where I had lately enlarged my property, I
went thither from Rouen with my wife, to superintend the building and
mark out certain plantations which I projected. As the heat that month
was great, and the dust of the train annoying, I made each stage in the
evening and on horseback, leaving my wife to proceed at her leisure.
In this way I was able, by taking rough paths, to do in two or three