he King,
still in his hunting dress, sat on a low chair by the fire, apparently
drying his boots. Mademoiselle Galigai, the Queen's waiting-woman,
stood in the background; but more than this I had not time to observe,
for, before I had reached the middle of the floor, the Queen turned on
me, and began to abuse me with a vehemence which fairly shocked me.

"And you!" she cried, "who speak so slow, and look so solemn, and all
the time do his dirty work, like the meanest cook he has ennobled! It
is well you are here! ENFIN, you are found out--you and your
provisions! Your provisions, of which you talked in the wood!"

"MON DIEU!" the King groaned; "give me patience!"

"He has given me patience these ten years, sire!" she retorted
passionately. "Patience to see myself flouted by your favourites,
insulted and displaced, and set aside! But this is too much! It was
enough that you made yourself the laughing-stock of France once with
this madame! I will not have it again--no: though twenty of your
counsellors frown at me!"

"Your Majesty seems displeased," I said. "But as I am quite in the
dark--"

"Liar!" she cried, giving way to her fury. "When you were with her
this morning! When you saw her! When you stooped to--"

"Madame!" the King said sternly, "if you forget yourself, be good
enough to remember that you are speaking to French gentlemen, not to
traders of Florence!"

She sneered. "You think to wound me by that!" she cried, breathing
quickly. "But I have my grandfather's blood in me, sire; and no King
of France--"

"One King of France will presently make your uncle of that blood sing
small!" the King answered viciously. "So much for that; and for the
rest, sweetheart, softly, softly!"

"Oh!" she cried, "I will go: I will not stay to be outraged by that
woman's presence!"

I had now an inkling what was the matter; and discerning that the
quarrel was a more serious matter than their every-day bickerings, and
threatened to go to lengths that might end in disaster, I ignored the
insult her Majesty had flung at me, and entreated her to be calm. "If
I understand aright, madame," I said, "you have some grievance against
his Majesty. Of that I know nothing. But I also understand that you
allege something against me; and it is to speak to that, I presume,
that I am summoned. If you will deign to put the matter into words--"

"Words!" she cried. "You have words enough! But get out of thi