ith monarchs."

"Exactly what I was thinking this very minute," said Aramis. "Let us
listen."

The king approached nearer to La Valliere, and as the rain dripped more
and more through the foliage of the oak, he held his hat over the head
of the young girl, who raised her beautiful blue eyes toward the royal
hat which sheltered her, and shook her head, sighing deeply as she did
so.

"What melancholy thought," said the king, "can possibly reach your heart
when I place mine as a rampart before it?"

"I will tell you, sire. I had already once before broached this
question, which is so difficult for a young girl of my age to discuss,
but your majesty imposed silence on me. Your majesty belongs not to
yourself alone, you are married; and every sentiment which would
separate your majesty from the queen, in leading your majesty to take
notice of me, will be a source of the profoundest sorrow for the queen."
The king endeavored to interrupt the young girl, but she continued with
a suppliant gesture. "The Queen Maria, with an attachment which can be
so well understood, follows with her eyes every step of your majesty
which separates you from her. Happy enough in having had her fate united
to your own, she weepingly implores Heaven to preserve you to her, and
is jealous of the faintest throb of your heart bestowed elsewhere." The
king again seemed anxious to speak, but again did La Valliere venture to
prevent him.--"Would it not, therefore, be a most blameable action," she
continued, "if your majesty, a witness of this anxious and disinterested
affection, gave the queen any cause for her jealousy? Forgive me, sire,
for the expression I have used. I well know it is impossible, or rather
that it would be impossible, that the greatest queen of the whole world
could be jealous of a poor girl like myself. But, though a queen, she is
still a woman, and her heart, like that of any of her sex, cannot close
itself against the suspicions which such as are evilly disposed
insinuate. For Heaven's sake, sire, think no more of me, I am unworthy
of your regard."

"Do you know that in speaking as you have done you change my esteem for
you into admiration?"

"Sire, you assume my words to be contrary to the truth; you suppose me
to be better than I really am, and attach a greater merit to me than God
ever intended should be the case. Spare me, sire; for, did I not know
that your majesty was the most generous man in your kingdom, I should
be