r conciliating the gentleman by every
means, and took as much pains to please him as to gain favour with the
lady herself. Here was a good reason for M. de Perrencourt's
distinguished treatment, and no less for the composure and calm with
which M. de Perrencourt accepted it. To my mind, however, the manner of
M. de Perrencourt's arrival and the incident of M. Colbert's Star found
scarcely a sufficient explanation in this ingenious conjecture; yet the
story, thus circulated, was generally accepted and served its office of
satisfying curiosity and blunting question well enough.

Again (for my curiosity would not be satisfied, nor the edge of my
questioning be turned)--what had the Duke of Monmouth to gain from M. de
Perrencourt? Something it seemed, or his conduct was most mysterious. He
cared nothing for Mlle. de Querouaille, and I could not suppose that the
mere desire to please his father would have weighed with him so strongly
as to make him to all appearance the humble servant of this French
gentleman. The thing was brought home most forcibly to my mind on the
third evening after M. de Perrencourt's arrival. A private conference
was held and lasted some hours; outside the closed doors we all paced to
and fro, hearing nothing save now and then Madame's clear voice, raised,
as it seemed, in exhortation or persuasion. The Duke, who was glad
enough to escape the tedium of State affairs but at the same time
visibly annoyed at his exclusion, sauntered listlessly up and down,
speaking to nobody. Perceiving that he did not desire my company, I
withdrew to a distance, and, having seated myself in a retired corner,
was soon lost in consideration of my own fortunes past and to come. The
hour grew late; the gentlemen and ladies of the Court, having offered
and accepted compliments and gallantries till invention and complaisance
alike were exhausted, dropped off one by one, in search of supper,
wine, or rest. I sat on in my corner. Nothing was to be heard save the
occasional voices of the two musketeers on guard on the steps leading
from the second storey of the keep to the State apartments. I knew that
I must move soon, for at night the gate on the stairs was shut. It was
another of the peculiar facts about M. de Perrencourt that he alone of
the gentlemen-in-waiting had been lodged within the precincts of the
royal quarters, occupying an apartment next to the Duke of York, who had
his sister Madame for his neighbour on the other