n. "Love is madness and the only sanity,
delirium and the only truth; blindness and the only vision, folly and
the only wisdom. It is----" He broke off and cried impatiently, "I have
forgotten what it is."

"Why, my lord, you never knew what it is," said the King. "Alone of us
here, Mr Dale knows, and since he cannot tell us the knowledge is lost
to the world. James, have you any news of my friend M. de Fontelles?"

"Such news as your Majesty has," answered Monmouth. "And I hear that my
Lord Carford will not die."

"Let us be as thankful as is fitting for that," said the King. "M. de
Fontelles sent me a very uncivil message; he is leaving England, and
goes, he tells me, to seek a King whom a gentleman may serve."

"Is the gentleman about to kill himself, Sir?" asked Rochester with an
affected air of grave concern.

"He's an insolent rascal," cried Monmouth angrily. "Will he go back to
France?"

"Why, yes, in the end, when he has tried the rest of my brethren in
Europe. A man's King is like his nose; the nose may not be handsome,
James, but it's small profit to cut it off. That was done once, you
remember----"

"And here is your Majesty on the throne," interposed Rochester with a
most loyal bow.

"James," said the King, "our friend Mr Dale desires to wed Mistress
Barbara Quinton."

Monmouth started violently and turned red.

"His admiration for that lady," continued the King, "has been shared by
such high and honourable persons that I cannot doubt it to be well
founded. Shall he not then be her husband?"

Monmouth's eyes were fixed on me; I met his glance with an easy smile.
Again I felt that I, who had worsted M. de Perrencourt, need not fear
the Duke of Monmouth.

"If there be any man," observed Rochester, "who would love a lady who is
not a wife, and yet is fit to be his wife, let him take her, in Heaven's
name! For he might voyage as far in search of another like her as M. de
Fontelles must in his search for a Perfect King."

"Shall he not have her, James?" asked the King of his son.

Monmouth understood that the game was lost.

"Ay, Sir, let him have her," he answered, mustering a smile. "And I hope
soon to see your Court graced by her presence."

Well, at that, I, most inadvertently and by an error in demeanour which
I now deplore sincerely, burst into a short sharp laugh. The King turned
to me with raised eye-brows.

"Pray let us hear the jest, Mr Dale," said he.

"Why, Sir," I answered, "t