'

'Long before you could get so far the ushers would have dragged you away
for brawling, or for maligning an honour-able gentlemen. You would have
to finish your speech in the Bastille, and it would be well if even your
English friends could get you out alive.'

'Why, what a place is this!' began Berenger; but again Mericour
entreated him to curb himself; and his English education had taught
him to credit the house of Guide with so much mysterious power and
wickedness, that he allowed himself to be silenced, and promised to take
no open measures till he had consulted the Ambassador.

'He could not obtain another glimpse of Eustacie, and the hours passed
tardily till the break up of the party. Charles could scarcely release
Sidney from his side, and only let him go on condition that he should
join the next day in an expedition to the hunting chateau of Montpipeau,
to which the King seemed to look forward as a great holiday and
breathing time.

When at length the two youths did return, Sir Francis Walsingham was
completely surprised by the usually tractable, well-behaved stripling,
whose praises he had been writing to his old friend, bursting in on him
with the outcry, 'Sir, sir, I entreat your counsel! I have been foully
cozened.'

'Of how much?' said Sir Francis, in a tone of reprobation.

'Of my wife. Of mine honour. Sir, your Excellency, I crave pardon, if I
spoke too hotly,' said Berenger, collecting himself; 'but it is enough
to drive a man to frenzy.'

'Sit down, my Lord de Ribaumont. Take breath, and let me know what is
this coil. What hath thus moved him, Mr. Sidney?'

'It is as he says, sir,' replied Sidney, who had beard all as they
returned; 'he has been greatly wronged. The Chevalier de Ribaumont not
only writ to propose the separation without the lady's knowledge, but
imposed his own daughter on our friend as the wife he had not seen since
infancy.'

'There, sir,' broke forth Berenger; 'surely if I claim mine own in the
face of day, no man can withhold her from me!'

'Hold!' said Sir Francis. 'What mean this passion, young sir? Methought
you came hither convinced that both the religion and the habits in which
the young lady had been bred up rendered your infantine contract most
unsuitable. What hath fallen out to make this change in your mind?'

'That I was cheated, sir. The lady who palmed herself off on me as my
wife was a mere impostor, the Chevalier's own daughter!'

'That may be; but wha