consent. The sight of the scenes of his early childhood had
stirred up warmer recollections of the pretty little playful torment,
who through the vista of years assumed the air of a tricksy elf rather
than the little vixen he used to think her. His curiosity had been
further stimulated by the sight of his rival, Narcisse, whose effeminate
ornaments, small stature, and seat on horseback filled Sir Marmaduke's
pupil with inquisitive disdain as to the woman who could prefer anything
so unmanly.

Sidney was to be presented at the after-dinner reception at the Louvre
the next day, and Sir Francis proposed to take young Ribaumont with him.
Berenger coloured, and spoke of his equipment, and Sidney good-naturedly
offered to come and inspect. That young gentleman was one of the
daintiest in apparel of his day; but he was amazed that the suit in
which Berenger had paid his devoir to Queen Elizabeth should have been
set aside--it was of pearl-grey velvet, slashed with rose-coloured
satin, and in shape and fashion point-device--unless, as the Ambassador
said good-humouredly, 'my young Lord Ribaumont wished to be one of
Monsieur's clique.' Thus arrayed, then, and with the chaplet of pearls
bound round the small cap, with a heron-plume that sat jauntily on
one side of his fair curled head, Berenger took his seat beside the
hazel-eyed, brown-haired Sidney, in his white satin and crimson, and
with the Ambassador and his attendants were rolled off in the great
state-coach drawn by eight horses, which had no sinecure in dragging the
ponderous machine through the unsavoury _debris_ of the streets.

Royalty fed in public. The sumptuous banqueting-room contained a
barrier, partitioning off a space where Charles IX. sat alone at his
table, as a State spectacle. He was a sallow, unhealthy-looking
youth, with large prominent dark eyes and a melancholy dreaminess of
expression, as if the whole ceremony, not to say the world itself, were
distasteful. Now and then, as though endeavouring to cast off the mood,
he would call to some gentleman and exchange a rough jest, generally
fortified with a tremendous oath, that startled Berenger's innocent
ears. He scarcely tasted what was put on his plate, but drank largely
of sherbet, and seemed to be trying to linger through the space allotted
for the ceremony.

Silence was observed, but not so absolute that Walsingham could not
point out to his young companions the notabilities present. The lofty
figu