ply regret that you may have to bow before ridicule, and in a few
days, it might be, contempt."

"Ah!" exclaimed Raoul, perfectly livid. "It is as bad as that, then?"

"If you do not know," said the princess, "I see that you guess; you were
affianced, I believe, to Mademoiselle de la Valliere?"

"Yes, Madame."

"By that right, you deserve to be warned about her, as some day or
another I shall be obliged to dismiss Mademoiselle de la Valliere from
my service--"

"Dismiss La Valliere!" cried Bragelonne.

"Of course. Do you suppose I shall always be amenable to the tears and
protestations of the king? No, no! my house shall no longer be made a
convenience for such practices; but you tremble, you cannot stand--"

"No, Madame, no," said Bragelonne, making an effort over himself; "I
thought I should have died just now, that was all. Your royal highness
did me the honor to say that the king wept and implored you--"

"Yes, but in vain," returned the princess; who then related to Raoul the
scene that took place at Chaillot, and the king's despair on his return;
she told him of his indulgence to herself and the terrible word with
which the outraged princess, the humiliated coquette, had quashed the
royal anger.

Raoul stood with his head bent down.

"What do you think of it all?" she said.

"The king loves her," he replied.

"But you seem to think she does not love him!"

"Alas, Madame, I was thinking of the time when she loved _me_."

Henrietta was for a moment struck with admiration at this sublime
disbelief: and then, shrugging her shoulders, she said, "You do not
believe me, I see. How deeply you must love her. And you doubt if she
loves the king?"

"I do, until I have a proof of it. Forgive me, Madame, but she has
given me her word; and her mind and heart are too upright to tell a
falsehood."

"You require a proof! Be it so. Come with me, then."

Chapter LIII. A Domiciliary Visit.

The princess, preceding Raoul, led him through the courtyard towards
that part of the building La Valliere inhabited, and, ascending the same
staircase which Raoul himself had ascended that very morning, she paused
at the door of the room in which the young man had been so strangely
received by Montalais. The opportunity was remarkably well chosen to
carry out the project Madame Henrietta had conceived, for the chateau
was empty. The king, the courtiers, and the ladies of the court, had
set off for Saint-Germain; Madame