ith Bragelonne, and has informed him of all the details of the
affair."

"Possibly even better still, for she perhaps accompanied him there."

"Which way? through your own apartments?"

"You think it impossible, sire? Well, listen to me. Your majesty knows
that Madame is very fond of perfumes?"

"Yes, she acquired that taste from my mother."

"Vervain, particularly."

"Yes, it is the scent she prefers to all others."

"Very good, sire! my apartments happen to smell very strongly of
vervain."

The king remained silent and thoughtful for a few moments, and then
resumed: "But why should Madame take Bragelonne's part against me?"

Saint-Aignan could very easily have replied: "A woman's jealousy!" The
king probed his friend to the bottom of his heart to ascertain if he
had learned the secret of his flirtation with his sister-in-law. But
Saint-Aignan was not an ordinary courtier; he did not lightly run the
risk of finding out family secrets; and he was too a friend of the Muses
not to think very frequently of poor Ovidius Naso, whose eyes shed so
many tears in expiation of his crime for having once beheld something,
one hardly knows what, in the palace of Augustus. He therefore passed
by Madame's secret very skillfully. But as he had shown no ordinary
sagacity in indicating Madame's presence in his rooms in company with
Bragelonne, it was necessary, of course, for him to repay with interest
the king's _amour propre_, and reply plainly to the question which had
been put to him of: "Why has Madame taken Bragelonne's part against me?"

"Why?" replied Saint-Aignan. "Your majesty forgets, I presume, that the
Comte de Guiche is the intimate friend of the Vicomte de Bragelonne."

"I do not see the connection, however," said the king.

"Ah! I beg your pardon, then, sire; but I thought the Comte de Guiche
was a very great friend of Madame's."

"Quite true," the king returned; "there is no occasion to search any
further, the blow came from that direction."

"And is not your majesty of opinion that, in order to ward it off, it
will be necessary to deal another blow?"

"Yes, but not one of the kind given in the Bois de Vincennes," replied
the king.

"You forget, sire," said Saint-Aignan, "that I am a gentleman, and that
I have been challenged."

"The challenge neither concerns nor was it intended for you."

"But I am the man, sire, who has been expected at the Minimes, sire,
during the last hour and more; and I shal