ing!"

Here he smiled, in the consciousness of his power; this softened his bad
humor, and he turned towards the Flemings,--

"Do you see, Gossip Guillaume? the grand warden of the keys, the grand
butler, the grand chamberlain, the grand seneschal are not worth the
smallest valet. Remember this, Gossip Coppenole. They serve no purpose,
as they stand thus useless round the king; they produce upon me the
effect of the four Evangelists who surround the face of the big clock of
the palace, and which Philippe Brille has just set in order afresh. They
are gilt, but they do not indicate the hour; and the hands can get on
without them."

He remained in thought for a moment, then added, shaking his aged
head,--

"Ho! ho! by our Lady, I am not Philippe Brille, and I shall not gild the
great vassals anew. Continue, Olivier."

The person whom he designated by this name, took the papers into his
hands again, and began to read aloud,--

"To Adam Tenon, clerk of the warden of the seals of the provostship of
Paris; for the silver, making, and engraving of said seals, which have
been made new because the others preceding, by reason of their antiquity
and their worn condition, could no longer be successfully used, twelve
livres parisis.

"To Guillaume Frere, the sum of four livres, four sols parisis, for his
trouble and salary, for having nourished and fed the doves in the two
dove-cots of the Hotel des Tournelles, during the months of January,
February, and March of this year; and for this he hath given seven
sextiers of barley.

"To a gray friar for confessing a criminal, four sols parisis."

The king listened in silence. From time to time he coughed; then he
raised the goblet to his lips and drank a draught with a grimace.

"During this year there have been made by the ordinance of justice,
to the sound of the trumpet, through the squares of Paris, fifty-six
proclamations. Account to be regulated.

"For having searched and ransacked in certain places, in Paris as well
as elsewhere, for money said to be there concealed; but nothing hath
been found: forty-five livres parisis."

"Bury a crown to unearth a sou!" said the king.

"For having set in the Hotel des Tournelles six panes of white glass
in the place where the iron cage is, thirteen sols; for having made
and delivered by command of the king, on the day of the musters, four
shields with the escutcheons of the said seigneur, encircled with
garlands of roses all abou