ver have been acknowledged in civilized Europe.--Once more I pause for
your Majesty's reply."

"You did well, Count de Crevecoeur," said Louis, scornfully, "to begin
your embassy at an early hour; for if it be your purpose to call on
me to account for the flight of every vassal whom your master's heady
passion may have driven from his dominions, the head roll may last till
sunset. Who can affirm that these ladies are in my dominions? who can
presume to say, if it be so, that I have either countenanced their
flight hither, or have received them with offers of protection? Nay,
who is it will assert, that, if they are in France, their place of
retirement is within my knowledge?"

"Sire," said Crevecoeur, "may it please your Majesty, I was provided
with a witness on this subject--one who beheld these fugitive ladies in
the inn called the Fleur de Lys, not far from this Castle--one who saw
your Majesty in their company, though under the unworthy disguise of a
burgess of Tours--one who received from them, in your royal presence,
messages and letters to their friends in Flanders--all which he conveyed
to the hand and ear of the Duke of Burgundy."

"Bring them forward," said the King; "place the man before my face who
dares maintain these palpable falsehoods."

"You speak in triumph, my lord, for you are well aware that this witness
no longer exists. When he lived, he was called Zamet Magraubin, by
birth one of those Bohemian wanderers. He was yesterday--as I have
learned--executed by a party of your Majesty's Provost Marshal, to
prevent, doubtless, his standing here to verify what he said of this
matter to the Duke of Burgundy, in presence of his Council, and of me,
Philip Crevecoeur de Cordes."

"Now, by Our Lady of Embrun," said the King, "so gross are these
accusations, and so free of consciousness am I of aught that approaches
them, that, by the honour of a King, I laugh, rather than am wroth at
them. My Provost guard daily put to death, as is their duty, thieves and
vagabonds; and is my crown to be slandered with whatever these thieves
and vagabonds may have said to our hot cousin of Burgundy and his
wise counsellors? I pray you, tell my kind cousin, if he loves such
companions, he had best keep them in his own estates; for here they are
like to meet short shrift and a tight cord."

"My master needs no such subjects, Sir King," answered the Count, in a
tone more disrespectful than he had yet permitted himself to mak