your highness's household."

"Her name?" inquired the princess, anxiously; "if indeed," she added,
hastily, "her name is not a secret."

"No, Madame, my affection is too pure for me to make a secret of it to
any one, and with still greater reason to your royal highness, whose
kindness towards me has been so extreme. It is Mademoiselle Louise de la
Valliere."

Madame could not restrain an exclamation, in which a feeling
stronger than surprise might have been detected. "Ah!" she said, "La
Valliere--she who yesterday--" she paused, and then continued, "she who
was taken ill, I believe."

"Yes, Madame; it was only this morning that I heard of the accident that
had befallen her."

"Did you see her before you came to me?"

"I had the honor of taking leave of her."

"And you say," resumed Madame, making a powerful effort over herself,
"that the king has--deferred your marriage with this young girl."

"Yes, Madame, deferred it."

"Did he assign any reason for this postponement?"

"None."

"How long is it since the Comte de la Fere preferred his request to the
king?"

"More than a month, Madame."

"It is very singular," said the princess, as something like a film
clouded her eyes.

"A month?" she repeated.

"About a month."

"You are right, vicomte," said the princess, with a smile, in which De
Bragelonne might have remarked a kind of restraint; "my brother must not
keep you too long in England; set off at once, and in the first letter I
write to England, I will claim you in the king's name." And Madame rose
to place her letter in Bragelonne's hands. Raoul understood that his
audience was at an end; he took the letter, bowed lowly to the princess,
and left the room.

"A month!" murmured the princess; "could I have been blind, then, to so
great an extent, and could he have loved her for this last month?"
And as Madame had nothing to do, she sat down to begin a letter to her
brother, the postscript of which was a summons for Bragelonne to return.

The Comte de Guiche, as we have seen, had yielded to the pressing
persuasions of Manicamp, and allowed himself to be led to the stables,
where they desired their horses to be got ready for them; then, by one
of the side paths, a description of which has already been given,
they advanced to meet Monsieur, who, having just finished bathing, was
returning towards the chateau, wearing a woman's veil to protect his
face from getting burnt by the sun, which was shinin