gneur, I am well aware; but--"

"But Madame; well, as far as that goes, I do not say it was not the
case. Why, what the deuce did you do or say to Madame?"

"Really, monseigneur--"

"Women, I know, have their grudges, and my wife is not free from
caprices of that nature. But if she were the cause of your being exiled
I bear you no ill-will."

"In that case, monseigneur," said De Guiche. "I am not altogether
unhappy."

Manicamp, who was following closely behind De Guiche and who did
not lose a word of what the prince was saying, bent down to his very
shoulders over his horse's neck, in order to conceal the laughter he
could not repress.

"Besides, your exile started a project in my head."

"Good."

"When the chevalier--finding you were no longer here, and sure of
reigning undisturbed--began to bully me, I, observing that my wife, in
the most perfect contrast to him, was most kind and amiable towards me
who had neglected her so much, the idea occurred to me of becoming a
model husband--a rarity, a curiosity, at the court; and I had an idea of
getting very fond of my wife."

De Guiche looked at the prince with a stupefied expression of
countenance, which was not assumed.

"Oh! monseigneur," De Guiche stammered out; "surely, that never
seriously occurred to you."

"Indeed it did. I have some property that my brother gave me on my
marriage; she has some money of her own, and not a little either, for
she gets money from her brother and brother-in-law of England and France
at the same time. Well! we should have left the court. I should have
retired to my chateau at Villers-Cotterets, situated in the middle of a
forest, in which we should have led a most sentimental life in the
very same spot where my grandfather, Henry IV., sojourned with La Belle
Gabrielle. What do you think of that idea, De Guiche?"

"Why, it is enough to make one shiver, monseigneur," replied De Guiche,
who shuddered in reality.

"Ah! I see you would never be able to endure being exiled a second
time."

"I, monseigneur?"

"I will not carry you off with us, as I had first intended."

"What, with you, monseigneur?"

"Yes; if the idea should occur to me again of taking a dislike to the
court."

"Oh! do not let that make any difference, monseigneur; I would follow
your highness to the end of the world."

"Clumsy fellow that you are!" said Manicamp, grumblingly, pushing his
horse towards De Guiche, so as almost to unseat him, and then,