ty?"

He pondered a moment, then he smiled in his weary way.

"It would please me to have you, for these creatures are so dismally
dull, all of them. Je m'ennuie tellement, Marcel!" he sighed. "Ough!
But, no, my friend, I do not doubt you would be as dull as any of them
at present. A man in love is the weariest and most futile thing in all
this weary, futile world. What shall I do with your body what time your
soul is at Lavedan? I doubt me you are in haste to get you there. So go,
Marcel. Get you wed, and live out your amorous intoxication; marriage is
the best antidote. When that is done, return to me."

"That will be never, Sire," I answered slyly.

"Say you so, Master Cupid Bardelys?" And he combed his beard
reflectively. "Be not too sure. There have been other passions--aye, as
great as yours--yet have they staled. But you waste my time. Go, Marcel;
you are excused your duties by me for as long as your own affairs shall
hold you elsewhere--for as long as you please. We are here upon a gloomy
business--as you know. There are my cousin Montmorency and the others
to be dealt with, and we are holding no levees, countenancing no revels.
But come to me when you will, and I will see you. Adieu!"

I murmured my thanks, and very deep and sincere were they. Then, having
kissed his hand, I left him.

Louis XIII is a man who lacks not maligners. Of how history may come to
speak of him it is not mine to hazard. But this I can say, that I,
at least, did never find him other than a just and kindly master, an
upright gentleman, capricious at times and wilful, as must inevitably
be the case with such spoilt children of fortune as are princes, but
of lofty ideals and high principles. It was his worst fault that he was
always tired, and through that everlasting weariness he came to entrust
the determining of most affairs to His Eminence. Hence has it resulted
that the censure for many questionable acts of his reign, which were the
work of my Lord Cardinal, has recoiled upon my august master's head.

But to me, with all the faults that may be assigned him, he was ever
Louis the Just, and wherever his name be mentioned in my hearing, I bare
my head.

CHAPTER XIV. EAVESDROPPING

I turned it over in my mind, after I had left the King's presence,
whether or not I should visit with my own hands upon Chatellerault the
punishment he had so fully earned. That I would have gone about the task
rejoicing you may readily imagi