protect his majesty from all danger.

The regent exchanged glances with D'Artagnan and Lafare; every thing
went well.

The chest was emptied--and, after having allowed the king to enjoy for
an instant the sight of all his treasures--the regent approached him,
and, still hat in hand, recalled to his mind the promise he had made to
devote an hour to the consideration of State affairs.

Louis XV., with that scrupulousness which afterward led him to declare
that punctuality was the politeness of kings, threw a last glance over
his toys; and then merely asking permission to have them removed to his
apartments, advanced toward the little study, and the regent opened the
door. Then, according to their different characters, Monsieur de Fleury,
under pretext of his dislike of politics, drew back, and sat down in a
corner, while the marshal darted forward, and, seeing the king enter the
study tried to follow him. This was the moment that the regent had
impatiently expected.

"Pardon, marshal," said he, barring the passage; "but I wish to speak to
his majesty on affairs which demand the most absolute secrecy, and
therefore I beg for a short tete-a-tete."

"Tete-a-tete!" cried Villeroy; "you know, monseigneur, that it is
impossible."

"And why impossible?" asked the regent, calmly.

"Because, as governor to his majesty, I have the right of accompanying
him everywhere."

"In the first place, monsieur," replied the regent, "this right does not
appear to me to rest on any very positive proof, and if I have till now
tolerated--not this right, but this pretension--it is because the age of
the king has hitherto rendered it unimportant; but now that his majesty
has nearly completed his tenth year, and that I am permitted to commence
instructing him on the science of government, in which I am his
appointed preceptor, you will see that it is quite right that I, as well
as Monsieur de Frejus and yourself, should be allowed some hours of
tete-a-tete with his majesty. This will be less painful to you to grant,
marshal," added the regent, with a smile, the expression of which it was
impossible to mistake, "because, having studied these matters so much
yourself, it is impossible that you can have anything left to learn."

"But, monsieur," said the marshal, as usual forgetting his politeness as
he became warm, "I beg to remind you that the king is my pupil."

"I know it, monsieur," said the regent, in the same tone; "make of his
majes