th fifty dragoons and fifty of the rank and file from
Hainault.

All along the road Cavalier and his men met with a courteous reception;
at Macon they found orders awaiting them to halt. Cavalier at once wrote
to M. de Chamillard to tell him that he had things of importance to
communicate to him, and the minister sent a courier of the Cabinet called
Lavallee to bring Cavalier to Versailles. This message more than
fulfilled all Cavalier's hopes: he knew that he had been greatly talked
about at court, and in spite of his natural modesty the reception he had
met with at Times had given him new ideas, if not of his own merit, at
least of his own importance. Besides, he felt that his services to the
king deserved some recognition.

The way in which Cavalier was received by Chamillard did not disturb
these golden dreams: the minister welcomed the young colonel like a man
whose worth he appreciated, and told him that the great lords and ladies
of the court were not less favourably disposed towards him. The next day
Chamillard announced to Cavalier that the king desired to see him, and
that he was to keep himself prepared for a summons to court. Two days
later, Cavalier received a letter from the minister telling him to be at
the palace at four o'clock in the afternoon, and he would place him on
the grand staircase, up which the king would pass.

Cavalier put on his handsomest clothes, for the first time in his life
perhaps taking trouble with his toilet. He had fine features, to which
his extreme youth, his long fair hair, and the gentle expression of his
eyes lent much charm. Two years of warfare had given him a martial air;
in short, even among the most elegant, he might pass as a beau cavalier.

At three o'clock he reached Versailles, and found Chamillard waiting for
him; all the courtiers of every rank were in a state of great excitement,
for they had learned that the great Louis had expressed a wish to meet
the late Cevenol chief, whose name had been pronounced so loud and so
often in the mountains of Languedoc that its echoes had resounded in the
halls of Versailles. Cavalier had not been mistaken in thinking that
everyone was curious to see him, only as no one yet knew in what light
the king regarded him, the courtiers dared not accost him for fear of
compromising their dignity; the manner of his reception by His Majesty
would regulate the warmth of his reception by everyone else.

Met thus by looks of curiosi