of distaste. "When I get
to Paris," he mused, "I will shift these habiliments. It is all very well
to play the bird of prey, but it is somewhat unpleasant to wear the
bird's own feathers."

XVIII

THE FACTION OF GONZAGUE

A little later in the day a company of joyous gentlemen made their way
from the fair of Neuilly and came to a halt opposite the tavern whose
green arbors seemed inviting enough after the heat of the dusty road. All
of the company were richly dressed, most of the company were young--the
joyous satellites of the central figure of the party. This was a tall,
graceful Italianate man, who carried his fifty years with the grace and
ease of thirty. He had a handsome face; those that admired him, and they
were many, said there was no handsomer man at the court of the king than
the king's familiar friend Louis de Gonzague. A man of the hour and a man
of the world, Gonzague delighted to shine almost unrivalled and quite
unsurpassed in the splendid court which the cardinal had permitted the
king to gather about him. Something of a statesman and much of a scholar,
Gonzague delighted to be the patron of the arts, and to lend, indirectly,
indeed, but no less efficaciously, his counsels to the service of the
cardinal during the cardinal's lifetime, and to the king now that the
cardinal was gone. A man of pleasure, Gonzague was careful to enjoy all
the delights that a society which found its chief occupation in the
pursuit of amusement afforded. Even the youngest cavalier in Paris or
Versailles would have regretted to find himself in rivalry with Gonzague
for the favors of the fair. But in his pleasures, as in his policy,
Gonzague was always discreet, reserved, even slightly mysterious, and
though rumor had linked his name time and time again with the names of
such gracious ladies as the cardinal had permitted to illuminate the
court of the king, Gonzague had always been far too cautious, or too
indifferent, to drift into anything that could in the least resemble an
enduring entanglement. Indeed, there was an element of the Oriental in
his tastes, which led him rather to find his entertainment in such light
love as came and went by the back ways of palaces or could be sequestered
in cheerful little country villas remote from curious eyes. This,
however, was a matter of gossip, rumor, speculation. What was certainly
known about Louis de Gonzague was that he delighted always to be
surrounded by young gentlem