peasant whose cow had been torn by a huntsman's dog, and a farmer who
had had hard usage from his feudal lord. A few questions and then a
hurried order to his secretary disposed of each case, for if Louis was a
tyrant himself, he had at least the merit that he insisted upon being
the only one within his kingdom. He was about to resume his way again,
when an elderly man, clad in the garb of a respectable citizen, and with
a strong deep-lined face which marked him as a man of character, darted
forward, and threw himself down upon one knee in front of the monarch.

"Justice, sire, justice!" he cried.

"What is this, then?" asked Louis. "Who are you, and what is it that
you want?"

"I am a citizen of Paris, and I have been cruelly wronged."

"You seem a very worthy person. If you have indeed been wronged you
shall have redress. What have you to complain of?"

"Twenty of the Blue Dragoons of Languedoc are quartered in my house,
with Captain Dalbert at their head. They have devoured my food, stolen
my property, and beaten my servants, yet the magistrates will give me no
redress.'

"On my life, justice seems to be administered in a strange fashion in
our city of Paris!" exclaimed the king wrathfully.

"It is indeed a shameful case," said Bossuet.

"And yet there may be a very good reason for it," suggested Pere la