"It is so much the more gracious on your part to accept my
invitation with such frankness, as my cooks are but few and
inexperienced, and my providers have returned this evening
empty-handed; so that if it had not been for a fisherman of
your nation who strayed into our camp, General Monk would
have gone to bed without his supper to-day; I have, then,
some fresh fish to offer you, as the vendor assures me."

"My lord, it is principally for the sake of having the honor
to pass another hour with you."

After this exchange of civilities, during which Monk had
lost nothing of his circumspection, the supper, or what was
to serve for one, had been laid upon a deal table. Monk
invited the Comte de la Fere to be seated at this table, and
took his place opposite to him. A single dish of boiled
fish, set before the two illustrious guests, was more
tempting to hungry stomachs than to delicate palates.

Whilst supping, that is, while eating the fish, washed down
with bad ale, Monk got Athos to relate to him the last
events of the Fronde, the reconciliation of M. de Conde with
the king, and the probable marriage of the infanta of Spain;
but he avoided, as Athos himself avoided it, all allusion to
the political interests which united, or rather which
disunited at this time, England, France and Holland.

Monk, in this conversation, convinced himself of one thing,
which he must have remarked after the first words exchanged:
that was, that he had to deal with a man of high