When he had disappeared under the shades of the porch, three
or four idlers, who had followed the cavalcade to the
castle, after pointing out the suspended birds to each
other, dispersed with comments upon what they saw: and, when
they were gone, the street, the place, and the court all
remained deserted alike.

Monsieur dismounted without speaking a word, went straight
to his apartments, where his valet changed his dress, and as
Madame had not yet sent orders respecting breakfast,
Monsieur stretched himself upon a chaise longue, and was
soon as fast asleep as if it had been eleven o'clock at
night.

The eight guards, who concluded their service for the day
was over, laid themselves down very comfortably in the sun
upon some stone benches; the grooms disappeared with their
horses into the stables, and, with the exception of a few
joyous birds, startling each other with their sharp chirping
in the tufted shrubberies, it might have been thought that
the whole castle was as soundly asleep as Monsieur was.

All at once, in the midst of this delicious silence, there
resounded a clear ringing laugh, which caused several of the
halberdiers in the enjoyment of their siesta to open at
least one eye.

This burst of laughter proceeded from a window of the
castle, visited at this moment by the sun, that embraced it
in one of those large angles which the profiles of the