and talking with these were as many young gentlewomen. Two great
hounds lay basking in the heat, and coiled between them, with her
head on the back of the larger, was a figure so strange that at
another time I should have doubted my eyes. It wore the fool's
motley and cap and bells, but a second glance showed me the
features were a woman's. A torrent of black hair flowed loose
about her neck, her eyes shone with wild merriment, and her face,
keen, thin, and hectic, glared at me from the dog's back. Beyond
her, round the farther fireplace, clustered more than a score of
gallants and ladies, of whom one presently advanced to me.

'Sir,' he said politely--and I wished I could match his bow--'you
wished to see--?'

'The King of Navarre,' I answered, doing my best.

He turned to the group behind him, and said, in a peculiarly
even, placid tone, 'He wishes to see the King of Navarre.' Then
in solemn silence he bowed to me again and went back to his
fellows.

Upon the instant, and before I could make up my mind how to take
this, a second tripped forward, and saluting me, said, 'M. de
Marsac, I think?'

'At your service, sir,' I rejoined. In my eagerness to escape
the gaze of all those eyes, and the tittering which was audible
behind me, I took a step forward to be in readiness to follow
him. But he gave no sign. 'M. de Marsac to see the King of
Navarre' was all he said, speaking as the other had close to