The next moment a voice in the crowd cried roughly 'Out upon his
wedding suit!' and with that a sweetmeat struck me in the face.
Another and another followed, covering me with flour and comfits.
This was the last straw. For a moment, forgetting where I was, I
turned upon them, red and furious, every hair in my moustachios
bristling. The next, the full sense of my impotence and of the
folly of resentment prevailed with me, and, dropping my head upon
my breast, I rushed from the room.

I believe that the younger among them followed me, and that the
cry of 'Old Clothes!' pursued me even to the door of my lodgings
in the Rue de la Coutellerie. But in the misery of the moment,
and my strong desire to be within doors and alone, I barely
noticed this, and am not certain whether it was so or not.



CHAPTER II.

THE KING OF NAVARRE.

I have already referred to the danger with which the alliance
between Henry the Third and the League menaced us, an alliance
whereof the news, it was said, had blanched the King of Navarre's
moustache in a single night. Notwithstanding this, the Court had
never shown itself more frolicsome or more free from care than at
the time of which I am speaking; even the lack of money seemed
for the moment forgotten. One amusement followed another, and
though, without doubt, something was doing under the surface for