I did so suspiciously, and without averting my eyes from my
visitors. Great were my embarrassment and confusion, therefore,
when, the door being shut, they dropped their cloaks one after
the other, and I saw before me M. du Mornay and the well-known
figure of the King of Navarre.

They seemed so much diverted, looking at one another and
laughing, that for a moment I thought some chance resemblance
deceived me, and that here were my jokers again. Hence while a
man might count ten I stood staring; and the king was the first
to speak. 'We have made no mistake, Du Mornay, have we?' he
said, casting a laughing glance at me.

'No, sire,' Du Mornay answered. 'This is the Sieur de Marsac,
the gentleman whom I mentioned to you.'

I hastened, confused, wondering, and with a hundred apologies, to
pay my respects to the king. He speedily cut me short, however,
saying, with an air of much kindness, 'Of Marsac, in Brittany, I
think, sir?'

'The same, sire,'

'Then you are of the family of Bonne?'

'I am the last survivor of that family, sire,' I answered
respectfully.

'It has played its part,' he rejoined. and therewith he took his
seat on my stool with an easy grace which charmed me. 'Your