your excellency, I may defeat also your good intentions. And if
I permit you to win, I shall seem to be an impostor."

Somewhat surprised by his forethought, I reassured him on this
point; and his game, which proved to be one of remarkable
strength and finesse, and fairly on an equality, as it seemed to
me, with that of the best French players, persuaded me that at
any rate the first part of his tale was true. Accordingly I made
him a present, and, in addition, bade Maignan pay him a small
allowance for a while. For this he showed his gratitude by
attaching himself to my household; and as it was the fashion at
that time to keep tennis masters of this class, I found it
occasionally amusing to pit him against other well-known players.
In the course of a few weeks he gained me great credit; and
though I am not so foolish as to attach importance to such
trifles, but, on the contrary, think an old soldier who stood
fast at Coutras, or even a clerk who has served the King
honestly--if such a prodigy there be--more deserving than these
professors, still I do not err on the other side; but count him a
fool who, because he has solid cause to value himself, disdains
the ECLAT which the attachment of such persons gives him in the
public eye.

The man went by the name of Diego the Spaniard, and his story,
which gradually became known, together with the excellence of his
play, made him so much the fashion that more than one tried to
detach him from my service. The King heard of him, and would
have played with him, but the sudden death of Madame de Beaufort,
which occurred soon afterwards, threw the Court into mourning;
and for a while, in pursuing the negotiations for the King's