the golden down of their buds, let the dew of morning filter from their
trembling branches, like liquid diamonds; the grass was bursting at the
foot of the hedges; the swallows having returned only a few days since,
described their graceful curves between the heavens and the water; a
breeze, laden with the perfumes of the blossoming woods, sighed along the
road, and wrinkled the surface of the waters of the river; all these
beauties of the day, all these perfumes of the plants, all these
aspirations of the earth towards heaven, intoxicated the two lovers,
walking side by side, leaning upon each other, eyes fixed upon eyes, hand
clasping hand, and who, lingering as by a common desire, did not dare
to speak, they had so much to say.

The officer saw that the king's horse, in wandering this way and that,
annoyed Mademoiselle de Mancini. He took advantage of the pretext of
securing the horse to draw near them, and dismounting, walked between the
two horses he led; he did not lose a single word or gesture of the
lovers. It was Mademoiselle de Mancini who at length began.

"Ah, my dear sire!" said she, "you do not abandon me, then?"

"No, Marie," replied the king; "you see I do not."

"I had so often been told, though, that as soon as we should be separated
you would no longer think of me."

"Dear Marie, is it then to-day only that you have discovered we are
surrounded by people interested in deceiving us?"

"But then, sire, this journey, this alliance with Spain? They are going
to marry you off!"