erected, and the new horses he has bought, with the reader's permission
we will lead him back to the city of Blois, and make him a witness of
the unaccustomed activity which pervades that city.

It was in the hotels that the surprise of the news brought by Raoul was
most sensibly felt.

In fact, the king and the court at Blois, that is to say, a hundred
horsemen, ten carriages, two hundred horses, as many lackeys as masters -
where was this crowd to be housed? Where were to be lodged all the
gentry of the neighborhood, who would gather in two or three hours after
the news had enlarged the circle of its report, like the increasing
circumferences produced by a stone thrown into a placid lake?

Blois, as peaceful in the morning, as we have seen, as the calmest lake
in the world, at the announcement of the royal arrival, was suddenly
filled with the tumult and buzzing of a swarm of bees.

All the servants of the castle, under the inspection of the officers,
were sent into the city in quest of provisions, and ten horsemen were
dispatched to the preserves of Chambord to seek for game, to the
fisheries of Beuvron for fish, and to the gardens of Cheverny for fruits
and flowers.

Precious tapestries, and lusters with great gilt chains, were drawn from
the cupboards; an army of the poor were engaged in sweeping the courts
and washing the stone fronts, whilst their wives went in droves to the
meadows beyond the Loire, to gather green boughs and field-flowers. The
whole city, not to be behind in this luxury of cleanliness, assumed its
best toilette with the help of brushes, brooms, and water. The gutters of