This was a threat which lent wings to the feet of the servant, who
flew like a whirlwind through the halls, ordered, with breathless
haste, two servants to carry the tobacco, the pipes, and the beer-
mugs into the king's chamber, and then hurried to the other wing of
the palace, where the ball of the queen was held.

Fortune favored the poor servant. In ten minutes the six gentlemen
stood in the king's ante-room, asking each other, with pale faces,
what could be the occasion of this singular and unexpected summons.

The servant shrugged his shoulders, and silently entered the king's
room. His majesty, dressed in the full uniform of his beloved Guard,
sat at the round table, on which the pipes, and the mugs, filled
with foaming beer, were already placed. He had condescended to fill
a pipe with his own hands, and was on the point of lighting it at
the smoking tallow candle which stood near him.

"Sire," said the servant, "the gentlemen are waiting in the next
room."

"Do they know why I have sent for them?" said the king, blowing a
cloud of smoke from his mouth.

"Your majesty forbade me to tell them."

"Well, go now, and tell them I am more furiously angry to-day than
you have ever seen me; that I am standing by the door with my
crutch, and I command them to come singly into my presence."

The servant hurried out to the gentlemen, who, as the door was