"Yes," said Louis, opening out his thin hands and studying their
palms attentively, "I am pleased--" Tristan interrupted him roughly.
"Pleased that the Burgundians threaten you outside the walls of
Paris; pleased that Thibaut d'Aussigny bullies you inside the walls
of Paris; pleased that your soldiers are mutinous; pleased that your
citizens are sullen; by my faith, here are four royal reasons for a
royal pleasure."

Louis shook his head playfully at his servant's grumbling. "Gossip
Tristan," he asked, "do you know why I have come to this hovel
to-night? I do not walk abroad like a king-errant in mere idleness
of mind. I have come to learn what company my lord the Grand
Constable keeps." Tristan's shaggy eyebrows arched in surprise as
the king continued: "Our good Olivier assures us that our dear
Thibaut d'Aussigny has taken it into his head of late to walk the
streets by night and to haunt strange taverns such as this same
Fircone. I am plagued with a womanish curiosity, Tristan, and I
thought I would peep over Messire Thibaut's shoulder and have an eye
on his cards."

Tristan chuckled. "The Grand Constable bears you a grudge since you
chose to turn a kind eye on the girl of Vaucelles."

"She was a wise virgin to dislike Thibaut," mused the king. "Was she
a foolish virgin to mistrust your majesty?" questioned Tristan.
Louis shrugged his shoulders. "She is a proud piece, gossip. When I
told her that she took my fancy she flamed into a red rage that
chastened me. But if she's not for me she's not for Thibaut either."
"The Grand Constable is a bad enemy," Tristan commented. The king
replied at random.