There had been a great chase commanded in the Bois de Vincennes,
for M. de Monsoreau to enter on his functions of chief huntsman.
Most people had believed, from the scene of the day before, that
the king would not attend, and much astonishment was expressed
when it was announced that he had set off with his brother and
all the court. The rendezvous was at the Point St. Louis. It was
thus they named a cross-road where the martyr king used to sit
under an oak-tree and administer justice. Everyone was therefore
assembled here at nine o'clock, when the new officer, object of
the general curiosity, unknown as he was to almost everyone,
appeared on a magnificent black horse. All eyes turned towards
him.

He was a man about thirty-five, tall, marked by the smallpox,
and with a disagreeable expression. Dressed in a jacket of green
cloth braided with silver, with a silver shoulder belt, on which
the king's arms were embroidered in gold; on his head a cap with
a long plume; in his left hand a spear, and in his right the
estortuaire [Footnote: The estortuaire was a stick, which the
chief huntsman presented to the king, to put aside the branches
of the trees when he was going at full gallop.] destined for
the king, M. de Monsoreau might look like a terrible warrior,
but not certainly like a handsome cavalier.

"Fie! what an ugly figure you have brought us, monseigneur,"
said Bussy, to the Duc d'Anjou, "are these the sort of gentlemen
that your favor seeks for out of the provinces? Certainly, one
could hardly find such in Paris, which is nevertheless as well
stocked with ugliness. They say that your highness made a great