No sooner was the dinner over than he rose and expressed his

intention of delivering his letters of introduction in person to

the English ambassador and to the Admiral de Coligny, whom, as his

father's old friend and the hero of his boyhood, he was most

anxious to see. The Chevalier demurred to this. Were it not

better to take measures at once for making himself presentable, and

Narcisse had already supplied him with directions to the

fashionable hair-cutter, &c. It would be taken amiss if he went to

the Admiral before going to present himself to the King.

'And I cannot see my cousins till I go to court?' asked Berenger.

'Most emphatically No. Have I not told you that the one is in the

suite of the young Queen, the other in that of the Queen-mother? I

will myself present you, if only you will give me the honour of

your guidance.'

'With all thanks, Monsieur,' said Berenger; 'my grandfather's

desire was that I should lose no time in going to his friend Sir

Francis Walsingham, and I had best submit myself to his judgment as

to my appearance at court.'

On this point Berenger was resolute, though the Chevalier recurred

to the danger of any proceeding that might be unacceptable at

court. Berenger, harassed and impatient, repeated that he did not

care about the court, and wished merely to fulfil his purpose and

return, at which his kinsman shook his head and shrugged his

shoulders, and muttered to himself, 'Ah, what does he know! He

will regret it when too late; but I have done my best.'

Berenger paid little attention to this, but calling Landry Osbert,

and a couple of his men, he bade them take their swords and

bucklers, and escort him in his walk through Paris. He set off

with a sense of escape, but before he had made many steps, he was

obliged to turn and warn Humfrey and Jack that they were not to

walk swaggering along the streets, with hand on sword, as if every

Frenchman they saw was the natural foe of their master.

Very tall were the houses, very close and extremely filthy the

streets, very miserable the beggars; and yet here and there was to

be seen the open front of a most brilliant shop, and the

thoroughfares were crowded with richly-dressed gallants. Even the

wider streets gave little space for the career of the gay horsemen

who rode along them, still less for the great, cumbrous, though

gaily-decked coaches, in which ladies appeared glittering with

jewels and fan in hand, with tiny white dogs on their knees.




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