'Let him steep himself up to the lips among the English,' said

Tithonus to his son. 'Thus will he peaceably relinquish to you all

that should have been yours from the first, and at court will only

be looked on as an overgrown English page.'

The change to the Ambassador's made Berenger happy at once. He was

not French enough in breeding, or even constitution, to feel the

society of the Croix de Lorraine congenial; and, kind as the

Chevalier showed himself, it was with a wonderful sense of relief

that Berenger shook himself free from both his fawning and his

patronizing. There was a constant sense of not understanding the

old gentleman's aims, whereas in Walsingham's house all was as

clear, easy, and open as at home.

And though Berenger had been educated in the country, it had been

in the same tone as that of his new friends. He was greatly

approved by Sir Francis as a stripling of parts and modesty. Mr.

Sidney made him a companion, and the young matron, Lady Walsingham,

treated him as neither lout nor lubber. Yet he could not be at

ease in his state between curiosity and repulsion towards the wife

who was to be discarded by mutual consent. The sight of the scenes

of his early childhood had stirred up warmer recollections of the

pretty little playful torment, who through the vista of years

assumed the air of a tricksy elf rather than the little vixen he

used to think her. His curiosity had been further stimulated by

the sight of his rival, Narcisse, whose effeminate ornaments, small

stature, and seat on horseback filled Sir Marmaduke's pupil with

inquisitive disdain as to the woman who could prefer anything so

unmanly.

Sidney was to be presented at the after-dinner reception at the

Louvre the next day, and Sir Francis proposed to take young

Ribaumont with him. Berenger coloured, and spoke of his equipment,

and Sidney good-naturedly offered to come and inspect. That young

gentleman was one of the daintiest in apparel of his day; but he

was amazed that the suit in which Berenger had paid his devoir to

Queen Elizabeth should have been set aside--it was of pearl-grey

velvet, slashed with rose-coloured satin, and in shape and fashion

point-device--unless, as the Ambassador said good-humouredly, 'my

young Lord Ribaumont wished to be one of Monsieur's clique.' Thus

arrayed, then, and with the chaplet of pearls bound round the small

cap, with a heron-plume that sat jauntily on one side of his fair

curled head, Berenger took his seat beside the hazel-eyed, brown-

haired Sidney, in his white satin and crimson, and with the

Ambassador and his attendants were rolled off in the great state-

coach drawn by eight horses, which had no sinecure in dragging the

ponderous machine through the unsavoury debris of the streets.




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