'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.