him to make this boy generalissimo of the French army."
"Is that all? The young fellow is making out a better road to advancement for himself, if he plays his cards well."
"If the king surprises him making eyes at madame, he is likely to be advanced with a vengeance, advanced to the front ranks of the next forlorn-hope, against some Dutch, city with an unpronounceable name."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen! the king!" announced an usher passing in front of the speakers, who immediately fell back into the formal line adopted by the courtiers about to be passed in review by the monarch, at this moment appearing in the folding-doors thrown open at his approach. A slight murmur of adulation and delight replaced the busy hum of conversation in the grande galerie, a sort of courtly paraphrase of the song issuing from the lips of Memnon as the first rays of morning sunlight touched them; and then Louis, followed by several members of the royal family, passed slowly down the hall, pausing at almost every step to address now one and then another of the rustling and glittering ranks of courtiers, who bent before his look as a parterre of tulips bends before the west wind.
"Did you mark the glance his Majesty shot at the Montespan and her new breloque?" murmured De Vannes to De Chablais without turning his head. "I would not be in the shoes of that captain of cavalry for something, unless the marquise puts him in her pocket before his Majesty reaches that spot."
