count, trembling upon his infirm legs as the chill breath of the royal displeasure swept over his head, like the first frost of autumn over the parterre of tulips, to which but now we likened the ranks of courtiers.
Passing on, the king reached the station of the marquise and her coterie; and while graciously acknowledging her careless salute, and the profound reverences of her companions, he gayly said to the former,—
"Madame, by the pleased expression upon this young gentleman's face, I suspect that you are congratulating him upon his approaching marriage and the already renowned beauty of his bride."
A slight and angry color rose to the haughty beauty's brow; and turning her eyes upon the startled, almost alarmed, face of the young man, she coldly said,—
"Monsieur had not informed me of his happiness."
"His Majesty is pleased to jest. I am not so unfortunate as to be in bondage as yet," stammered the captain of cavalry, divided between the impossibility of contradicting the king or of speaking to any one else in his presence, and the desire to retain his place in the favor of the imperious beauty, to whom he had just vowed to carry her colors triumphantly through the next battle in which he should be called to engage, and of whom he had begged and obtained permission to present himself at her apartments the next day, and there receive from her own hands the scarf to be thus borne. And although neither the social nor
