Page:The Man in the Iron Mask.djvu/444

you need not be alarmed, the king is not much of a sports- man; he does not sport on his own account, he only wishes to give amusement to the ladies."

The words 'Ho the ladies" were so strongly accented that it set D'Artagnan listening.

"Ah!" said he, looking at the falconer with surprise.

The captain of the harriers smiled, no doubt with a view of making it up with the musketeer.

"0h! you may safoly laugh," said D'Artagnan; "I know nothing of current news; I only arrived yesterday, after a month's absence. I left the court mourning the death of the queen-mother. The king was not willing to take any amusement after receiving the last sigh of Anne of Austria; but everything has an end in this world. Well, then he is no longer sad? So much the better."

"And everything commences as well as ends," said the captain of the dogs, with a coarse laugh.

"Ah!" said D'Artagnan, a second time — he burned to know, but dignity would not allow him to interrogate people below him — "there is something beginning, then, it appears?"

The captain gave him a significant wink; but D'Artagnan was unwilling to learn anything from this man.

"Shall we see the king early?" asked he of the falconer.

"At seven o'clock, monsieur, I shall fly the birds."

"Who comes with the king? How is madame? How is the queen?"

"Better, monsieur."

"Has she been ill, then?"

"Monsieur, since the last chagrin he had, her majesty had been unwell."

"What chagrin? You need not fancy your news is old. I am but just returned."

"It appears that the queen, a little neglected since the death of her mother-in-law, complained to the king, who replied to her: 'Do I not sleep with you every night, madame? What more do you want?'"

"Ah!" said D'Artagnan, "poor woman! She must heartily hate Mademoiselle de la Valliere."

"Oh, no! not Mademoiselle de la Valliere," replied the falconer.

"Who then?"

The horn interrupted this conversation. It summoned the dogs and the hawks. The falconer and his companion

set off immediately, leaving D'Artagnan alone in the midst