Baffled in the only direction in which I could hope for success,
I had to confess my defeat to the King, whose curiosity was only
piqued the more by the rebuff. He adjured me not to let the
matter drop, and, suggesting a number of persons among whom I
might possibly find the unknown, proposed also some theories. Of
these, one that the benevolent was a disguised lady, who
contrived in this way to give the rein at once to gallantry and
charity, pleased him most; while I favoured that which had first
occurred to me on the night of our sally, and held the unknown to
be a clever rascal, who, to serve his ends, political or
criminal, was corrupting the commonalty, and drawing people into
his power.
Things remained in this state some weeks, and, growing no wiser,
I was beginning to think less of the affair--which, of itself,
and apart from a whimsical interest which the King took in it,
was unimportant--when one day, stopping in the Quartier du Marais
to view the works at the new Place Royale, I saw the boy. He was
in charge of a decent-looking servant, whose hand he was holding,
and the two were gazing at a horse that, alarmed by the heaps of
stone and mortar, was rearing and trying to unseat its rider.
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