But I had seen too much of the
world to fall into this mistake, and it satisfied me. I began by
weighing it carefully; I procured evidence, I had Fauchet
watched; and, at length, one evening in August, I went to the
Louvre.
The King was dicing with Fernandez, the Portuguese banker; but I
ventured to interrupt the game and draw him aside. He might not
have taken this well, but that my first word caught his
attention.
"Sire," I said, "the shutter is open."
He understood in a moment. "St. Gris!" He exclaimed with
animation. "Where? At the same house?"
"No, sire; in the Rue Cloitre Notre Dame."
"You have got him, then?"
"I know who he is, and why he is doing this."
"Why?" the King cried eagerly.
"Well, I was going to ask for your Majesty's company to the
place," I answered smiling. "I will undertake that you shall be
amused at least as well as here, and at a cheaper rate."
He shrugged his shoulders. "That may very well be," he said with
a grimace. "That rogue Pimentel has stripped me of two thousand
crowns since supper.
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