I followed more slowly, and saw him dismount and pick up a glove,
which, even at that distance, he had discerned lying in the
middle of one of the paths. He cried, with a flushed face, that
it was Madame de Conde's; and added: "It has her perfume--her
perfume, which no one else uses!"
I confess that this so staggered me that I knew not what to
think; but, between sorrow at seeing my master so infatuated and
bewilderment at a riddle that grew each moment more perplexing, I
sat gaping at Henry like a man without counsel. However, at the
moment, he needed none, but, getting to his saddle as quickly as
he could, he began again to follow the tracks of the horse's
feet, which here were visible, the path running through a beech
wood. The branches were still bare, and the shining trunks stood
up like pillars, the ground about them being soft. We followed
the prints through this wood for a mile and a half or more, and
then, with a cry, the King darted from me, and, in an instant,
was racing through the wood at break-neck speed.
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