"And you!" she cried, "who speak so slow, and look so solemn,
and all the time do his dirty work, like the meanest cook he has
ennobled! It is well you are here! ENFIN, you are found out--
you and your provisions! Your provisions, of which you talked in
the wood!"
"MON DIEU!" the King groaned; "give me patience!"
"He has given me patience these ten years, sire!" she retorted
passionately. "Patience to see myself flouted by your
favourites, insulted and displaced, and set aside! But this is
too much! It was enough that you made yourself the laughing-
stock of France once with this madame! I will not have it again
--no: though twenty of your counsellors frown at me!"
"Your Majesty seems displeased," I said. "But as I am quite in
the dark--"
"Liar!" she cried, giving way to her fury. "When you were with
her this morning! When you saw her! When you stooped to--"
"Madame!" he King said sternly, "if you forget yourself, be good
enough to remember that you are speaking to French gentlemen, not
to traders of Florence!"
She sneered.
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