"
"Although half an hour before you had seen her, you had talked
with her, you had been with her in the forest?"
"But I had not, madame!"
"What?" she cried, staring at me, surprised doubtless that I
manifested no confusion. "Do you say that you did not see her?"
"I did not."
"Nor the King?"
"The King, Madame, cannot have seen her this morning," I said,
"because he is here and she is in Brussels."
"You persist in that?"
"Certainly!" I said. "Besides, madame," I continued, "I have no
doubt that the King has given you his word--"
"His word is good for everyone but his wife!" she answered
bitterly. "And for yours, M. le Duc, I will show you what it is
worth. Mademoiselle, call--"
"Nay, madame!" I said, interrupting her with spirit, "if you are
going to call your household to contradict me--"
"But I am not!" she cried in a voice of triumph that, for the
moment, disconcerted me. "Mademoiselle, send to M. de
Bassompierre's lodgings, and bid him come to me!"
The King whistled softly, while I, who knew Bassompierre to be
devoted to him, and to be, in spite of the levity to which his
endless gallantries bore witness, a man of sense and judgment,
prepared myself for a serious struggle; judging that we were in
the meshes of an intrigue, wherein it was impossible to say
whether the Queen figured as actor or dupe.
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