"
"I do not understand?" the Queen said.
"Your Majesty will, if Mademoiselle Paleotti will consent to
humour us."
At that the girl uttered a cry, and looked round the circle as if
for a way of escape; but a Court is a cruel place, in which the
ugly or helpless find scant pity. A dozen voices begged the
Queen to insist; and, amid laughter and loud jests, Bassompierre
hastened to the door, and returned with an armful of women's
gear, surmounted by a wig and a feathered hat.
"If the Queen will command mademoiselle to retire and put these
on," he said, "I will undertake to show her something that will
please her."
"Go!" said the Queen.
But the girl had flung herself on her knees before her, and,
clinging to her skirts, burst, into a flood of tears and prayers;
while her sister-in-law stepped forward as if to second her, and
cried out, in great excitement, that her Majesty would not be so
cruel as to--
"Hoity, toity!" said the Queen, cutting her short, very grimly.
"What is all this? I tell the girl to put on a masquerade--
which it seems that she has been keeping at some cottage--and you
talk as if I were cutting off her head! It seems to me that she
escapes very lightly! Go! go! and see, you, that you are
arrayed in five minutes, or I will deal with you!"
"Perhaps Mademoiselle de la Force will go with her, and see that
nothing is omitted," Bassompierre said with malice.
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