“Perhaps he did not recognize you, as you were blue.”

“Ah! very likely.”

“He would be excusable,” said the king; “for, indeed, my poor Schomberg, I should hardly have known you myself.”

“Never mind; we shall meet some other time, when I am not in a vat.”

“Oh! as for me,” said D’Epernon, “it is his master I should like to punish.”

“The Duc d’Anjou, whose praises they are singing all over Paris,” said Quelus.

“The fact is, that he is master of Paris to-night,” said D’Epernon.

“Ah, my brother! my brother!” cried the king. “Ah! yes, sire; you cry, ‘my brother,’ but you do nothing against him; and yet it is clear to me that he is at the head of some plot.” said Schomberg.

“Eh, mordieu! that is what I was saying just before you came in, to these gentlemen, and they replied by shrugging their shoulders and turning their backs.”

“Not because you said there was a plot, sire, but because you do nothing to suppress it.”