"Neither the one more than the other, sire, and I can answer to you for the feelings of my wife."
"Good, Henriot, good!" said the King. "I like you better now than the way you were before. On my honor, you are such a good fellow that I shall end by being unable to get along without you."
As he spoke the King gave a peculiar whistle, whereupon four gentlemen who were waiting for him at the end of the Rue de Beauvais joined him. The whole party set out towards the middle of the city.
Ten o'clock struck.
"Well!" said Marguerite, after the King and Henry had left, "shall we go back to table?"
"Mercy, no!" cried the duchess, "I have been too badly frightened. Long live the little house in the Rue Cloche Percée! No one can enter that without regularly besieging it, and our good men have the right to use their swords there. But what are you looking for under the furniture and in the closets, Monsieur de Coconnas?"
"I am trying to find my friend La Mole," said the Piedmontese.
"Look in my room, monsieur," said Marguerite, "there is a certain closet"—
"Very well," said Coconnas, "I will go there."
He entered the room.