"We will meet him, however," said the King.
Walking up to the other figure, he signed to one of the lackeys to bring a torch.
"Pardon me, brother!" said the Duc d'Anjou, opening his cloak and bowing with poorly disguised anger.
"Ah! ah! Henry, is it you? But no, it is not possible, I am mistaken—my brother of Anjou would not have gone to see any one else before first calling on me. He knows that for royal princes, returning to the capital, Paris has but one entrance, the gate of the Louvre."
"Pardon me, sire," said the Duc d'Anjou; "I beg your Majesty to excuse my thoughtlessness."
"Ah, yes!" replied the King, mockingly; "and what were you doing, brother, at the Hôtel de Condé?"
"Why," said the King of Navarre in his sly way, "what your Majesty intimated just now."
And leaning over to the King he ended his sentence in a burst of laughter.
"What is it?" asked the Duc de Guise, haughtily; for like every one else at court, he had a way of treating the poor King of Navarre very rudely, "why should I not go and see my sister-in-law. Does not Monsieur le Duc d'Alençon visit his?"
Henry flushed slightly.