"Listen," said I. "It's my dog all right, but I never brought him.
I've been looking all over Pau. What on earth——"
"But you must have brought him. It is evident. Myself I have shut all the doors. No one has the keys except me. It is impossible."
I pointed to the carved bedstead.
"See for yourself," said I. "He's just jumped down."
The keeper ran to the bed and peered behind the gorgeous parapet. Then he let out a scream of agony.
"Ah, it is true. Ten thousand devils! That so beastly a dog should have soiled Jeanne d'Albret's bed! Observe the nest he has made in her counterpane. Mon Dieu! it is scandalous. Monsieur, you will answer for this."
"I shall do nothing of the sort," said I. "But, unless you keep your mouth shut, you will. You shouldn't have let him get in."
I thought the fellow would have choked.
"But it was not I that—— A-a-ah!" he screamed. "See how he approaches the Queen's screen, to destroy it as he has destroyed her bed."
"Nonsense," I said shortly. "He's very struck with the furniture.
That's all. Anybody would be. But how the deuce…."