"I want what everybody else wants here, and what your sign offers to everybody—lodgings, "replied the stranger.
"That is precisely what you cannot have," said mine host, pompously. "I am not at liberty to receive any one, not even a gentleman of your distinguished appearance."
"Then, take in your sign, my friend. When a man inveigles travellers with a sign, he ought to be ready to satisfy their claims upon his hospitality. I, therefore, demand a room."
"I tell you, sir, that you cannot have it. The Hotel de Turenne has been too highly honored to entertain ordinary guests. The Emperor of Austria, brother of the beautiful queen, has taken lodgings here."
The stranger laughed. "If the emperor were to hear you, he would take lodgings with someone more discreet than yourself. He travels incognito in France."
"But everybody is in the secret, sir; and all Paris is longing for a sight of Count Falkenstein, of whom all sorts of delightful anecdotes are circulated. He is affability itself, and speaks with men generally as if they were his equals."
"And pray," said the stranger, laughing, "is he made differently from other men?"
The host eyed his interrogator with anger and contempt. "This is very presuming language," said he, "and as his majesty is my guest, I cannot suffer it. The French think the world of him, and no wonder, for he is the most condescending sovereign in Europe. He refused to remain at the palace, and comes to take up his abode here. Is not that magnanimous?"
"I find it merely a matter of convenience. He wishes to be in a central situation. Has he arrived?"
"No, not yet. His valet is here, and has set up his camp-bed. I am waiting to receive the emperor and his suite now."