"Fifteen, come St. Martin's."
"To be as great as the king" (he had not recognized his royal master).
"And what wishes the king?"
"His expenses to become less."
The reply brought good fortune for the lad, for Louis made him his valet de chambre, and took him afterward into his most intimate confidence.
Louis was fond of la chasse, and Scott does not overlook this fact in "Quentin Durward." When affairs of state did not press, it was the king's greatest pleasure. For the royal hunt no pains or expense were spared. The carriages were without an equal elsewhere in the courts of Europe, and the hunting establishment was equipped with chiens courants from Spain, levriers from Bretagne, bassets from Valence, mules from Sicily, and horses from Naples.
The attractions of the environs of Tours are many and interesting: St. Symphorien, Varennes, the Grottoes of Ste. Radegonde, and the site of that most famous abbey of Marmoutier, also a foundation of St. Martin. Here, under the name Martinus Monasterium, grew up an immense and superb establishment. From an old seventeenth-century print one quotes the following couplet:
"De quel côté que le vent vente
Marmoutier a cens et rente."