CHAPTER X
THE VICTOR VANQUISHED
The Duke of Monmouth and the King’s brother were playing tennis in the green courtyard of Zeyst.
Near them, close to a wall bright with coloured roses, walked Madame Lavalette and the Marquis de Pomponne.
She wore a habit like a gentleman’s military coat, blue, braided with silver, and a beaver with a plume of feathers azure as her eyes; her long skirt brushed the grass backwards into a resemblance to ruffled velvet as she stepped.
In her hands was a riding-whip that she bent across the stiff skirts of her coat.
“Marquis,” she said, “Monsieur Cornelius de Witt has been arrested.”
“I heard—last night.”
“Well?”
She looked at him searchingly.
“Well?” he echoed, and smiled.