"Perhaps he is hoping that I shall not come down and that he can roister alone with his worthless friends, but I will disappoint him."
This idea seemed to give her pleasure, and she suffered two of her tire-women to array her in a gold and scarlet brocade she was fond of, a wide ruff of Mechlin lace, and a violet mantle with silver tissue. As she sat with an unusual patience under the hands of the little German girl who was crimping her hair with hot irons, she asked the reason of all the grey camlet liveries she had observed from her window.
"I note that many of the great lords' men wear them," she added.
"Oh, Madame," said the little maid, Katrine, glad that her mistress was so quiet, "it is because of a dinner given the other day by the Seigneur de Groblendonck, where the talk fell on the extravagance of the Cardinal, and the great splendour of his liveries; and it was agreed, to spite him, that the grandees' men should all wear a plain livery, grey camlet, as Your Highness saw it."
"A pack of fools!" said Anne. "And was there no protest?"
"They say the first device on the sleeve was changed from a Cardinal's hat to a bundle of arrows, at the Regent's request; and she would have stopped the liveries, but there were too many ordered and cut. It was the Count of Egmont who thought of the design."
"He is a big fool," said Anne shrewdly. "Does he think the King will ever forgive that? Who else was at this dinner?"
"The Seigneur Montigny and Seigneur Berghen and others, Highness."
"Silly child's jests!" cried the Princess. "Where did you hear all this?"
"Oh, Madame, one cannot stir without hearing it; the town is full of the talk of it. If Your Highness had not been indisposed," she added tactfully, "you too would have heard of this dinner and the liveries."