"Aha, Monsieur my son, what are you doing there? Come this way," he said.
But Henri, pale and ashamed, after hesitating a moment between his duty and his fear, instead of replying to his father's invitation, adopted the expedient of running away as if he had not heard him.
"Well, well, what a boorish, shy dog!" said the king. "Can you understand such bashfulness, Madame Diane? Have you, goddess of the forests, ever seen a fallow deer more terrified? Ah, what a wretched failing?"
"Is it your Majesty's pleasure that I should undertake to amend Monseigneur le Dauphin's ways?" asked Diane, smiling.
"Surely," said the king, "it would be hard to imagine a prettier teacher or a more delightful apprenticeship."
"Consider his education completed, then, Sire," replied Diane; "I will take charge of it."
She soon hunted up the fugitive.
The Comte de Montgommery, being on duty that day, was not at the Louvre.
"I frighten you terribly, Monseigneur, do I not?"
Diane began the conversation thus; and the conversation thus begun was continued.