The chevalier, however, came to the rescue without thinking of these inconveniences, and set about it so cleverly that the horse was soon raised and the rider freed. But the latter was covered with mud and could scarcely limp along.
Carried as well as might be to the gatekeeper’s lodge and seated in his turn in the big armchair, “Sir,” said he to the chevalier, “you are certainly a nobleman. You have rendered me a great service, but you can render me a still greater one. Here is a message from the King for Madame la Marquise, and this message is very urgent, as you see, since my horse and I, in order to go faster, almost broke our necks. You understand that, wounded as I am, with a lame leg, I could not deliver this paper. I should have, in order to do so, to be carried myself. Will you go there in my stead?”
At the same time he drew from his pocket a large envelope ornamented with gilt arabesques and fastened with the royal seal.
“Very willingly, sir,” replied the chevalier, taking the envelope.
And, nimble and light as a feather, he set out at a run and on the tips of his toes.
V
When the chevalier arrived at the château he found another doorkeeper in front of the peristyle:
“By the King’s order,” said the young man, who this time no longer feared halberds, and, showing his letter, he passed gaily between half a dozen lackeys.
A tall usher, planted in the middle of the vestibule, seeing the order and the royal seal, gravely inclined himself, like a poplar bent by the wind—then, smiling, he touched with one of his bony fingers the corner of a piece of paneling.
A little swinging door, masked by tapestry, at once opened as if of its own accord. The bony man made an obsequious sign, the chevalier entered, and the tapestry, which had been drawn apart, fell softly behind him.