Page:Cerise, a tale of the last century (IA cerisetaleoflast00whytrich).pdf/68

 Of the bright and the fair, the rich and the rare, Our Regent, you see, is so débonnaire. Tra-la-la—tra-la-la—he puts in for his share, Oh, yes! our Regent is débonnaire.

"A monarch of France has his peers in a row,   And they bring him his boots with the morning light;  But our Regent is never caught barefooted so,    For his roués and he, they sit booted all night! And they drink and they swear, and they blink and they stare— And never a monarch of France can compare, Neither Lous the Fat, nor yet Philip the Fair, With this Regent of ours, so débonnaire.    Tra-la-la—tra-la-la—let us drink to him, Pierre!  Oh, yes! our Regent is débonnaire."

"Tra-la-la, tra-la-la, he is débonnaire!" hummed the Abbé, as he mounted the wooden staircase, and stopped at the first door on the landing. "Monsieur le Duc is welcome to make all the music for our puppet dance so long as he leaves it to Monsieur l'Abbé to pull the strings."

Two gaudily dressed footmen answered Malletort's summons and admitted him obsequiously, as being a well-*known friend of their master's, before he had time to ask if Signor Bartoletti was within. The Abbé had visited here too often to be surprised at the luxuries of the apartment into which he was ushered, so little in character with the dirt and dilapidation that prevailed outside; but Signor Bartoletti, alleging in excuse the requirements of his southern blood, indulged in every extravagance to which his means would stretch, was consequently always in difficulties, and therefore ready to assist in any scheme, however nefarious, provided he was well paid.

The Signor's tastes were obviously florid. Witness the theatrical appearance of his lackeys, the bright colour of his furniture, the gaudy ornaments on his chimney-piece, the glaring pictures on his walls; nay, the very style and chasing of a massive flagon of red wine standing on the table by a filagree basket of fruit for his refection.

The man himself, too, was palpably over-dressed, wearing a sword here in the retirement of his chamber, yet wearing it as one whose hand was little familiar with its guard. Every resource of lace, velvet, satin, and embroidery had been employed in vain to give him an outward semblance