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Rh him to approach, and the whole party seated themselves by a fountain, beneath the extended boughs of a large old chestnut-tree.

"A scene from Bocaccio," said Christina; "nothing wanting but the lovers."

"I should like," said Anne, "to know of what M. Voiture is thinking,—he seems so lost in meditation!"

"It is sometimes," replied the poet, "dangerous to give utterance to one's thoughts; I claim full pardon for the presumption of mine."

"On one condition," said the Queen—"that you give them expression."

Voiture smiled, and, fixing his eyes on the shadow of the Queen in the water, repeated the following verses:—