Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/269

Rh madame drew aside to allow the carriages, the outriders, and runners to pass by. A fair proportion of the cavaliers, released from the restraint which etiquette had imposed upon them, gave the rein to their horses, and darted after the carriages which bore the maids of honor, as blooming as so many Oreades around Diana, and the whirlwind, laughing, chattering, and noisy, passed onward.

The king and madame, however, kept their horses in hand at a foot-pace. Behind his majesty and his sister-in- law, certain of the courtiers — those, at least, who were seriously disposed, or were anxious to be within reach, or under the eyes of the king — followed at a respectful distance, restraining their impatient horses, regulating their pace by that of the king and madame, and abandoned themselves to all the delight and gratification which is to be found in the conversation of clever people, who can, with perfect courtesy, make a thousand of the most atrocious remarks about their neighbors. In their stifled laughter, and in the little reticences of their sardonic humor. Monsieur, the poor absentee, was not spared. But they pitied, and bewailed greatly, the fate of De Guiche; and it must be confessed that their compassion, as far as he was concerned, was not misplaced. The king and madame having breathed their horses, and repeated a hundred times over such remarks as the courtiers, who made them talk, had suggested to them, set off at a hand-gallop, and the shady coverts of the forest resounded to the heavy footfall of the mounted party. To the conversations beneath the shade of trees — to the remarks made in the shape of confidential communications, and to the observations which had been mysteriously exchanged, succeeded the noisiest bursts of laughter; from the very outriders to royalty itself, merriment seemed to spread. Every one began to laugh and to cry out. The magpies and the jays flew away, uttering their guttural cries, beneath the waving avenues of the oaks; the cuckoo stayed his monotonous cry in the recesses of the forest; the chaffinch and tomtit flew away in clouds; while the terrified fawn, and other deer, bounded forward from the midst of the thickets. This crowd, spreading wildly joy, confusion, and light wherever it passed, was preceded, it may be said, to the chateau by its own clamor. As the king and madame entered the village they were both received by the general acclamations of the crowd. Madame hastened to look for Monsieur, for she instinctively understood that he had been far too long kept from