Page:The Vicomte de Bragelonne 2.djvu/40

 28 THE VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE.

CHAPTER V.

IN WHICH SOMETHING WILL BE SAID OF CROPOLI — OF CROPOLI AND OF A GREAT UNKNOWN PAINTER.

While the Comte de la Fere, with Raoul, visits the new buildings he has had erected, and the new horses he has bought, with the reader's permission we will lead him back to the city of Blois, and make him a witness of the unaccustomed activity which pervades that city.

It was in the hotels that the surprise of the news brought by Raoul was most sensibly felt.

In fact, the king and the court at Blois, that is to say, a hundred horsemen, ten carriages, two hundred horses, as many lackeys as masters — where was this crowd to be housed? Where were to be lodged all the gentry of the neighborhood, who would flock in two or three hours after the news had enlarged the circle of its report, like the increasing circumferences produced by a stone thrown into a placid lake?

Blois, as peaceful in the morning, as we have seen, as the calmest lake in the world, at the announcement of the royal arrival, was suddenly filled with the tumult and buzzing of a swarm of bees.

All the servants of the castle, under the inspection of the officers, were sent into the city in quest of provisions, and ten horsemen were dispatched to the preserves of Chambord to seek for game, to the fisheries of Beuvion for fish, and to the gardens of Chiverny for fruits and flowers.

Precious tapestries, and lusters with great gilt chains, were drawn from he wardrobes; an army of the poor were engaged in sweeping the courts and washing the stone fronts, while their wives went in droves to the meadows beyond the Loire, to gather green boughs and field flowers. The whole city, not to be behind in this luxury of cleanliness, assumed its best toilet with the help of brushes, brooms, and water.

The kennels of the upper city, swollen by these continued lotions, became rivers at the bottom of the city, and the pavement, generally very muddy, it must be allowed, took a clean face, and absolutely shone in the friendly rays of the sun.

Next the music was to be provided ; drawers wore emptied: the shop keepers had a glorious trade in wax. ribbons, and sword-knots; housekeepers laid in stores of bread, meat,