Parry.
Whilst the unknown was viewing these lights with interest, and lending an ear to the various noises, Master Cropole entered his apartment, followed by two attendants, who laid the cloth for his meal.
The stranger did not pay them the least attention; but Cropole approaching him respectfully, whispered " Monsieur, the diamond has been valued.""Ah!" said the traveler."Well?"
"Well, monsieur, the jeweler of S.A.R.gives two hundred and eighty pistoles for it.""Have you them?"
"I thought it best to take them, monsieur; nevertheless, Imade it a condition of the bargain, that if monsieur wished to keep his diamond, it should be held till monsieur was again in funds.""Oh, no, not at all; I told you to sell it.""Then I have obeyed, or nearly so, since, without having definitely sold it, I have touched the money.""Pay yourself," added the unknown.
"I will do so, monsieur, since you so positively require it."A sad smile passed over the lips of the gentleman.
"Place the money on that trunk," said he, turning round and pointing to the piece of furniture.
Cropole deposited a tolerably large bag as directed, after having taken from it the amount of his reckoning.
"Now," said he, "I hope monsieur will not give me the pain of not taking any supper.Dinner has already been refused;this is affronting to the house of les Medici.Look, monsieur, the supper is on the table, and I venture to say that it is not a bad one."The unknown asked for a glass of wine, broke off a morsel of bread, and did not stir from the window whilst he ate and drank.
Shortly after was heard a loud flourish of trumpets; cries arose in the distance, a confused buzzing filled the lower part of the city, and the first distinct sound that struck the ears of the stranger was the tramp of advancing horses.
"The king! the king!" repeated a noisy and eager crowd.
"The king!" cried Cropole, abandoning his guest and his ideas of delicacy, to satisfy his curiosity.
With Cropole were mingled, and jostled, on the staircase, Madame Cropole, Pittrino, and the waiters and scullions.
The cortege advanced slowly, lighted by a thousand flambeaux, in the streets and from the windows.
After a company of musketeers, a closely ranked troop of gentlemen, came the litter of monsieur le cardinal, drawn like a carriage by four black horses.The pages and people of the cardinal marched behind.
Next came the carriage of the queen-mother, with her maids of honor at the doors, her gentlemen on horseback at both sides.
The king then appeared, mounted upon a splendid horse of Saxon breed, with a flowing mane.The young prince exhibited, when bowing to some windows from which issued the most animated acclamations, a noble and handsome countenance, illumined by the flambeaux of his pages.
By the side of the king, though a little in the rear, the Prince de Conde, M.Dangeau, and twenty other courtiers, followed by their people and their baggage, closed this veritably triumphant march.The pomp was of a military character.
Some of the courtiers -- the elder ones, for instance --wore traveling dresses; but all the rest were clothed in warlike panoply.Many wore the gorges and buff coat of the times of Henry IV.and Louis XIII.
When the king passed before him, the unknown, who had leant forward over the balcony to obtain a better view, and who had concealed his face by leaning on his arm, felt his heart swell and overflow with a bitter jealousy.
The noise of the trumpets excited him -- the popular acclamations deafened him: for a moment he allowed his reason to be absorbed in this flood of lights, tumult and brilliant images.
"He is a king!" murmured he, in an accent of despair.
Then, before he had recovered from his sombre reverie all the noise, all the splendor, had passed away.At the angle of the street there remained nothing beneath the stranger but a few hoarse, discordant voices, shouting at intervals, "Vive le Roi!"There remained likewise the six candles held by the inhabitants of the hostelry des Medici; that is to say, two for Cropole, two for Pittrino, and one for each scullion.
Cropole never ceased repeating, "How good-looking the king is! How strongly he resembles his illustrious father!""A handsome likeness!" said Pittrino.
"And what a lofty carriage he has!" added Madame Cropole, already in promiscuous commentary with her neighbors of both ***es.
Cropole was feeding their gossip with his own personal remarks, without observing that an old man on foot, but leading a small Irish horse by the bridle, was endeavoring to penetrate the crowd of men and women which blocked up the entrance to the Medici.But at that moment the voice of the stranger was heard from the window.
"Make way, monsieur l'hotelier, to the entrance of your house!"Cropole turned around, and, on seeing the old man, cleared a passage for him.
The window was instantly closed.
Pittrino pointed out the way to the newly-arrived guest, who entered without uttering a word.
The stranger waited for him on the landing; he opened his arms to the old man and led him to a seat.
"Oh, no, no, my lord!" said he."Sit down in your presence?
-- never!"
