To De Catinat an audience with the monarch was a common incident of his duties, but it was with profound astonishment that he learned from Bontems that his friend and companion was included in the order.  He was eagerly endeavouring to whisper into the young American’s ear some precepts and warnings as to what to do and what to avoid, when Bontems reappeared and ushered them into the presence.

It was with a feeling of curiosity, not unmixed with awe, that Amos Green, to whom Governor Dongan, of New York, had been the highest embodiment of human power, entered the private chamber of the greatest monarch in Christendom.  The magnificence of the ante-chamber in which he had waited, the velvets, the paintings, the gildings, with the throng of gaily dressed officials and of magnificent guardsmen, had all impressed his imagination, and had prepared him for some wondrous figure robed and crowned, a fit centre for such a scene.  As his eyes fell upon a quietly dressed, bright-eyed man, half a head shorter than himself, with a trim dapper figure, and an erect carriage, he could not help glancing round the room to see if this were indeed the monarch, or if it were some other of those endless officials who interposed themselves between him and the other world.  The reverent salute of his companion, however, showed him that this must indeed be the king, so he bowed and then drew himself erect with the simple dignity of a man who has been trained in Nature’s school.

“Good-evening, Captain de Catinat,” said the king, with a pleasant smile.  “Your friend, as I understand, is a stranger to this country.  I trust, sir, that you have found something here to interest and to amuse you?”

“Yes, your Majesty.  I have seen your great city, and it is a wonderful one.  And my friend has shown me this palace, with its woods and its grounds.  When I go back to my own country I will have much to say of what I have seen in your beautiful land.”

“You speak French, and yet you are not a Canadian.”

“No, sire; I am from the English provinces.”

The king looked with interest at the powerful figure, the bold features, and the free bearing of the young foreigner, and his mind flashed back to the dangers which the Comte de Frontenac had foretold from these same colonies.  If this were indeed a type of his race, they must in truth be a people whom it would be better to have as friends than as enemies.  His mind, however, ran at present on other things than statecraft, and he hastened to give De Catinat his orders for the night.

“You will ride into Paris on my service.  Your friend can go with you.  Two are safer than one when they bear a message of state.  I wish you, however, to wait until nightfall before you start.”

“Yes, sire.”

“Let none know your errand, and see that none follow you.  You know the house of Archbishop Harlay, prelate of Paris?”

“Yes, sire.”