Barkilphedro fixed his wise gaze on Anne.  He saw into the queen as one sees into a stagnant pool.  The marsh has its transparency.  In dirty water we see vices, in muddy water we see stupidity; Anne was muddy water.

Embryos of sentiments and larvae of ideas moved in her thick brain.  They were not distinct; they had scarcely any outline.  But they were realities, however shapeless.  The queen thought this; the queen desired that.  To decide what was the difficulty.  The confused transformations which work in stagnant water are difficult to study.  The queen, habitually obscure, sometimes made sudden and stupid revelations.  It was on these that it was necessary to seize.  He must take advantage of them on the moment.  How did the queen feel towards the Duchess Josiana?  Did she wish her good or evil?

Here was the problem.  Barkilphedro set himself to solve it.  This problem solved, he might go further.

Divers chances served Barkilphedro—­his tenacity at the watch above all.

Anne was, on her husband’s side, slightly related to the new Queen of Prussia, wife of the king with the hundred chamberlains.  She had her portrait painted on enamel, after the process of Turquet of Mayerne.  This Queen of Prussia had also a younger illegitimate sister, the Baroness Drika.

One day, in the presence of Barkilphedro, Anne asked the Russian ambassador some question about this Drika.

“They say she is rich?”

“Very rich.”

“She has palaces?”

“More magnificent than those of her sister, the queen.”

“Whom will she marry?”

“A great lord, the Count Gormo.”

“Pretty?”

“Charming.”

“Is she young?”

“Very young.”

“As beautiful as the queen?”

The ambassador lowered his voice, and replied,—­

“More beautiful.”

“That is insolent,” murmured Barkilphedro.

The queen was silent; then she exclaimed,—­

“Those bastards!”

Barkilphedro noticed the plural.

Another time, when the queen was leaving the chapel, Barkilphedro kept pretty close to her Majesty, behind the two grooms of the almonry.  Lord David Dirry-Moir, crossing the ranks of women, made a sensation by his handsome appearance.  As he passed there was an explosion of feminine exclamations.

“How elegant!  How gallant!  What a noble air!  How handsome!”

“How disagreeable!” grumbled the queen.

Barkilphedro overheard this; it decided him.

He could hurt the duchess without displeasing the queen.  The first problem was solved; but now the second presented itself.

What could he do to harm the duchess?  What means did his wretched appointment offer to attain so difficult an object?

Evidently none.

CHAPTER XII.

SCOTLAND, IRELAND, AND ENGLAND.