“My lord, in the name of Heaven — "

“You are right, Parry; I am a coward, and if I do nothing for myself, what will God do?  No, no; I have two arms, Parry, and I have a sword.”  And he struck his arm violently with his hand, and took down his sword, which hung against the wall.

“What are you going to do, my lord?”

“What am I going to do, Parry?  What every one in my family does.  My mother lives on public charity, my sister begs for my mother; I have, somewhere or other, brothers who equally beg for themselves; and I, the eldest, will go and do as all the rest do — I will go and ask charity!”

And with these words, which he finished sharply with a nervous and terrible laugh, the young man girded on his sword, took his hat from the trunk, fastened to his shoulder a black cloak, which he had worn all during his journey, and pressing the two hands of the old man, who watched his proceedings with a look of anxiety, —

“My good Parry,” said he, “order a fire, drink, eat, sleep, and be happy; let us both be happy, my faithful friend, my only friend.  We are rich, as rich as kings!”

He struck the bag of pistoles with his clenched hand as he spoke, and it fell heavily to the ground.  He resumed that dismal laugh that had so alarmed Parry; and whilst the whole household was screaming, singing, and preparing to install the travelers who had been preceded by their lackeys, he glided out by the principal entrance into the street, where the old man, who had gone to the window, lost sight of him in a moment.

Chapter VIII:  What his Majesty King Louis XIV. was at the Age of Twenty-Two.

It has been seen, by the account we have endeavored to give of it, that the entree of King Louis XIV. into the city of Blois had been noisy and brilliant; his young majesty had therefore appeared perfectly satisfied with it.

On arriving beneath the porch of the Castle of the States, the king met, surrounded by his guards and gentlemen, with S. A. R. the duke, Gaston of Orleans, whose physiognomy, naturally rather majestic, had borrowed on this solemn occasion a fresh luster and a fresh dignity.  On her part, Madame, dressed in her robes of ceremony, awaited, in the interior balcony, the entrance of her nephew.  All the windows of the old castle, so deserted and dismal on ordinary days, were resplendent with ladies and lights.

It was then to the sound of drums, trumpets, and vivats, that the young king crossed the threshold of that castle in which, seventy-two years before, Henry III. had called in the aid of assassination and treachery to keep upon his head and in his house a crown which was already slipping from his brow, to fall into another family.

All eyes, after having admired the young king, so handsome and so agreeable, sought for that other king of France, much otherwise king than the former, and so old, so pale, so bent, that people called the Cardinal Mazarin.