“Arrest that woman,” cried the King.  She was instantly seized and brought before him.

“Why do you insult me thus?” he asked quickly, but with dignity.

“I have not insulted you,” replied the Flemish lady.  “The word that escaped me was rather a term of flattery and of praise, at least if it has the meaning which it conveys to us here, in these semi-French parts.”

“Say that word again,” added the King; “for I want everybody to bear witness that I am just in punishing you for such an insult.”

“Sire,” answered this young woman, “your soldiers have destroyed my pasture-lands, my woods, and my crops.  Heart-broken, I came here to curse you, but your appearance at once made me change my mind.  On looking closer at you, in spite of my grief, I could not help exclaiming, ‘So that’s the handsome b-----, is it!’”

The grenadiers, being called as witnesses, declared that such was in fact her remark.  Then the King smiled, and said to the young Flemish lady: 

“Who are you?  What is your name?”

With readiness and dignity she replied, “Sire, you see before you the Comtesse de Sainte-Aldegonde.”

“Pray, madame,” quoth the King, “be so good as to finish your toilet; I invite you to dine with me to-day.”

Madame de Sainte-Aldegonde accepted the honour, and did in fact dine with his Majesty that day.  She was clever, and made herself most agreeable, so that the King, whose policy it was to win hearts by all concessions possible, indemnified her for all losses sustained during the war, besides granting favours to all her relatives and friends.

The Sainte-Aldegonde family appeared at Court, being linked thereto by good services.  It is already a training-ground for excellent officers and persons of merit.

But for that somewhat neat remark of the Countess’s, all those gentlemen would have remained in poverty and obscurity within the walls or in the suburbs of Tournai.

Some days after this, the King was informed of the arrest of a most dangerous individual, who had been caught digging below certain ancient aqueducts “with a view to preparing a mine of some sort.”  This person was brought in, tied and bound like a criminal; they hustled him and maltreated him.  I noticed how he trembled and shed tears.

He was a learned man—­an antiquary.  A few days before our invasion he had commenced certain excavations, which he had been forced to discontinue, and now so great was his impatience that he had been obliged to go on in spite of the surrounding troops.  By means of an old manuscript, long kept by the Druids, as also by monks, this man had been able to discover traces of an old Roman highroad, and as in the days of the Romans the tombs of the rich and the great were always placed alongside these broad roads, our good antiquary had been making certain researches there, which for him had proved to be a veritable gold-mine.