“He received three wounds, duchess, but happily none of them were severe, and he was on horseback on the following morning.  It seemed miraculous to us all that he should so escape, for he rode ever ahead of us in the charges against the Spanish square.”

“You were acting as one of his aides-de-camp?  I do not remember having seen your face before.”

“No, madame.  I have been for the past four years on the staff of the Viscount de Turenne, and have not left the army during that time.  The general had the goodness, seeing that there was little doing in the south, to send me to learn what I could from the operations of the duke against the Spanish.  He sent me a letter of recommendation to your brother, who kindly appointed me to the same position under him that I had occupied under Turenne.”

“Did you find the ladies of Italy very lovely?” Madame de Chevreuse asked suddenly.

“In truth, madame, I had but small opportunities of judging, seeing that, unless when sent with some message from the general to the Duchess of Savoy, I do not think that I exchanged a single word with a woman during the whole of my stay there.”

Madame de Chevreuse, and the Duchesse de Longueville, and all the ladies sitting round, smiled.

“Then you have very much to learn, Colonel Campbell,” Madame de Chevreuse said.  “You will find plenty of ladies in the court here who will not object to give you lessons.”

“I trust, madame,” Hector said bluntly, “that there will be little opportunity for me to take lessons as to the manners of the court, for I hope that my stay here will be short indeed.”

“That is a most ungallant speech,” the younger duchess said, laughing, “and shows indeed the truth of what you have said as to your ignorance of women.  Do you not know, sir; that it is an unwritten law at court that every gentleman here must be at the feet of one fair lady?”

“I suppose that, had I been brought up at court,” Hector said, “I should not be more insensible than others; but when one passes three-quarters of one’s time on horseback, and that under a commander like Turenne, who sets us all an example in the matter of endurance and watchfulness, one has small leisure indeed for aught else, and indeed is glad enough to seek one’s bed as soon as the day’s work is done.”

“If you are another Turenne,” Madame de Chevreuse laughed, “I give you up.  He is the most insensible of men.  His head contains but one idea, and that is duty; and as to us poor creatures, he is as insensible as was St. Anthony.”

At this moment the door that separated the salon from that of the queen opened, and the names of Monsieur de Penthiere and Monsieur de Caussac were called.  The two officers at once passed into the inner room.

“You are either left out in the cold, monsieur le colonel, or you will have the honour of a separate audience,” Madame de Chevreuse said.