Gaspard caught the name of Blancmesnil, and looking up, he said ’Blancmesnil!  It is he that the King says is a scoundrel to resist his will; but he will soon be shut up.  They are going to arrest him.’

’Pray how long have they taken little imps like thee into their counsels?’ demanded Eustace, as we all sat petrified at this announcement.

‘It was the Duke of Anjou who told me,’ said Gaspard.  ’He was sitting at the foot of the Queen’s bed when she settled it all with M. le Cardinal.  They will send to have coup de main made of all those rogues as soon as the Te Deum is over tomorrow at Notre Dame, and then there will be no more refusing of money for M. le Prince to beat the Spaniards with.’

‘The Duke should choose his confidants better,’ said Eustace.  ’Look here, my nephew.  Remember from henceforth that whatever passes in secret council is sacred, and even if told to thee inadvertently should never be repeated.  Now leave us; your mother needs you no longer.’

My little boy made his graceful bow at the door, looking much perplexed, and departed.  I rose likewise, saying I would forbid him to repeat his dangerous communication, and I trusted that it would do him no harm.

‘Madame,’ said M. Darpent, ’I will not conceal from you that I shall take advantage of what I have heard to warn these friends of my father.’

‘You cannot be expected to do otherwise,’ said Eustace; ’and truly the design is so arbitrary and unjust that, Cavalier as I am, I cannot but rejoice that it should be baffled.’

‘And,’ added Darpent, before I could speak, ’Madame may be secure that no word shall pass my lips respecting the manner in which I received the warning.’

I answered that I could trust him for that.  I could not expect any more from him, and indeed none of us were bound in honour.  The fault was with the Duke of Anjou, who, as we all know, was an incorrigible chatter-box all his life, and never was trusted with any State secrets at all; but his mother must have supposed him not old enough to understand what she was talking about, when she let him overhear such a conversation.

Gaspard had, however, a private lecture from both of us on the need of holding his tongue, both on this matter and all other palace gossip.  He was no longer in waiting, and I trusted that all would be forgotten before his turn came again; but he was to join in the state procession on the following day, a Sunday, when the King and Queen-Regent were return thanks at Notre Dame for the victory at Lens.

Ah, children! we had victories then.  Our Te Deums were not sung with doubting hearts, to make the populace believe a defeat a victory—­a delusion to which this French nation of ours is only too prone.  My countryman, Marlborough, and the little truant Abbe, Eugene of Savoy, were not then the leaders of the opposite armies; but at the head of our own, we had M. le Prince and the Vicomte de