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A very pretty collation of confitures and fruits was served us, to which the King prayed her to add a ragout of peas and a roasted fowl. During the repast, he said to her: "For the rest, I have not noticed the portrait of Gaston, your father; is it a distraction on my part, or an omission on yours?" "It will be put there later," she answered. "It is not time." "What! your father!" added the King.

Despite the distracting beauty of the outlook from our café, on the terrace of a very indifferent looking hostel, we enjoyed our luncheon of Italian dishes, crowned by an omelette aux confitures of such superlative excellence that even my inveterate American was ready to acknowledge that it was the best omelet he had ever eaten anywhere.

I was conducted into the kitchen, bright with copper pans and the marmite it was as sweet and clean as a dairy; the resources of the still-room were displayed to me, and the confitures and spices were not more remarkable than the domestic pharmacy in which the herbs of the field had been distilled by Madame's own hands to yield their peculiar virtues, rue for liver, calamint for cholera, plantain for the kidneys, fennel for indigestion, elderberry for sore throat, and dandelion for affections of the blood.

I can credit even the account of the dinner which Madame de Baviere affirms she saw eaten by Lewis the Fourteenth; viz. "quatre assiettes de differentes soupes; un faisan tout entier; un perdrix; une grande assiette pleine de salade; du mouton coupe dans son jus avec de l'ail; deux bons morceaux de jambon; une assiette pleine de patisserie! du fruit et des confitures!"

They were presented to the mayor by his friend, Bailli la Grasse, who had boasted of the excellent confitures of the heretic pastor's daughter that lodged in the town of La Sablerie. The place was in disgrace for having afforded shelter and supplies to Montgomery's pirate crews, and there were narrations of outrages committed on Catholics.