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I need not tell you what the ladies of his reign thought of him; my present business is with the ruder sex. "Among the courtiers of the day was a certain Vicomte Arnoud de Gency, a young man who, at the age of eighteen, won his grade of colonel at the siege of Besançon by an act of coolness and courage worthy recording.
The king supped in Madame de la Vallière's apartment; the private band played the most delicious airs during the repast; and when at length the party retired to rest, not one bright dream was clouded by the memory of Arnoud de Gency. "Here, now, were I merely recounting an anecdote, I should stop," said the chevalier; "but must continue a little longer, though all the romance of my story is over.
Still, with all these favors of fortune, when the object of envy to almost all the rest of the household, Arnoud de Gency was suffering in his heart one of the most trying afflictions that can befall a proud man so placed; he was in actual poverty, in want so pressing that all the efforts he could make, all the contrivances he could practise, were barely sufficient to prevent his misery being public.
"He had not waited long when the folding-doors were thrown wide, and a moment after Louis appeared, accompanied by a single attendant, the Marquis de Verneuil, unhappily one of the very few enemies Arnoud possessed in the world. "'Ah, De Gency! you here? said the king, gayly. 'They told me "brelan" had been unfavorable lately, and that we should not see you.
"An occasion soon presented itself. The king had given orders for a hunting-party at St. Cloud; and at an early hour of the morning De Gency in his hunting-dress took up his position in one of the ante-chambers through which the king must pass: not alone, however; at his side there stood a lovely boy, also dressed in the costume of the chase.
Through all the anarchy of that fearful period; through the scarce less sanguinary time of the Directory; through the long, dreary oppression of the consulate; and now, in the more grinding tyranny of the Empire, he hopes, ay, still hopes on, that the day will come when from the hands of the king himself he shall receive his long-buried rank, and stand forth a De Gency.
"'Come, gentlemen, said the gay young prince, 'a bumper to our worthy friend, whom, with God's blessing, I shall see restored right soon to his fitting rank and station. Yes, De Gency! my word upon it, the next evening I sup here I shall bring with me his Majesty's own signature to these title-deeds. Make place, gentlemen, and let him sit down!
And scarcely was the word uttered when, as if the irony was his own, he burst into a most immoderate fit of laughter, an emotion that seemed to increase as he endeavored to repress it; when at the instant the cor de chasse, then heard without, gave a new turn to his thoughts, and he hurried forward with De Yerneuil, leaving De Gency and his son rooted to the spot, indignant passion in that heart which despair and sorrow had almost rendered callous.
That he is a good seaman and thoroughly understands his duties I could not for a moment venture to deny; but that he is a man of resolute temperament, or that he pos- sesses the amount of courage that would render him, phy- sically or morally, capable of coping with any great emer- gency, I confess I cannot believe. I observed a certain heaviness and dejection about his whole carriage.
But sobs choked him, and he could not utter more. "'What is this? Will no one tell? cried the king, as a frown of dark omen shadowed his angry features. "'Your Majesty has lost a brave, an honest, and a faithful follower, Sire, said Monsieur de Coulanges. 'Arnoud de Gency is no more. "'Why, I saw him this instant, said the king. 'He asked me some favor for his boy.
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