"You're right; study after eating is very injurious."
"The labor of a poet, especially so: and besides, there is great excitement prevailing at Mademoiselle de la Valliere's."
"With her as with all the ladies of the court."
"On account of poor De Guiche's accident."
"Has anything serious happened to De Guiche, then?"
"Yes, sire, he has one hand nearly destroyed, a hole in his breast: in fact he is dying."
[Illustration: DE GUICHE TURNED ROUND ALSO, AND, AT THE MOMENT THE HORSE WAS QUIET AGAIN, HE FIRED, AND THE BALL CARRIED OFF DE WARDES' HAT FROM HIS HEAD.--_Page 91._]
"Manicamp brought him back just now to the house of a doctor here in Fontainebleau, and the rumor soon reached us all here."
"Brought back! Poor De Guiche; and how did it happen?"
"Ah! that is the very question, how did it happen?"
"You say that in a very singular manner, Saint-Aignan. Give me the details. What does he say himself?"
"I do not know, sire; but M. de Manicamp knows. M. de Manicamp is one of his friends."
"As everybody is, indeed," said the king.
"Oh! no!" returned Saint-Aignan, "you are mistaken, sire; every one is not precisely friends with M. de Guiche."
"Does your majesty require me to explain myself?"
"Well, sire, I believe I have heard something said about a quarrel between two gentlemen."
"This very evening, before your majesty's supper was served."
"That can hardly be. I have issued such stringent and severe ordinances with respect to dueling, that no one, I presume, would dare to disobey them."
"In that case, Heaven preserve me from excusing any one!" exclaimed Saint-Aignan. "Your majesty commanded me to speak, and I spoke accordingly."
"Tell me, then, in what way the Comte de Guiche has been wounded?"
"Sire, it is said to have been at a boar-hunt."
"One of his hands shattered, and a hole in his breast. Who was at the hunt with M. de Guiche?"
"I do not know, sire; but M. de Manicamp knows, or ought to know."
"You are concealing something from me, Saint-Aignan."
"Then, explain to me how the accident happened; was it a musket that burst?"
"Very likely, sire. But yet, on reflection, it could hardly have been that, for Guiche's pistol was found close by him still loaded."
"His pistol? But a man does not go to a boar-hunt with a pistol, I should think."