On the other hand, he felt that these delays would irritate that impatient monarch beyond measure.

In what way could he possibly reconcile these difficulties?
D'Artagnan took up Colbert's remark, and determined to repeated it to the king.
"Sire," he said, "M.

Colbert has been asking me if your majesty does not intend to sleep at Melun." "Sleep at Melun! What for ?" exclaimed Louis XIV.

"Sleep at Melun! Who, in Heaven's name, can have thought of such a thing, when M.Fouquet is expecting us this evening ?" "It was simply," replied Colbert, quickly, "the fear of causing your majesty the least delay; for, according to established etiquette, you cannot enter any place, with the exception of your own royal residences, until the soldiers' quarters have been marked out by the quartermaster, and the garrison properly distributed." D'Artagnan listened with the greatest attention, biting his mustache to conceal his vexation; and the queens were not less interested.

They were fatigued, and would have preferred to go to rest without proceeding any farther; more especially, in order to prevent the king walking about in the evening with M.de Saint-Aignan and the ladies of the court, for, if etiquette required the princesses to remain within their own rooms, the ladies of honor, as soon as they had performed the services required of them, had no restrictions placed upon them, but were at liberty to walk about as they pleased.