Then, as they were alone--nearly alone, inasmuch as Colbert, as soon as he perceived the young girl approaching, had stopped and drawn back a dozen paces--the king advanced towards La Valliere and took her by the hand.

"Mademoiselle," he said to her, "should I be guilty of an indiscretion if I were to inquire if you were indisposed?
for you seem to breathe as if you were oppressed by some secret cause of uneasiness, and your eyes are filled with tears." "Oh! sire, if I be indeed so, and if my eyes are indeed full of tears, I am sorrowful only at the sadness which seems to oppress your majesty." "My sadness?
You are mistaken, mademoiselle; no, it is not sadness I experience." "What is it, then, sire ?" "Humiliation." "Humiliation?
oh! sire, what a word for you to use!" "I mean, mademoiselle, that wherever I may happen to be, no one else ought to be the master.

Well, then, look round you on every side, and judge whether I am not eclipsed--I, the king of France--before the monarch of these wide domains.

Oh!" he continued, clenching his hands and teeth, "when I think that this king--" "Well, sire ?" said Louise, terrified.
"-- That this king is a faithless, unworthy servant, who grows proud and self-sufficient upon the strength of property that belongs to me, and which he has stolen.

And therefore I am about to change this impudent minister's _fete_ into sorrow and mourning, of which the nymph of Vaux, as the poets say, shall not soon lose the remembrance." "Oh! your majesty--" "Well, mademoiselle, are you about to take M.Fouquet's part ?" said Louis, impatiently.
"No, sire; I will only ask whether you are well informed.