But Percerin was a very prudent man; and having heard it said that there was no more dangerous sign for a Protestant than to be smiled up on by Catherine, and having observed that her smiles were more frequent than usual, he speedily turned Catholic with all his family; and having thus become irreproachable, attained the lofty position of master tailor to the Crown of France.
Under Henry III., gay king as he was, this position was a grand as the height of one of the loftiest peaks of the Cordilleras.

Now Percerin had been a clever man all his life, and by way of keeping up his reputation beyond the grave, took very good care not to make a bad death of it, and so contrived to die very skillfully; and that at the very moment he felt his powers of invention declining.

He left a son and a daughter, both worthy of the name they were called upon to bear; the son, a cutter as unerring and exact as the square rule; the daughter, apt at embroidery, and at designing ornaments.

The marriage of Henry IV.

and Marie de Medici, and the exquisite court-mourning for the afore-mentioned queen, together with a few words let fall by M.de Bassompiere, king of the _beaux_ of the period, made the fortune of the second generation of Percerins.