She smiled as she answered:-- "I think I have met him already." Then she told us briefly of her encounter with the tipsy gentleman in the Stone Gallery.
She had entirely recovered her self-possession and was prepared to meet calmly the man who was a demigod to millions of English subjects.
The queen did not come with the king, so he loitered a moment among the courtiers before making his way to the duchess, but the delay was short, and soon he presented himself.

The duchess rose when he approached, but hardly allowed him time to finish his bow till she took his arm, turned toward us, and smiled to Frances to approach.

I touched my cousin's arm, gently thrusting her forward, and the next moment she was courtesying to the floor before the man who believed, in common with most of his subjects, that he owned by divine right the body and soul of every man in England, together with every man's ox and his ass, his wife and his daughter, and all that to him belonged.
The king raised Frances, still retaining her hand, and bent most gallantly before her.
"I have met Mistress Jennings," said he, smiling, "and she told me to pay my compliments to the devil." The king laughed, so of course the courtiers who heard him also laughed.
Instantly the news spread, and one might have heard on every hand, "The new maid told the king to go to the devil." But as the king seemed to be pleased, the courtiers were, too, and the new maid of honor became a person of distinction at once.
The king's unexpected remark disconcerted Frances for a moment, and her confusion added to her charm.

In a moment she recovered herself, courtesied, and said:-- "I beg your Majesty not to remind me of my terrible mistake.

I thought you were a bold cavalier, and of course did not know that I was speaking to my king.