The emotions of this youth, accustomed to live in contemplations of ecstasy as others in the excitements of the world, resembled none of the habitual emotions of mankind.
"Will he live ?" said the old man, amazed at the fragility of his heir, and holding his breath as he leaned over him.
"I can live only here," replied Etienne, who had heard him, simply.
"Well, then, this room shall be yours, my child." "What is that noise ?" asked the young man, hearing the retainers of the castle who were gathering in the guard-room, whither the duke had summoned them to present his son.
"Come!" said the father, taking him by the hand and leading him into the great hall.
At this epoch of our history, a duke and peer, with great possessions, holding public offices and the government of a province, lived the life of a prince; the cadets of his family did not revolt at serving him.
He had his household guard and officers; the first lieutenant of his ordnance company was to him what, in our day, an aide-de-camp is to a marshal.

A few years later, Cardinal de Richelieu had his body-guard.
Several princes allied to the royal house--Guise, Conde, Nevers, and Vendome, etc .-- had pages chosen among the sons of the best families,--a last lingering custom of departed chivalry.

The wealth of the Duc d'Herouville, and the antiquity of his Norman race indicated by his name ("herus villoe"), permitted him to imitate the magnificence of families who were in other respects his inferiors,--those, for instance, of Epernon, Luynes, Balagny, d'O, Zamet, regarded as parvenus, but living, nevertheless, as princes.

It was therefore an imposing spectacle for poor Etienne to see the assemblage of retainers of all kinds attached to the service of his father.
The duke seated himself on a chair of state placed under a "solium," or dais of carved word, above a platform raised by several steps, from which, in certain provinces, the great seigneurs still delivered judgment on their vassals,--a vestige of feudality which disappeared under the reign of Richelieu.

These thrones, like the warden's benches of the churches, have now become objects of collection as curiosities.
When Etienne was placed beside his father on that raised platform, he shuddered at feeling himself the centre to which all eyes turned.
"Do not tremble," said the duke, bending his bald head to his son's ear; "these people are only our servants." Through the dusky light produced by the setting sun, the rays of which were reddening the leaded panes of the windows, Etienne saw the bailiff, the captain and lieutenant of the guard, with certain of their men-at-arms, the chaplain, the secretaries, the doctor, the majordomo, the ushers, the steward, the huntsmen, the game-keeper, the grooms, and the valets.