Two great hounds lay basking in the heat, and coiled between them, with her head on the back of the larger, was a figure so strange that at another time I should have doubted my eyes.

It wore the fool's motley and cap and bells, but a second glance showed me the features were a woman's.

A torrent of black hair flowed loose about her neck, her eyes shone with wild merriment, and her face, keen, thin, and hectic, glared at me from the dog's back.

Beyond her, round the farther fireplace, clustered more than a score of gallants and ladies, of whom one presently advanced to me.
'Sir,' he said politely--and I wished I could match his bow--'you wished to see-- ?' 'The King of Navarre,' I answered, doing my best.
He turned to the group behind him, and said, in a peculiarly even, placid tone, 'He wishes to see the King of Navarre.' Then in solemn silence he bowed to me again and went back to his fellows.
Upon the instant, and before I could make up my mind how to take this, a second tripped forward, and saluting me, said, 'M.

de Marsac, I think ?' 'At your service, sir,' I rejoined.