The newcomer acknowledged his salute with negligent kindness.

Remarking pleasantly 'You have brought a friend, I think ?' he looked towards us with a smile.
'Yes, sire, he is here,' the marquis answered, stepping aside a little.
And with the word I understood that this was no minion, but the king himself: Henry, the Third of the name, and the last of the great House of Valois, which had ruled France by the grace of God for two centuries and a half! I stared at him, and stared at him, scarcely believing what I saw.

For the first time in my life I was in the presence of the king! Meanwhile M.de Rosny, to whom he was, of course, no marvel, had gone forward and knelt on one knee.

The king raised him graciously, and with an action which, viewed apart from his woman's face and silly turban, seemed royal and fitting.

'This is good of you, Rosny,' he said.