.

THE KING'S WISHES.
It was daybreak ere the last of them had left me, for a dozen or so had lingered to play lansquenet after the others had departed.

With those that remained my wager had soon faded into insignificance, as their minds became engrossed in the fluctuations of their own fortunes.
I did not play myself; I was not in the mood, and for one night, at least, of sufficient weight already I thought the game upon which I was launched.
I was out on the balcony as the first lines of dawn were scoring the east, and in a moody, thoughtful condition I had riveted my eyes upon the palace of the Luxembourg, which loomed a black pile against the lightening sky, when Mironsac came out to join me.

A gentle, lovable lad was Mironsac, not twenty years of age, and with the face and manners of a woman.

That he was attached to me I knew.
"Monsieur le Marquis," said he softly, "I am desolated at this wager into which they have forced you." "Forced me ?" I echoed.