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 THE LITTLE KING
 
 
 
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 On Christmas mornings he was compelled to sit up in his great bed 
 of state, while gorgeous courtiers knelt beside him offering rich 
 gifts.
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 A Story of the 
 
 Childhood of Louis 
 
 King of France 
 
 By 
 
 Charles Major 
 
 Author of "When Knighthood was in Flower", "Dorothy Vernon' 
 "The Bears of Blue River", etc. 
 
 M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OT AMERICA. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, iyio, 
 BY THE ILLUSTRATED SUNDAY MAGAZINE. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1909 AND igiO, 
 
 BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1910, 
 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published Norember, 1910. Reprintei 
 September, 1915.
 
 Co @P Wife 
 
 S13721S
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PACK 
 
 I. How Christmas Came to The Little King . . 3 
 
 II. Sweet Mam'selle's Rosary 39 
 
 III. Two Smiles and a Duel 70 
 
 IV. The Little King Lost in Paris .... zoo 
 
 LA SAINTE CROIX 
 
 V. A Jew Three Thousand Years Old .... 137 
 
 VI. The Old Cloister House 157 
 
 VII. The King and The Jew . .... 383 
 
 VIII. Black Magic 206 
 
 IX. Blackest Magic 339 
 
 vii
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE Little King, destined to become the 
 great King, Louis Le Grand, of France, 
 had always found Christmas a dull day. 
 Even at the age of eight he had begun to realize 
 that every day was dull, and though he had 
 heard a great deal about the joys of Christmas, 
 he had found it the dullest of them all, and 
 did not understand why other folks pretended to 
 love it. 
 
 On Christmas mornings he was compelled to 
 sit up in his great bed of state, while gorgeous 
 courtiers knelt beside him offering rich gifts for 
 which he did not care a fig. After breakfast, 
 to mass, which was easily endured, because every 
 one remained quiet and the low, rolling voice 
 
 3
 
 4 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 of the priest was soothing. But after mass he 
 had to sit in stiff, insufferable robes while gifts 
 of which he knew nothing were distributed in 
 his name to courtiers for whom he cared nothing. 
 
 After the distribution of the presents, the tired 
 Little King stood on the royal dais in one of 
 the state chambers receiving guests till near noon, 
 when he dined in solitary grandeur. Christmas 
 Days to the Little King were but blurred mem- 
 ories of a desire to cry, suppressed only by 
 almost superchildish effort. 
 
 Every day Christmas included the King had 
 a few hours of rest after dinner. Usually this 
 lax time was devoted to a nap in his private 
 bedroom adjoining the boudoir of his nurse, the 
 Sweet Mam'selle, a name the King had given her 
 and by which she was known throughout the court. 
 
 Frequently on pleasant days, after his nap, the 
 King went with his nurse to walk in the little 
 hedged garden beneath his window, set apart in 
 the beautiful court of the Palais Royal for the 
 King's exclusive use. 
 
 One day Sweet Mam'selle opened a private 
 door called the King's Postern, to which she car-
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 5 
 
 ried the key, and the two passed through a 
 tunnel-like hallway, unlocked the outer door and 
 were in the street. That was a glorious adven- 
 ture for the Little King, and afterwards, when 
 he felt tired and blue, and life seemed a failure, 
 he would say: 
 
 "Let us go out into the street, Sweet Mam- 
 'selle." 
 
 But it was a delight seldom to be enjoyed. If 
 the Queen Regent or Cardinal Mazarin were to 
 learn that Mam'selle had exposed the King to 
 the gaze and mayhap the touch of the common 
 people on the street, she would surely receive a 
 reprimand, probably would be dismissed and might 
 be imprisoned. But the Little King's unhappiness 
 was so real, and his joy in these excursions was 
 so keen that Sweet Mam'selle could not always 
 resist the child's pleadings. 
 
 On a certain Christmas Day, the eighth year 
 of the Little King's life and the third of his 
 reign, his royal duties seemed especially irksome, 
 and when dinner was finished, he hurried with 
 Sweet Mam'selle to his bedroom, longing above 
 all things to give vent to his weariness in tears.
 
 6 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 But he was a manly, kingly little fellow, sedate 
 and thoughtful beyond his years, so he held back 
 his tears, as a real king should, and bore his 
 troubles stolidly, as a real man will. 
 
 With Sweet Mam'selle's help the stiff brocades, 
 the rare laces and the costly jewels fell from the 
 Little King to the floor, and he lay down on his 
 low, soft bed for a nap. Mam'selle, busy with 
 her needlework, stood leaning against the window 
 shelf; for no one in France save the Queen 
 Mother was permitted to sit in the King's 
 presence. 
 
 Presently Mam'selle heard a sob, and turning 
 toward the King, saw him sitting on the edge 
 of the bed. Drowsiness had broken the back of 
 kingliness; so exercising a tired child's privilege, 
 Louis XIV was whimpering softly, pathetically. 
 
 Mam'selle ran to the dais and knelt beside 
 the King, who put his arm about her neck, rested 
 his cheek against hers, and enjoyed the luxury 
 of a good cry. What the King needed above 
 all else was a mother, but Anne of Austria's 
 motherhood consisted chiefly of title. Fortunately 
 Mam'selle was a sweet and loving substitute, but
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 7 
 
 there is no place where a child can be so delight- 
 fully miserable as on his mother's breast. 
 
 "What is it, my King?" asked Sweet Mam- 
 'selle, tenderly. 
 
 "I don't know," answered the Little King. "I 
 just want to to cry. I I don't want to stay 
 here. Isn't there some place we can go? I'm 
 so tired." 
 
 "Yes, yes, my King. I know, I know," whis- 
 pered Sweet Mam'selle, caressingly. Her sym- 
 pathy of course set the tears flowing afresh and 
 soon her eyes, too, were moist. 
 
 The King, seeing Mam'selle's tears, brushed 
 them away with his hand, saying: 
 
 "Are you, too, tired, Sweet Mam'selle?" 
 
 "No, no, my King. I weep because you are 
 tired. Because you are denied the divine right 
 of being a child. My poor King! My sweet 
 King!" 
 
 "Then we are both unhappy when I'm un- 
 happy?" asked the King, brushing away his own 
 tears in a desire to save Mam'selle, 
 
 "Yes, yes, my sweet King. I am unhappy 
 because you because you "
 
 8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "But I am the King. I am Louis XIV," 
 interrupted the Little King, trying with poor 
 success to stay his sobs and to live up to the 
 demands of royalty. 
 
 After a minute or two of silence, a smile broke 
 through the royal tears, as the sun shines through 
 an April shower, and a fair bow of promise 
 lighted up the Little King's sorrowful face. 
 
 "I know how we may both be happy!" he 
 cried, clapping his hands delightedly. 
 
 "How, my King?" asked Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "Let us go to the garden, and when no one 
 
 is watching, we'll escape through the little door 
 
 and go for a walk. We'll walk 'way down past 
 
 the Louvre 'way, 'way further than we have 
 
 ever gone, Sweet Mam'selle; oh, so far, because 
 
 this has been such a hard Christmas Day; and 
 
 oh, Sweet Mam'selle, we'll go over where the 
 
 poor people live. Of course we dare not go 
 
 down among the shops. That would be too 
 
 much for a Little King to expect. But maybe 
 
 we can go as far as the river, the dark, murky, 
 
 beautiful river back of Notre Dame where so 
 
 many poor people live. Oh, come, come, Sweet
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 9 
 
 Mam'selle! Oh, I love you so dearly!" He 
 kissed her tenderly by way of bribe and continued 
 rapidly: "Fetch me my plainest, darkest suit, and 
 after all, this Christmas Day won't be so so horrid.'* 
 
 "Oh, I dare not, I dare not," answered Mam- 
 'selle, pleadingly. 
 
 "Oh, please, Sweet Mam'selle. You are so 
 beautiful and so good. There now, I kiss your 
 eyes to stop the tears. I did try so hard to be 
 good all morning." 
 
 "Yes, yes, my King, you were good. You 
 were perfect a perfect King. But I dare not 
 take you to walk in the street to-day." 
 
 "Please, Sweet Mam'selle. I am the King 
 and I might say 'You shall take me, Mam'selle.* 
 But I love you so dearly that I say 'Please take 
 me, Sweet Mam'selle.' Oh, I do so want to go, 
 for I am so tired. Your King kneels to you, 
 Sweet Mam'selle, and begs " 
 
 The Little King fell to his knees beside her 
 and Mam'selle, frightened at the thought of 
 kneeling royalty, exclaimed: 
 
 "Rise, my King, rise! You must kneel to 
 none but Godl"
 
 io THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "I'll not rise till you promise to take me t( 
 the river," answered the King, pleadingly thougl 
 defiantly. 
 
 Mam'selle could resist no longer, so sb 
 said: 
 
 "I'll take you, my King, if I die for it." 
 
 So amid a great deal of suppressed laughter 
 hushed whispering and joyous dancing, the Lit 
 tie King donned his plainest suit and Mam 
 'selle, going to her boudoir put on her plaines 
 gown. 
 
 When both were ready, and very nervous 
 Mam'selle unlocked the door, at the top of th< 
 narrow stairway leading to the King's garden anc 
 the adventurers hurried down. Softly the outei 
 door was opened; still more softly they rar 
 toward the King's Postern, seeking the cover oi 
 the evergreens and hedges as they went. With 
 beating hearts they opened the little door with 
 Mam'selle's magic key, and hurried through the 
 dark, narrow hallway to the street door. Ther 
 followed the thrilling moment of escape and n 
 delicious breath of the sweet street air. 
 
 The Little King wanted to do something tc
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 
 
 ii 
 
 express his joy, but his whole life had been so 
 artificial that he did not know how. Had he 
 been "just boy" he would have known that his 
 longing was nature calling him to shout, to run, 
 to jump and to walk in the mud, where he 
 might accumulate 
 enough sweet luxurious 
 dirt to drive his mother 
 if he had had a real'''! 
 one temporarily wild. 
 But cruel fate had de- 
 nied him the sweet 
 knowledge of things 
 that are really worth 
 while doing and he was 
 forced to content him- 
 
 
 
 self with clinging to Mam'selle's hand, skipping 
 in a stiff kingly fashion by her side and draw- 
 ing in great breaths of the sweet forbidden air. 
 Mam'selle hugged the wall of the Palais Royal 
 and hurried across the open space between the 
 Louvre and the Garden of the Tuileries. When 
 they reached the street, since called Quai du 
 Louvre, they turned and walked close to the wall
 
 12 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 of the Louvre until they reached the lower end 
 of the long palace. Then she said: 
 
 "Shall we turn back, my King?" 
 
 "No, no," pleaded little Majesty. "You prom- 
 ised to take me to the river and perhaps down 
 the rivage a little way down back of Notre 
 Dame where the poor people live." 
 
 "Alas, the poor people live everywhere in 
 Paris, my King," she answered. "But I did not 
 promise to take you to the river. I " 
 
 "You did promise, Mam'selle," returned the 
 King, with an amusing touch of kingly anger. 
 "You did promise and for you to say that you 
 did not is to contradict your King. That would 
 be a sin and would make most kings angry. But 
 I am a good king and I love you, so if you 
 promise never to do so again, I'll forgive you." 
 
 Mam'selle smiled and drew the King to her 
 side. "If I did promise, my King " 
 
 "If?" cried the King. "That is as much as 
 to say that the King did not tell the truth when 
 he said you did promise. It is well for you, 
 Mam'selle, that I am a good king and that I 
 love you so dearly."
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 13 
 
 Mam'selle had to shape another course in sail- 
 ing through the winding channels and between 
 the rocks and shoals of royal whims and priv- 
 ileges. 
 
 "Then I shall say 'though I did make the 
 promise,' my King, I must not keep it. We must 
 turn back." 
 
 "I've always thought there was one person I 
 could trust. I thought you loved me and would 
 keep your promise," said the King, mournfully. 
 "You are so beautiful and I was going to marry 
 you when I grew up. But if I'm wrong I'll go 
 back with you. I thought we were going to 
 have such a good time." 
 
 Mam'selle glanced down to the King and saw 
 a flood of unregal tears gathering in his eyes. 
 Again her tender heart came to his rescue, and 
 she said: 
 
 "We'll go to the river, back of Notre Dame, 
 my King, and we'll not return till you give the 
 word. I'm going to trust you. If we are dis- 
 covered, woe is me, for I believe the Cardinal 
 would have me beheaded." 
 
 "Do this for me, Sweet Mam'selle," pleaded
 
 i 4 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the King, taking her hand. "I shall protect you 
 for I am the King and when I grow up I'll make 
 you a duchess and I'll marry you, too." 
 
 So, far past the Louvre, the Little King and 
 Mam'selle wandered till they reached the wharf 
 of the Old Red Ferry, beyond the Bridge of 
 Our Lady back of the great dark Church of 
 Notre Dame. Then the King, leading Mam- 
 'selle by the hand, crossed the quai and following 
 the bend of the river, walked on the rivage very 
 close to the "dark, murky, beautiful" water. 
 
 At times the King had the great happiness to 
 step right in the water, much to Mam'selle's 
 horror, but he seemed to have mastered her and 
 she gave him his way in everything. Once or 
 twice the King actually brushed against the rough 
 garbed gens de riviere, who smiled at the beautiful 
 Mam'selle for she was as fair as a rosy dawn and 
 looked with kindly glances on the handsome child. 
 
 It was all so delightfully strange to the King 
 that his joy was beyond expression save in signifi- 
 cant squeezes of Mam'selle's hand, expressive 
 glances up to her face and deep, long drawn 
 breaths of sheer ecstasy.
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 15 
 
 After walking a long way down the river it- 
 seemed a very long way to Mam'selle they came 
 to a little girl sitting on a log near the water's 
 edge. The King had passed several clusters of 
 begrimed and ragged children who were far more 
 attractive to him than were the little Count de 
 Bourbon, the little Mam'selle la Duchesse de 
 Conde or the other bejeweled children with whom 
 he sometimes played and he longed to speak to 
 them. But they frightened him and he was unable 
 to screw his courage to the talking place until 
 he found the little girl sitting alone, tenderly 
 nursing a rag doll. Though poorly dressed, she 
 was cleaner than the others and her childish 
 beauty was far too assertive to be hidden by 
 rags. 
 
 The King stepped boldly up to her and stood 
 gazing in unfeigned admiration. For one brief 
 moment the girl's great brown eyes gave back 
 his admiring glances with usury. Then the long 
 lashes fell, and she gazed with ostentatious 
 motherly love upon the rag doll resting on her 
 lap. She remained seated, wholly unmindful and 
 apparently unconscious of any other presence, and
 
 i6 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 continued to smile lovingly into the doll's face. 
 Presently she made it comfortable on the bend 
 of her elbow, crossed her knees, swung her foot 
 gently up and down, swayed her body from side 
 to side and hummed a lullaby in tones so soft 
 and sweet that the King thought he had never 
 before heard so soothing a song. Added to her 
 lullaby was always this refrain: 
 
 "We thank dear St. Nicholas for all that we 
 
 receive, 
 But we are more blessed, far more blessed when 
 
 we give." 
 
 Meantime the Little King stood silently watch- 
 ing her, though 
 after her first 
 glance she gave no 
 sign that she knew 
 he was there. So 
 early does the 
 flower of coquetry 
 bloom in the femi- 
 nine heart and so 
 complete a mastery 
 has it over the self- 
 proud heart of
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 17 
 
 man that the King thought the little beauty's 
 acting was real and supposed she had forgotten 
 that he and Mam'selle stood before her. 
 
 Presently the Little King coughed deferentially 
 to remind her that he, Louis XIV, was awaiting 
 her pleasure and was willing to be gracious. But 
 she had no time for frivolities. Baby needed 
 her attention; it was baby's sleepy time. 
 
 This indifference to his august presence was a 
 new and not altogether unattractive phase of life 
 to the King. Never had he dreamed that any 
 one could ignore him, nor did he know that it 
 was possible for a subject of France to sit in 
 the presence of France's King. But the new con- 
 dition interested him so much that he gazed, 
 admired, smiled broadly and after a time, said: 
 
 "Why don't you rise, Mam'selle? Why do 
 you remain seated?" 
 
 No answer came save in the gentle swaying of 
 the body and the crooning of the lullaby, so the 
 King again asked: 
 
 "Why do you remain seated?" 
 
 "Sh h h h," she answered, holding up her 
 hand to enjoin silence and whispering softly. "I
 
 i8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 am singing my baby to sleep. You know it spoils 
 them to walk them to sleep." 
 
 All Greek to the Little King, far worse than 
 Greek, for he had a slight knowledge of the 
 olden tongue, but what he knew about babies 
 could have been written on his smallest finger nail. 
 
 The King again was silent and stood for a 
 minute or more enjoying the lullaby which was 
 being sung to him quite as much as to the doll. 
 He looked up to Sweet Mam'selle with a puzzled 
 expression. She answered with a smile and the 
 Little King, turning to the child with a manner 
 as if to say "I'm enjoying this very much," 
 remarked : 
 
 "Do you know, you are the only person except 
 the Queen Mother that has ever remained seated 
 in my presence? The Count de Bourbon and 
 Mam'selle la Duchess de Conde, even the Car- 
 dinal and my brother, Monsieur, all remain 
 standing." 
 
 All Greek to the little girl, so she answered 
 without deigning to give a glance to the Little 
 King: "I don't know those folks," and again 
 took up the broken lullaby.
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 19 
 
 The Little King's smile broadened to a hugh. 
 Christmas, after all, was not so bad a day. He 
 was determined to talk to the little girl and to 
 make her talk to him, so presently he asked: 
 
 "What is your name, Mam'selle ?" 
 
 "Louise Jarbeau. What's yours?" she answered 
 in accents softly spoken out of respect to baby's 
 sleepiness, then immediately resumed her crooning. 
 
 After a long, delicious pause, the King answered: 
 
 "My name is Louis." 
 
 Another long pause ensued. 
 
 "Louis what?" she asked between notes. 
 
 "Louis what?" repeated the King. Louise 
 failing to answer he looked up to Sweet Mam- 
 'selle and asked: "What does she mean?" 
 
 "I mean what is your other name besides 
 Louis," said the girl, answering for Mam'selle 
 in tones plainly showing that the King was inter- 
 fering with her motherly duties. 
 
 "Oh! Louis Fourteen. I am the King," he 
 answered. 
 
 Mam'selle gave his hand an admonitory squeeze. 
 The King shrugged his shoulders and laughed 
 softly as if to say, "Too late now. The cat's out."
 
 20 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 The King's statement evidently amused the lit- 
 tle mother, for she looked up to Sweet Mam- 
 'selle with a smile which seemed to say, "To us 
 older folks his childish jests are amusing," and 
 again turned her eyes to the baby, now evidently 
 almost asleep. She was at least two years younger 
 than his Majesty. 
 
 The King was about to speak, but the little 
 mother held up her hand warningly, whispered 
 "Sh h h h" to enjoin siknce for one mo- 
 ment longer, swayed her body more gently, sung 
 more softly, watched the baby's face more intently 
 and after a moment of sweet pantomime, breathed 
 a sigh of relief as baby reached the shores of 
 slumberland. 
 
 "Now she is asleep and we may .talk without 
 waking her if we speak softly softly, you know, 
 as the fairies talk." She laid the baby gently 
 on the log, covered it tenderly with an old piece 
 of sail cloth, gazed at the sleeping infant for a 
 moment, sighed, crossed herself and said: 
 
 "Thank Jesu at last!" 
 
 She tiptoed to the other end of the log, sat 
 down, beckoned Mam'selle and the King to a
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 21 
 
 place beside her and drew in her ragged little 
 skirts so that they might sit very close. He at 
 once accepted the invitation but Mam'selle remained 
 standing. 
 
 "You sit down, too, on the other side of me," 
 said Louise, smiling up to Mam'selle, "and we'll 
 talk. I'll tell you how St. Nicholas brought 
 Babette Babette is my baby to me only this 
 morning." 
 
 "I prefer standing," said Mam'selle, "and 
 should like very much to hear the story of 
 Babette." 
 
 "Please sit down, Sweet Mam'selle, on the 
 other side of Louise," pleaded the Little King, 
 grasping Mam'selle's hand and drawing her toward 
 the log. So Mam'selle, for the first and last 
 time in all her life, sat in the presence of the 
 King of France, with Louise Jarbeau between her 
 and august Majesty. 
 
 At first the conversation seemed to halt, so 
 Louise, feeling that the burden of hostess rested 
 on her little shoulders, asked: 
 
 "What is your father's name and what does 
 he do?"
 
 22 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "He is dead," answered the King, "but his 
 name, too, was Louis." 
 
 "But his his other name, what was it?" asked 
 Louise. 
 
 The King laughed and said: "I don't know." 
 
 Louise's eyes opened in wonder, but she made 
 no comment on the remarkable situation, fearing 
 to offend, for perhaps it was not the little boy's 
 fault that he did not know his father's name. 
 
 To the Little King the fact that his father 
 was dead was not a source, of grief. The late 
 Louis XIII was simply a link in the kingship 
 of France, a mere number in French history. 
 
 A long pause followed during which Louise 
 was trying to formulate suitable expressions of 
 sympathy for the King's fatherless and nameless 
 condition, but he sadly disturbed her mental proc- 
 esses by saying: 
 
 "My father was called Thirteen and I am 
 Fourteen." 
 
 A smile came to Louise's face despite her 
 effort not to seem amused and she said: 
 
 "There must have been a lot of children in 
 your family to have to give them numbers instead
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 23 
 
 of names." Then the smile seemed to transfer 
 itself to the King's face and hers bore a touch of 
 sadness as she continued: "That's the way they 
 do in prison. My Father Pierre's number is too 
 large for me to know because I can't count more 
 than one hundred, so my Mother Louise puts it 
 down on a piece of paper when she sends me 
 with a basket of bread to the Prison Sur le 
 Pont." 
 
 Louise sighed and with an air of wishing to 
 get away from a disagreeable topic, went back 
 to the subject of names: 
 
 "It is so funny. Your father with a number 
 for a name and you, too." Again she paused, 
 looked dreamily out over the river, turned again 
 to the King and continued softly, tenderly: "I'm 
 sorry he is dead because he can't be good to 
 you and buy things for you, and you can't be 
 sorry and cry if if they take him to prison 
 and your mother can't cry every night because 
 he is in prison. But maybe she cries because 
 he's dead, does she?" 
 
 The thought was entirely new to the Little 
 King, so he answered truthfully:
 
 24 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "I don't know, but I heard Madame de Longue- 
 ville say that the Queen left off rouge when the 
 King died. But why should she cry?' 
 
 Louise was dimly conscious of a feeling that 
 of course his mother would cry, but the King's 
 manner made her suspect that perhaps something 
 was wrong with either her premise or her conclu- 
 sion. The subject was too deep for Louise, so 
 she backed away from it saying : 
 
 "My mother's name is the same as mine. Her 
 name is Louise too Mother Louise. I am Baby 
 Louise. What what is your mother's name?" 
 There was doubt in the question; it was danger- 
 ous ground. 
 
 "I don't know," stammered the King, who 
 had inherited along with his crown his father's 
 tendency to stammer when slightly confused. 
 
 The science of nomenclature, so simple to 
 Louise, was too deep for Louis. 
 
 "What tithe Queen's name?" he asked, leaning 
 forward and speaking across Louise to Mam- 
 'selle. 
 
 "Her Majesty's name is Anne," answered 
 Mam'selle.
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 25 
 
 Louise sat in open-eyed expectancy, hoping to 
 hear a second name. 
 
 "Yes, Anne," said the King, turning to Louise 
 and taking evident delight in the fact that his 
 mother had a name. "My mother's name is 
 Anne." A short pause filled with faltering cer- 
 tainty: "The Queen is my real mother, is she 
 not, Sweet Mam'selle?" 
 
 Mam'selle answered: "Yes." 
 
 Louise smiled in default of words. This con- 
 dition of affairs was startling. Here was a boy 
 older than she who did not know his mother's 
 name, and seemed not to be entirely clear about 
 his own. He seemed, too, to be a little foggy 
 concerning his mother's very existence and the 
 family name appeared to be a series of numbers. 
 Words were useless thought Louise; but silence 
 was embarrassing, so she was driven to speech: 
 
 "Does she have to work very hard?" 
 
 "Yes," responded the King, delighted to be 
 able to answer a question intelligibly. He felt 
 that he and the little girl were once more on 
 mutually understandable ground. But he was 
 wrong, for respecting the definition of the word
 
 26 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "work," they were further apart than ever. 
 "She holds a council of state on Mondays and 
 Thursdays, and every day with the Cardinal. 
 Nearly every day, I believe, she Consults with 
 M. Mole, of the Parliament. Then she receives 
 ambassadors from other kings and addresses from 
 the people, and and " 
 
 "So does my mother," answered poor Louise 
 from the midst of cloud. She did not intend 
 that any one's mother should do more work than 
 her own dear Mother Louise. 
 
 The King glanced inquiringly toward Mam- 
 'selle and Louise continued: "And she sews, too, 
 when she can get any to do." 
 
 "Sews" was another word concerning which the 
 King was sadly lacking in definition. He had 
 prided himself on his knowledge of the French 
 language, but his pride had taken a fall and his 
 ignorance was embarrassing, so he remained silent. 
 With true feminine tact, Louise had concealed her 
 own shortage, but with feminine quickness soon 
 discovered that the King was groping, so to pre- 
 vent his humiliation she again took up the burden 
 of the conversation.
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 27 
 
 "Yes, my mother Louise and my sister Jose- 
 phine she is a big girl, she is sixteen work 
 whenever they can get anything to do and they 
 buy things for me. And they've got two names, 
 too." 
 
 Louise did not want to boast, but she did feel 
 that the possession of four names by two persons 
 was a fact justifying mention as conducive of 
 respect in a boy whose father and mother had 
 but one each. 
 
 A long pause followed. Louis did not seem 
 able to break it and Louise felt that something 
 must be done to relieve the embarrassing silence, 
 so she again took up the burden. 
 
 "Oh, I love Mother Louise and my sister. 
 They bought me a nice red ribbon last Christ- 
 mas. I have it at home. Yes, Fourteen, a real 
 red ribbon. I wear it only when I go to high 
 mass. Oh, it's so beautiful and they're going 
 to buy me a new dress when they get enough 
 sous. They never expect to get enough to buy 
 dresses for themselves. It takes nearly all they 
 can get to pay the guard at the Prison Sur le Pont 
 to let me take bread to Fnther Pierre. Every
 
 28 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Sunday right after mass, Mother Louise sends me 
 with bread and sometimes a little milk to Father 
 Pierre. I don't know why, but she says she's 
 afraid to send Josephine because Josephine is 
 pretty and she's too big, so she sends me and 
 sometimes I get to see Father Pierre and he 
 kisses me and cries, and then and then well, 
 I cry, too." 
 
 She paused and tried very hard to smile, as 
 if in apology for again introducing a painful 
 topic. 
 
 The King, who seemed to be having less diffi- 
 culty with his definitions, fully grasped the situa- 
 tion and listened in evident sympathy, while 
 Sweet Mam'selle was struggling to keep back 
 the tears. 
 
 "Oh, but my doll Babettel" cried Louise, joy- 
 fully. "Do you want me to tell you about her?" 
 
 "Yes," answered the King and Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "Well, I remember long ago 'way last Christ- 
 mas I did want a doll so badly. But I was 
 little then; I was only five years old so I didn't 
 get one. Marie Lotier got one. St. Nicholas 
 brought it to her, but she wouldn't let me play
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 29 
 
 with it. But she did let me look at her playing 
 with it and and that was nice in her, wasn't 
 it, now? Oh, I did so want a doll and I just 
 thought about it all the time every minute since 
 last Christmas and I made a novena for one 
 and Mother Louise gave me a sou for an offer- 
 ing to the Virgin and sure enough, my novena 
 was answered, and when I woke up this morning, 
 there right beside me was my beautiful doll, 
 Babette. I had seen her, don't you know, in 
 Mother Lotier's shop window she is Marie's 
 mother and keeps the shop next door to us and 
 I told Mother Louise that maybe St. Nicholas 
 had left Babette there for me, and sure enough he 
 had. I like Marie but they say she is a Huguenot." 
 Louise hurriedly crossed herself and continued the 
 story of Babette: "Oh, I do love Babette better 
 than any one in the world except Mother Louise 
 and Sister Josephine and Father Pierre. I wonder 
 would the Virgin" (she casts down her eyes and 
 crosses herself devoutly) "punish me if I loved 
 Babette better than them." 
 
 "No, no, Louise," said Sweet Mam'selle, speak- 
 ing to keep back the tears. "But you must not
 
 30 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 love your doll better than your mother, father and 
 sister." 
 
 Louise wanted to hurry away from the thought. 
 
 "Yes, good St. Nicholas brought her to me. 
 He brought Marie Lotier a prettier doll but I 
 know it is not so good as Babette." 
 
 Another long pause ensued; Louise bent her 
 head in a listening attitude, held up her hand for 
 silence and said: "There! Babette is awake and 
 I'll fetch her. I'm glad she didn't sleep long, 
 for I do love her and I just want her all the time." 
 
 She ran to the doll, took it up tenderly, kissed 
 it passionately and resumed her seat between 
 Mam'selle and the King. After she had made 
 the baby comfortable on her lap and had feasted 
 her eyes for a moment on its beauty, she turned 
 to the King and asked: 
 
 "What did St. Nicholas bring you this morn- 
 ing?" 
 
 "Why, no nothing. I I don't know him, 
 so of course he wouldn't bring me anything. He 
 couldn't get into the palace," answered the King. 
 
 "Many friends brought beautiful presents," 
 interrupted Sweet Mam'selle. "The Cardinal pre-
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 31 
 
 sented a beautiful sword with a jeweled hilt and 
 scabbard. The Marquis de Villeroi presented a 
 diamond star of the King's Orders and many 
 others made their Christmas offerings. There was a 
 beautiful brooch from her Majesty." 
 
 Poor Louise was lost again. Stars and Orders, 
 scabbards and brooches were Greek to her. She 
 gazed with pity on the King and asked: 
 
 "But didn't St. Nicholas bring you something 
 something that made you cry just because you 
 loved it so much?" 
 
 Babette for the moment was forgotten and lay 
 on Louise's lap in frightful danger of falling off. 
 
 "No, he brought me nothing," answered the 
 King, with a note of pain in his voice, telling 
 plainly that he was beginning to realize his great 
 misfortune. 
 
 "Oh, you poor you poor " began Louise. But 
 she stopped speaking suddenly, as if the words 
 had been choked back by a great and torturing 
 thought. She gazed for a moment at the King, 
 then lowered her eyes with ineffable love toward 
 the doll in her lap. It was the only treasure she 
 had ever possessed, the only great joy she had
 
 3J 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 ever known. A struggle was going on within her 
 baby heart, but it was brief. In a few seconds 
 she turned quickly toward the King, thrust the 
 precious Babette in his hands and said: 
 "You take her, Fourteen, you take her." 
 
 She smothered 
 her grief for a sec- 
 ond or two, but 
 could not hold out 
 against it, so fell 
 to her knees, buried 
 er face in Sweet 
 Mam'selle's lap and wept as if her little heart 
 would break. 
 
 Louise's wondrous unselfishness touched Sweet 
 Mam'selle keenly, and the Little King's knowledge 
 of definitions was full and clear. He saw it all 
 and his heart responded if his voice did not. 
 
 "No, Louise, we cannot take your doll," said 
 Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "No, no," agreed the King. 
 "Yes,- yes," insisted Louise, between her sobs. 
 "I can't bear to think that St. Nicholas forgot 
 Fourteen."
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 33 
 
 "But you must take her back," said Sweet 
 Mam'selle, lifting Louise to her feet and indicat- 
 ing to the King to place the doll in her arms. 
 The King quickly responded and Louise fell upon 
 Babette in a passion of caresses that would have 
 filled the heart of a returning prodigal with envy. 
 
 After a brief moment of joyous thanksgiving 
 for Babette's return, Louise looked up through 
 her tears to Sweet Mam'selle and asked: 
 
 "Why did St. Nicholas forget Fourteen? Was 
 he a bad boy?" 
 
 "No, no, Louise, he was good. And I am 
 sure St. Nicholas will come to our house to-night, 
 so you need not worry." 
 
 Louise dried her eyes and divided her smiles 
 as impartially as possible between Fourteen and 
 Babette. 
 
 Mam'selle thought it was high time that she 
 and the King should hurry home, but she wanted 
 the King to return Louise's great favor with one 
 still greater, if possible, so she asked: 
 
 "Is your father in prison, Louise?" 
 
 "Yes, the Prison Sur le Pont." 
 
 "Does your mother live near here?" 
 3
 
 34 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Yes, over there by Mother Lotier's shop," 
 answered Louise, pointing to a near-by house. 
 
 "Fetch her quickly," commanded Sweet Mam- 
 'selle. Then Louise ran off, clinging to Babette, to 
 bring her mother. 
 
 While she was away Mam'selle had a moment's 
 talk with the Little King, who, knowing all about 
 the definitions of the word "prison" and its kin- 
 dred, fully comprehended the situation and was 
 eager to act. 
 
 "Do do you su suppose I can really let 
 Louise's father out of prison?" asked the Little 
 King. 
 
 "With the help of the good Bishop of Notre 
 Dame, whom we both know and who lives near 
 by, I feel sure you can," answered Sweet Mam- 
 'selle. 
 
 When Mother Louise came, she explained that 
 Father Pierre had been arrested two years before 
 for protecting his daughter from insult at the 
 hands of a drunken nobleman and that he had 
 been in. prison ever since. 
 
 After hearing Mother Louise's story, they all 
 hurried to the house of the good Bishop of
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS' 35
 
 36 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Notre Dame, who wrote out an order for the 
 King to sign, directing Father Pierre's release. 
 With great difficulty the Little King signed his 
 name "Louis R." The Bishop attested his 
 Majesty's signature, and gave the order to 
 Mother Louise saying: 
 
 "Present this to the Governor of the Prison 
 Sur le Pont and you will receive your husband.'* 
 
 Greatly frightened at what she had done, Sweet 
 Mam'selle hurried back to the palace. 
 
 Immediately after leaving the Bishop's house, 
 the Little King asked: 
 
 "Do do you suppose they will let Father 
 Pierre out of prison?" 
 
 "Yes, my King, I am sure they will," answered 
 Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 As they were climbing the narrow steps to the 
 King's bedroom, he again asked: 
 
 "Do do you suppose they will really let him 
 out?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, my King, I am sure they will," 
 answered Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 When they were once more safe in the King's
 
 THE LITTLE KING'S CHRISTMAS 37 
 
 bedroom, Sweet Mam'selle gave a great sigh of 
 relief and at once began to remove the King's 
 "plainest, darkest" suit. He wanted his nap, for 
 he was tired, though very happy happier than 
 he had ever been before in all his life. 
 
 While Mam'selle was arranging for his nap, 
 the King, seeming to have but one thought, again 
 asked : 
 
 "Do do you suppose they will really let him 
 out?" 
 
 "Yes, my King, I am sure they will," answered 
 Sweet Mam'selle. "It is your Majesty's first act 
 as King and I hope you will remember it all 
 your life." 
 
 "I shall," answered the Little King, with more 
 feeling than he had ever shown. "What was it 
 in Louise's song about giving?" 
 
 "She said 'But we are more blessed, far more 
 blessed when we give,' " answered Mam'selle. 
 
 "Yes," returned the Little King. "That was 
 it, Sweet Mam'selle, and it is true, every word. 
 Maybe that is what Christmas means?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, my King." 
 
 The King lay down on his low soft bed, asking
 
 3 8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle to sit on a hassock beside him 
 and hold his hand. 
 
 A long silence ensued. The King was almost 
 asleep, but from the depths of his drowsiness he 
 spoke : 
 
 "St. Nicholas didn't for forget me, did he, 
 Sweet Mam'selle? He brought Christmas to to 
 his Little King." Then the fair little face turned 
 toward Mam'selle, whose head was resting beside 
 him on the royal pillow. He kissed her cheek 
 ever so softly and whispered: 
 
 "Do do you suppose " But the King of 
 France was sound asleep. 
 
 "Yes, yes, my my " drowsily answered Sweet 
 Mam'selle. 
 
 But Sweet Mam'selle was with her King in the 
 land of dreams, where the sough of Louise's 
 lullaby came laden with the sweet refrain: 
 
 "But we are more blessed, far more blessed when 
 we give."
 
 CHAPTER II 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 
 
 IT would have been impossible to convince 
 Sweet Mam'selle and the Little King that 
 their rosaries had not turned away the hand 
 of Death, and their faith was so beautiful that 
 none but a very hardened person would have 
 tried. 
 
 Soon after Christmas the poor Little King 
 was very ill. One can't expect a boy of eight 
 to be a man when he is ill, but little Louis XIV 
 came as near it as any child ever did. He gave 
 one the impression of a grafted tree. In some 
 wonderful manner the artificial bud of kingli- 
 ness had been grafted on the native stem of hu- 
 man nature, and the work was done so adroitly 
 that the two seemed one. The result was a 
 quaint and interesting child king. His Majesty, 
 the king-child, is to be found in many a house- 
 hold, but the child king belongs to a rare, 
 
 39
 
 40 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 small species of the human race, and the world 
 has known but few specimens of his kind. 
 
 So when the Little King was sick, the part of 
 him which was king kept a stiff rein on the part 
 of him which was child, and no one save his beautiful 
 nurse, Sweet Mam'selle, was permitted to witness 
 his luxurious and, at times, much needed lapses 
 back to nature. When alone with her, he re- 
 laxed and found sweet relief in gently flowing 
 tears, wistful complaints and childish appeals 
 for sympathy. His tears were stayed, oh, so 
 lovingly by Sweet Mam'selle's soft hand; his com- 
 plaints were heard, oh, so tenderly, and his ap- 
 peals for sympathy were met by a flood of 
 soothing consolation, fresh from her gentle heart. 
 So they loved each other devotedly, and Sweet 
 Mam'selle knew that she was first in the heart 
 of the King of France. 
 
 The Little King had good cause to love Sweet 
 Mam'selle, for of all the women of the court, 
 she alone had clung to him during his illness. 
 After the nature of his malady was known, no 
 one else had entered his room save his governor, 
 the Marquis de Villeroi, Seguine, the Queen's
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 41 
 
 physician, and a mysterious old woman, who came 
 morning and evening for the ostensible purpose 
 of instructing Sweet Mam'selle in the art of nurs- 
 ing. 
 
 Although great caution was used to keep the 
 King from knowing the nature of his illness, the 
 marked absence of the Queen and the courtiers 
 led him to suspect that it was contagious. The 
 Marquis and Seguine remained in the room 
 nearly all the time save at night, and though 
 the Little King found their presence irksome, 
 he was too polite to say so until the afternoon 
 of the third day of his illness. Until then he 
 did not complain. He had tried so hard to be 
 a king, but at last tired human nature rebelled,, 
 and he longed to be alone with Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 At times, the part of him which was king 
 had a long reign, but when the part of him 
 which was child took its turn, the Little King 
 became intensely human, and would have his own. 
 way, quietly if possible, stormily if necessary. 
 
 So on the afternoon of the third day, while 
 the Marquis de Villeroi and Seguine were talk- 
 ing in low irritating whispers over by the win-
 
 ~42 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 dow at the other end of the long room, the 
 Little King turned to Sweet Mam'selle, who was 
 sitting beside him on a hassock, and whispered: 
 
 "Tell them I thank them for their presence, 
 but that I shall not trouble them to remain." 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle crossed the room, courtesied 
 to the Marquis and delivered the King's mes- 
 sage. 
 
 The Marquis went to the King and said: 
 
 "We are to remain here until your Majesty 
 has recovered. Seguine and I do not fear, for 
 we have had the smallpox that is I I mean 
 your Majesty I mean it is our duty and our 
 great pleasure to remain; besides, it is the com- 
 mand of the Queen and the Cardinal." 
 
 "I thank you," answered the Little King, cling- 
 ing desperately to his dignity. "But you have 
 the King's permission to go, and that is greater 
 than the command of the Queen and the Car- 
 dinal." 
 
 "But, your Majesty " began the Marquis, 
 protestingly 
 
 "I am sure M. le Marquis will not wait for 
 the King to dismiss him. That would be pain-
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 43 
 
 ful to to both," interrupted the Little King, 
 glaring angrily. 
 
 That was human nature backed by kingliness, 
 so the Marquis and Seguine bowed and with- 
 drew. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle then ran to the Little King 
 and fell on her knees at his bedside, for she, 
 too, was glad they were gone. Instantly the king 
 flew away, and tears and sobs came softly, hu- 
 manly, pathetically from the tired child's weary 
 heart. 
 
 "Oh, my King!" cried Sweet Mam'selle, "I 
 would that I could be ill in your place." 
 
 "Ha have you ev ever had had the small- 
 pox?" sobbed the King. 
 
 "No, my King." 
 
 "Then then I dis dismiss you," he returned. 
 "Else you will be ill. You you will take the 
 contagion." 
 
 "Why do you say I shall?" she asked. 
 
 "Because I have the smallpox," he replied, 
 making a manly effort to stay his tears. 
 
 "No, no, my King, it cannot be." 
 
 "You will not say I have it not," returned
 
 44 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the King, trying his best to smile, "because you 
 cannot tell a falsehood. You never did and you 
 never will; will you, Sweet Mam'selle? I be- 
 lieve every word you say, and I love you and 
 trust you, and just as soon as I am crowned, I'm 
 going to make you a duchess and marry you. 
 Then you will be the greatest lady in the world 
 my Queen. Don't you wish I could grow up 
 big in a night, like the magic beanstalk?" This 
 was the child, unalloyed by kingliness. 
 
 "Yes, yes, my King," acquiesced Sweet Mam'- 
 selle, soothingly. "But you must not think about 
 yourself." 
 
 She could not make even an effort to tell the 
 King a lie. She knew the great truth that while 
 one swallow may not make a summer, one lie 
 spoken to a thoughtful child will make a liar. 
 So Sweet Mam'selle hesitated and halted as she 
 spoke, and the King knew the truth. 
 
 "I know what my malady is," he answered, 
 "because no one comes to see me save my tutor, 
 the Marquis de Villeroi, Seguine and the old woman." 
 
 "What old woman?" asked Sweet Mam'selle, 
 speaking thoughtlessly.
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 45 
 
 "Don't you know? The one who comes every 
 morning and evening with Seguine." 
 
 "Oh, yes. I forgot her," returned Sweet 
 Mam'selle. She had almost told the King of 
 a mysterious secret she had discovered concern- 
 ing the old woman. 
 
 "They have had the malady," continued the 
 King, "and have nothing to fear. They're all 
 cowards but you; ready to die for me when 
 there's no danger." 
 
 It will be seen that there was a sprig of bit- 
 terness latent in the kingly bud grafted on the 
 childish stem. 
 
 "No, no, my King. Every one loves you," 
 protested Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "We will pretend they do," he replied, sigh- 
 ing, "but they don't love me as you do." A 
 long pause followed, during which the King was 
 very thoughtful. "The Marquis told me what 
 ailed me when he said that he and Seguine were 
 not afraid. If they were, you would be alone 
 with me. You do love me and I must dismiss you." 
 
 "But I will not be dismissed," she answered, 
 firmly.
 
 46 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "You will go if I command it," he returned, 
 summoning his kingliness. 
 
 "No," said Sweet Mam'selle, closing her lips 
 and shaking her head. 
 
 "You would not wilfully disobey your king's 
 command?" he asked. 
 
 "Yes," she responded, with all appearances of 
 meaning just what she said. 
 
 "Ah, that would be a grievous sin," said the 
 King, earnestly. 
 
 "I suppose so," she answered, her face show- 
 ing clearly all the determination of which a beau- 
 tiful and confident girl is capable. "But I do 
 not intend to be driven from you till you are 
 well. Then if my King wishes to be rid of 
 me" 
 
 "No, no, Sweet Mam'selle. When I am well, 
 you shall return." 
 
 "I will stay now," she again insisted. "I 
 fear you took the malady Christmas Day when 
 we stole away from the palace and went down 
 on the rivage where the poor people live, and 
 met Louise Jarbeau. I feel that I should con- 
 fess to the Queen, and tell her that I took you.
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 47 
 
 But I fear she and the Cardinal would put me to 
 death. Oh, my King, do not allow them to 
 take me from you! If there is any love for me, 
 even in one little corner of your heart, don't 
 let them take me away. If you do, I'll tell 
 the Queen about Christmas Day, and I know she 
 will kill me." 
 
 "But if you stay, you will take the contagion," 
 insisted the Little King. 
 
 u No, no, my King. God is good and He 
 will protect me while I am doing His work in 
 saving the life of His anointed. I'll say my 
 rosary twice every day " 
 
 " and I'll say my rosary, too," interrupted 
 the Little King, joyful to have an excuse to 
 keep his friend of friends near him. "Then 
 God will protect you from all evil, and you 
 may stay." 
 
 So it was arranged between them, and they 
 began at once to say their rosaries with an un- 
 questioning faith that always carries a prayer 
 straight to the heart of God. 
 
 Every one about the palace wondered when 
 and how the Little King had been exposed to
 
 48 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the contagion, but the question remained unan- 
 swered till one day the Bishop of Notre Dame 
 told how the King had visited him at his house, 
 with Sweet Mam'selle, to invoke his aid in re- 
 leasing a prisoner whose wife and child they 
 had met down on the rivage. Then Sweet 
 Mam'selle was questioned, and the whole story 
 came out. 
 
 The Queen, a shallow, passionate woman, was 
 furious with rage. The Cardinal, whose cold 
 blood never caught fire, affected great anger, and 
 advised that the girl be punished by anathema 
 and death. In his righteous indignation, he said 
 it was but meet that not only her body but her 
 soul also should be killed. If there had been 
 anything else about the poor girl that could die, 
 he would have been glad to kill it, too, just to 
 humor the Queen's angry whim. 
 
 Late that night, while the King slept heavily 
 under the influences of a narcotic, two gendarmes 
 from the Bastile entered the room with the Mar- 
 quis de Villeroi. Sweet Mam'selle, tired and 
 almost worn out, was sitting on the hassock, 
 asleep, her head resting on the edge of the
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 49 
 
 King's bed. When the guard in the King's ante- 
 chamber opened the door, she sprang to her feet, 
 startled and for the moment, alarmed. But when 
 she saw the Marquis, her fear subsided, and she 
 stood awaiting his orders. 
 
 Without a word of explanation, the cruel 
 Marquis turned to the gendarmes and motioned 
 with his hand toward Sweet Mam'selle. Then 
 turning to her, he said: "You will go with these 
 
 men." 
 
 "Where? Why? I don't understand," she 
 asked, speaking softly not to waken the King. 
 
 "You will soon learn," he replied, gruffly. 
 Sweet Mam'selle was out of favor, therefore 
 courtesy bestowed on her would be wasted. 
 
 "Please don't speak so loud, M. le Marquis. 
 You will waken the King," whispered Sweet 
 Mam'selle, who was so stunned that she could 
 think of nothing else to say. 
 
 "Then cease your prattle and go at once," 
 he responded. 
 
 "Oh, please tell me why I am taken from the 
 King," she pleaded. "What are they going to 
 do with me? I beg you, M. le Marquis, do
 
 50 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 not send me off with these rough men. It is 
 midnight. Oh, I fear, I fear! The King will 
 die without me. There is no one that will care 
 for him as I do." 
 
 The Marquis's only reply was to nod to the 
 men. 
 
 The gendarmes started toward her, but she 
 ran from them, and threw herself on the King's 
 bed, crying out: 
 
 "Awake, my King, awake ! They are taking 
 me from you! They will kill me! Holy Vir- 
 gin, they will kill me! I know they will!" 
 
 But the King could not be roused, so they 
 took Sweet Mam'selle roughly by the arms and 
 led her from the palace, without allowing her 
 time to adjust her gown, or to obtain warm 
 clothing, though the hour was midnight and the 
 season midwinter. She was taken to the Bastile, 
 the frowning, terrible Bastile, whose name at 
 that time, and for nearly a century and a half 
 to come, was spoken by the people in whispers, 
 for it was a synonym for torture and 
 death. 
 
 The next morning when the Little King awoke,
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 51 
 
 he found a strange woman by his side, and at 
 once asked for Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 The Marquis hurriedly explained. 
 
 "The Queen and the Cardinal commanded that 
 she be taken away." 
 
 "The King commands that she be brought 
 back," retorted the Little King, angrily. 
 
 "But that cannot be, your Majesty," returned 
 the Marquis. "The Cardinal directs " 
 
 "Who is king of France?" demanded the Lit- 
 tle King, right royally. "The Cardinal? When 
 I am crowned, there'll be no Cardinal, I pledge 
 my word to that. I may not be able to make 
 you obey me now, but soon I shall be king in 
 real truth, and every one who has had a part in 
 keeping Sweet Mam'selle from me shall suffer 
 death. They think I am a child, but they shall 
 one day know that I do not forget. The Car- 
 dinal's head shall- be the first to fall, and yours, 
 M. le Marquis, shall be the second if Sweet 
 Mam'selle is not returned to me at once." 
 
 Ah, he was all king now, and that phase of 
 kingliness was beautiful. After all, despotic 
 power has its satisfying points. The Marquis
 
 52 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 knew that the King meant every word he said, 
 and would not forget, so he bowed low, and 
 protested that he had taken no hand in Sweet 
 Mam'selle's removal. 
 
 "I shall go at once, your Majesty," he said, 
 "and importune the Queen to bring her back." 
 
 The Marquis found the Queen, but her Maj- 
 esty feared to speak to him because of the con- 
 tagion, so he gave the King's message, word for 
 word, to a lady in waiting, who delivered it 
 to her mistress. 
 
 "Tell the King she is ill with the smallpox," 
 said the Queen, who always sought refuge in a 
 lie, even though the truth would answer her pur- 
 pose better. 
 
 The Marquis returned to the Little King and 
 repeated the Queen's message. The king was 
 dethroned instantly by the terrible news, and the 
 child turned his face to the wall, weeping bit- 
 terly, regardless of who should see. Louise Jar- 
 beau had done well her work on Christmas Day, 
 and it would take years of kingliness to drive 
 her sweet lesson entirely out of the Little King's 
 heart. Nothing so uplifts the human soul as
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 
 
 53 
 
 grief for another's pain, and nothing so sweet- 
 ens life as joy for another's joy. 
 
 After a time the Little King dried his tears 
 there was no soft hand to do it for him 
 and called the Marquis to his side. 
 
 "I hope the Queen will see that she is well 
 cared for," he said, between sobs. 
 
 "Your Majesty may rest easy. She will be 
 tenderly nursed," answered the Marquis, with a 
 lie that should have choked him. 
 
 The morning after Sweet Mam'selle was taken 
 to the Bastile, she was led from her cell to an 
 upper chamber to be tried; but the trial was a 
 (mockery. She told the truth about Christmas
 
 54 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Day on the rivage, and although there was no 
 evidence to show that the King had taken the 
 smallpox on that occasion, she was condemned to 
 be beheaded. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle had a lover, Jean Breton, a rich 
 young Parisian merchant, to whom she was affianced. 
 
 Though tender, loving, and at times weak, as 
 a woman should be, she was of the sort that 
 gathers strength against a peril, so she did not 
 break down when she heard the sentence of 
 death, but as soon as she was alone, began to 
 collect her thoughts to find, if possible, a way 
 to save her life. Of course, her first thought 
 was of her lover, so she told the guard that 
 Jean would pay him ten pistoles if he would 
 deliver a letter to him. Ten pistoles then were 
 worth nearly one hundred dollars now. 
 
 The guard was eager to earn the money, and 
 Sweet Mam'selle wrote: 
 
 " MY DEAR LOVER : 
 
 I am in the Bastile, condemned to death. If 
 the King knew it, he would save me. Try 
 to see him, but come to me first. Please pay 
 the bearer ten pistoles, 
 
 Your devoted 
 
 ' SWEET MAM'SELLE.' "
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 55 
 
 In those days every official, high or low, was 
 eager to be bribed, so Jean's ready gold soon 
 brought him to his sweetheart. At first they were 
 unable to form a plan whereby Jean could see the 
 King, but after a time Sweet Mam'selle's quick 
 wit discovered one. 
 
 "I know how it may be done," she cried, joy- 
 fully. 
 
 "How, my sweetheart?" asked Jean. 
 
 "You know the old Jew, the alchemist, who 
 lives above Baptiste Guiron's shop, in the Rue 
 Sainte Croix? His name is Benonl." 
 
 "Yes, I know him," answered Jean. "He says 
 he is three thousand years old. He is an ignor- 
 ant charlatan and a cheat a poor despised Jew; 
 how can he help us?" 
 
 "I'll tell you a great secret," whispered Sweet 
 Mam'selle. "The old Jew is not a cheat; neither 
 is he ignorant . He is a learned physician and 
 is treating the King." 
 
 "You do not mean it!" exclaimed Jean. 
 
 "Yes. Seguine is the charlatan. He knows 
 nothing of his art, so he brings the Jew to tell 
 him how to treat the King. The Jew goes to
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the King each morning and evening, disguised 
 as an old woman. The first day he came I recog- 
 nized him, and having a good opportunity, told him 
 
 so. At first he pretended 
 not to understand me, 
 but when he found that 
 I knew him, he laughed 
 and said under his breath: 
 'This fool, Seguine, will 
 kill the King if left to 
 himself. I am here to 
 save him, and if Mam'- 
 selle loves her king, I 
 am sure she will keep 
 a-^rny secret. If the priests 
 knew that I, a Jew, am 
 treating the King, they would appeal to the 
 Queen and the Cardinal, and I should lose my 
 head. Seguine is an ignorant Jew, though he 
 poses as a learned Spanish Christian. Real learn- 
 ing is a capital offense in Paris.' Then I told 
 him that his secret was safe, and he said: 'The 
 Jew will never forget.' ' 
 
 "What you tell me is almost beyond belief,"
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 57 
 
 said Jean. "But tell me how the Jew can help 
 me to see the King." 
 
 "In this way, my lover," answered Sweet 
 Mam'selle. "At the Jew's suggestion, Seguine 
 ordered a pad to be made for the King to lie 
 upon, with certain curative drugs mixed through 
 the wool. The Jew will make it. If he has 
 not yet taken it to the King, our opportunity 
 will come. You offer to pay the Jew for the 
 privilege of bearing it, disguised as an appren- 
 tice. While you and the Jew are placing it 
 under the King, you will find your opportunity. 
 Seguine and the Marquis will be at the other 
 end of the room, as far from the King as pos- 
 sible. Then you whisper to the King and tell 
 him all. He is a child, but he is stronger 
 than one would believe, and will save me. I 
 know they have not told him the truth, and am 
 sure he does not know I am in prison." 
 
 Jean hurried to the Jew, and learned that he 
 intended taking the pad with him when he vis- 
 ited the King that evening. 
 
 Jean's gold pleaded so eloquently that within 
 a few hours he and the Jew were in the King's
 
 58 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 chamber. The opportunity came as Sweet Mam'- 
 selle had said it would, and Jean told the King 
 of her impending fate. 
 
 The Little King immediately called to the 
 Marquis de Villeroi in tones showing plainly that 
 the king and not the child was now enthroned. 
 But Jean placed his finger on his lips to suggest 
 silence. The quick Little King took the hint, and 
 when the Marquis presented himself, said: 
 
 "I thank you, M. le Marquis, there is nothing 
 wanting." So the Marquis returned to the window. 
 
 "Think it over carefully, your Majesty, be- 
 fore you act," whispered Jean. 
 
 "But I am king, and my commands must be 
 obeyed," he responded. 
 
 "Yes, your Majesty, but you are ill, and you 
 may not be able to enforce your commands. I 
 shall return in the morning, and you may then 
 tell me what to do, so that we may act together. 
 The Coadjutor and M. Mole are my friends." 
 
 "I believe I have a plan that will serve our 
 purpose," said the Little King. "But I'll take 
 your advice to think it over till morning, when 
 I'll tell you about it."
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 59 
 
 Then the old Jew and his apprentice left. 
 
 At this time there lived in Paris a man named 
 Jean Frangois Paul de Condi, who was the Co- 
 adjutor Bishop of Paris. He was called the 
 "Coadjutor," and was greatly loved by the peo- 
 ple because he was brave and steadfast in their 
 behalf. There was also a man, Mathiew Mole, 
 who was President of the Parliament. He, too, 
 was loved and trusted by the people. When 
 Broussell was thrown into prison at the Car- 
 dinal's command, the people rose instigated 
 by the Coadjutor and Mole, demanded his re- 
 lease at the palace gates, and had their wish. 
 Had he not been released, it is probable the 
 French Revolution would have occurred at that 
 time. The people had suffered so much from 
 the greed of the Cardinal and from the weak, 
 revengeful tyranny of the Queen Regent that the 
 city of Paris was but a stack of tow waiting 
 for the match. The Coadjutor and Mole could 
 at any moment apply the match. Of that fact 
 the Queen and the Cardinal were aware, and as 
 a result, they lived in a fever of fear. One 
 word from the Coadjutor or Mole would arouse
 
 60 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the populace, and even at that early time com- 
 ing events cast a shadow before, which was easily 
 recognized and terribly feared by her Majesty 
 and her Italian minister. 
 
 The Little King lay all night thinking how 
 he could save Sweet Mam'selle, and when the 
 apprentice came the next morning, waited for a 
 good opportunity to unfold his plan of rescue. 
 
 "Tell the Coadjutor and Mole all about 
 Sweet Mam'selle," he whispered. "Tell them 
 how kind she was to me, and how the Car- 
 dinal has taken her away, and would put her 
 to death. I fear I shall not be obeyed if I try 
 to save her; therefore, I want the Coadjutor 
 and Mole to say to the people that their Lit- 
 tle King implores their help, and asks them to 
 demand at the gate of the Palais Royal that 
 Sweet Mam'selle be returned to him at once, 
 safe and well. Whisper to the Coadjutor the 
 words 'La Belle Rouge', and he will know the 
 command comes from me. It is our secret 
 word. Let the people be at the gates of the 
 Palais Royal under my window at midnight. 
 Then I'll do my part, and I am sure we
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 61 
 
 shall have Sweet Mam'selle back very quickly." 
 
 So Jean sought the Coadjutor, and together 
 they went to the house of Mole, where arrange- 
 ments were made for carrying out the commands 
 of the Little King. 
 
 "It is a serious matter to arouse the people of 
 Paris," said Mole. "A mob is always crazy, 
 even though every man in it be sane. I hope 
 we may be able to use this dangerous instru- 
 ment of justice without doing more evil than 
 good. If the mob once gets beyond our control, 
 I fear the Cardinal, the Queen and some of 
 their followers may suffer." 
 
 "If the Queen and the Cardinal refuse to 
 liberate the girl," said the Coadjutor, trying to 
 suppress his anger; "if they refuse, well, every 
 man makes his own fate in this world, and I'm 
 not my Cardinal's keeper nor my Queen's. If 
 they refuse, I shall go home, and the mob 
 the mob may go crazy if it will." 
 
 "Tut, tut, M. Coadjutor," protested Mole. 
 'Tfou are a priest and you must preach mercy.'* 
 
 "That is true, M. Mole," answered the Co- 
 adjutor, "but if God sees fit to harden the hearts
 
 62 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 of the Cardinal and the Queen, and uses the 
 mob to punish them for their sins, even with 
 death, is it my pkce to interfere with the Di- 
 vine Will? I may be wrong in hoping that He 
 will so use the mob, but the 'hoping' part of 
 me is man, the 'praying' part of me is priest. 
 Don't talk to me of mercy, M. Mole. The 
 Cardinal never knew its faintest impulse. The 
 starving, bleeding people of France have not 
 touched his heart even in one little spot. Part 
 of their blood will not satisfy him; he must 
 have it all. You send word to your friends, and 
 tell them to communicate to the people of Paris 
 the wishes of our Little King; I shall do the 
 same, and what will be, will be. I shall have 
 five hundred men at Notre Dame an hour be- 
 fore midnight, and shall expect as many from 
 you. Perhaps there had better be no women in 
 the mob, for there is more latent danger in one 
 woman, when aroused, than in five score men." 
 Mole laughed, and the Coadjutor departed. A 
 few hours later the news of Sweet Mam'selle's 
 impending fate and the King's appeal for help 
 were known throughout all Paris.
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 63 
 
 When night fell, all was darkness in Paris, 
 for at that time there was hardly a street light 
 in the whole city. Street lights waited nearly a 
 century for Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise 
 de Pompadour. 
 
 Two hours before midnight, dim figures might 
 have been seen hurrying through the dark, nar- 
 row streets, and an hour later, a thousand men 
 were hovering in the shadows of Notre Dame. 
 Presently men with small lighted furnaces moved 
 in and out among the groups hidden in the 
 shadowy alcoves of the great, frowning church. 
 These men were lighting the torches of their 
 friends the first torches of the French Revolu- 
 tion, which were to smoulder for nearly a cen- 
 tury and a half, and then to burst forth in a 
 conflagration, to be extinguished only by a del- 
 uge of blood. The streams of dark red light 
 coming from the black wrinkles of old Notre 
 Dame were ominous for present and future, and 
 the shadows of the hideous gargoyles truly were 
 shadows cast before. 
 
 When the mob began to move toward the 
 Palais Royal, the rumble of a thousand voices
 
 64 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 fell like the roll of distant thunder on sleeping 
 Paris. The blood-red light of the resinous 
 torches illumined the faces of the half starved 
 men, giving them a touch of horror, as if a 
 legion of gargoyles had taken on life and had 
 come down from the waterspouts and turrets of 
 Notre Dame, or as if Satan had loosed a myriad 
 of demons in the Paris streets. 
 
 As the mob approached the Palais Royal, the 
 rumbling smote upon the ears of the Queen and 
 the Cardinal like the knell of doom, and when 
 one of the Swiss Guards brought word that all 
 Paris was coming with torches, shouts and im- 
 precations, the royal heart was filled with fear, 
 and Cardinal Mazarin at once prepared for 
 flight. But it was too late; the Palais Royal 
 was surrounded. 
 
 While the Queen and the Cardinal were cring- 
 ing in fear, the Little King was rejoicing, for 
 he did not fear the mob, and knew that their 
 shouts would bring back Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 When the mob reached the Palais Royal, it 
 halted before the gates beneath the King's win- 
 dow, not far from the apartments of the
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 65 
 
 Queen. The Swiss Guards, a mere handful of 
 men, were drawn up inside the gates, ready to 
 give their lives in defense of the Queen, and, as 
 they suposed, of the King. But the King knew 
 he was in no danger. 
 
 The purpose of the mob was made known 
 by Jean Breton, who spoke through the bars 
 of the gate to the Captain of the Guards. 
 
 "We demand that Sweet Mam'selle be lib- 
 erated and returned to the King at once," said 
 he. "We are here by the King's command." 
 
 "Vive le Roi !" shouted the mob, and when the 
 noise had subsided, Jean Breton continued: 
 
 "Carry our message to the Queen, and say 
 that if the King's wishes are not complied with 
 at once death to the Cardinal!" 
 
 "Death to the Cardinal!" shouted the mob, 
 and already the Cardinal was almost dead with fear. 
 
 The demands of the mob were communicated 
 to the Queen, the Cardinal and the King. 
 When the Marquis de Villeroi told his Majesty, 
 the Little King said: 
 
 "Tell the Queen that the mob speaks truly. 
 It is here by my command, and if Sweet Mam'- 
 
 5
 
 66 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 D 
 
 tl 
 
 selle is not returned to me, safe and well, within 
 one hour, I shall rise from my bed, go out 
 
 on the balcony, and ask 
 the mob to beat down 
 the gates and seize the 
 Cardinal. If Sweet 
 Mam'selle dies, it shall 
 be a life for a life. 
 < Tell the Captain of the 
 
 KC/ii Swiss Guards to open 
 ^j 
 
 the gates at the end 
 
 : &*>- -^ of one hour if he gets 
 
 no further orders from me. If he refuses, his 
 life shall pay for his disobedience. If the people 
 of Paris do not save Sweet Mam'selle, I shall 
 avenge her. I am king." 
 
 And so he was. 
 
 The Marquis hurried to the Queen, and when 
 he told her that the King had summoned the 
 mob, she was lost in wonder. 
 
 "How could the King have communicated with 
 the people?" she asked. 
 
 "I do not know, your Majesty," answered the 
 Marquis.
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 67 
 
 "Did you carry any message for him?" she 
 demanded. 
 
 "I am sure your Majesty knows I did not." 
 
 She knew nothing of the visits of the Jew 
 and his apprentice. 
 
 The Queen summoned the Cardinal, who was 
 only too glad to disperse the mob on any terms, 
 so the Marquis de Villeroi was recalled, and the 
 Queen said: 
 
 "The girl must be returned to the King. I 
 fear we were too hasty in removing her. She 
 is faithful and loves him with a whole heart. 
 Send for her at once." 
 
 "Yes, send for her at once," said the Car- 
 dinal. "Perhaps we should not have taken her 
 away." 
 
 For the moment a gleam of kindness seemed 
 to light up the Cardinal's face, but it was 
 prompted by policy, and his acquiescence was the 
 result of fear. His heart was untouched. When 
 the Marquis had gone, Mazarin turned toward the 
 Queen saying: "The Coadjutor is behind this 
 mob. It shall cost him his head." 
 
 But it is pleasing to note that it did not.
 
 68 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 After dispatching a messenger to fetch Sweet 
 Mam'selle, the Marquis returned to the King and 
 told him of the Queen's order. Then the Lit- 
 tle King said: 
 
 "Say to the people that the Queen has granted 
 their petition, but ask them to stay here until 
 Sweet Mam'selle comes back to me." 
 
 The king had had a long, painful reign of 
 nearly two days, so when Sweet Mam'selle ran 
 to his bedside, all his kingliness was drowned in 
 a flood of unregal, childish, joyful tears. 
 
 "Show yourself on the balcony at once," 
 pleaded the Marquis, speak- 
 ing to Sweet Mam'selle and 
 drawing her to the window. 
 "Yes," said the Little King; 
 "and thank the people for 
 me. Tell them to go home, 
 and that when I am crowned, 
 I shall give them better 
 thanks." 
 
 So Sweet Mam'selle, trying 
 ,to dry her tears, stepped 
 through the window to the
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE'S ROSARY 69 
 
 balcony, and a shout went up to Heaven that was 
 as different from the earlier rumblings of the mob as 
 Heaven itself is different from the abode of darkness. 
 
 The Marquis held up his hand for silence, 
 and Sweet Mam'selle said, in a trembling voice: 
 
 "The Little King asks me to say that when he 
 is crowned he will give you better thanks, but 
 now he thanks you in words and loves you, and 
 asks you to go home." 
 
 And they went home, for, to them, Sweet 
 Mam'selle was greater than the Queen. 
 
 When Sweet Mam'selle and the Marquis re- 
 turned to the Little King, he said: 
 
 "I thank you, M. le Marquis. You may retire.'* 
 
 When the door closed upon him, Sweet Mam'- 
 selle ran to the King, fell on her knees, covered 
 her face with her hands, and wept, while the 
 tears of a child stole softly down the cheeks of 
 the Little King of France. 
 
 It would have been impossible to convince 
 Sweet Mam'selle and the Little King that their 
 rosaries had not turned away the hand of Death 
 and their faith was so -beautiful that none but a 
 very hardened person would have tried.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 
 
 ALTHOUGH the Little King's face was 
 wonderfully beautiful, there was a trace 
 of heaviness, a faint shadowy gloom, 
 strangely mingled with its childishness save when 
 he smiled. Then it lighted up as the demure 
 somber violet takes radiance from the sun's kiss. 
 The burdens of the future, the heavy burdens of 
 absolute monarchy, seemed to be inuring him to 
 their weight and molding him for their purposes. 
 This strange shadow of coming events seemed 
 almost uncanny on the face of an eight year old 
 child and in later life doubtless helped to inspire 
 that awe in the minds of men which won for 
 him the name "Louis Le Grand." 
 
 This heavy expression was at times almost re- 
 pellant, but his rare smile made ample amends. 
 It was the silent symphony of a sad heart glad- 
 dened. In later life it neutralized his frown 
 
 TO
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 71 
 
 and caused his people to forget that he was a 
 hard, selfish old man. When he said "L'etat 
 c'est moi" he smiled, and the world admitted 
 his absurd claim. 
 
 The Little King's smile may be said to have 
 made its first state appearance when it saved 
 the Queen Regent from a Paris mob, on the day 
 of the famous duel between Maurice de Coligny 
 and the Due de Guise. 
 
 On the same day there was another smile by 
 another child. From the other side of life came 
 the King's little friend, Louise Jarbeau from 
 squalor, from poverty, from the wretchedly poor 
 of Paris. He had not seen her since the day 
 they first met on the rivage back of Notre Dame 
 that famous Christmas Day when he and 
 Sweet Mam'selle stole away from the Palais 
 Royal and made their marvelous journey "down 
 to where the poor people live." It was on a 
 day late in spring that the mob attacked the 
 Queen, and Coligny and Guise fought their duel. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle and the King had frequently 
 talked of Louise the little six year old beauty of the 
 rivage and he had often sighed for her.
 
 72 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 One evening nearly a year before the events 
 of this story, Madame de Montbezon gave a 
 fete in her hotel in the Rue de Bethisy. During 
 the evening two unsigned love letters, evidently 
 written by a lady, were dropped by a gentleman 
 of the party. They created a deal of scandal 
 and for months the idle minds of the court were 
 busy trying to learn what unfortunate lovesick 
 lady had written them. The Due de Guise, 
 head of the greatest house in France, gave it 
 as his opinion that the handwriting resembled 
 that of the beautiful Madame de Longueville. 
 For this he was challenged by the lady's lover, 
 Maurice de Coligny. Coligny was of the house 
 of Chatillon and was a grandson of Admiral 
 Coligny, who had been assassinated by the Due 
 de Guise's grandfather on St. Bartholomew's Day, 
 two generations back. Since that tragic day there 
 had been feud between the families, and Coligny 
 was glad of an excuse to challenge his hereditary 
 enemy. 
 
 Guise retracted his statement, admitted that it 
 was made without good reason, and offered an 
 apology with which the lady was entirely satis-
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 73 
 
 fied. Not so, Coligny; he declared that nothing 
 but Guise's life would satisfy him, so the Due 
 was forced to give him an opportunity to take 
 it if he could. The result was one of the most 
 famous duels ever fought in France and gave 
 Louise the one opportunity of her life to smile 
 en etat. She took advantage of the occasion and 
 her smile was but it will come as it properly 
 should, after the King's smile. 
 
 A short time before these events a heavy bur- 
 den called the "House Tax" had been levied on 
 the people of Paris, which had caused the Queen 
 Regent and Cardinal Mazarin to be hated so 
 bitterly that their apearance on the streets had 
 come to be the signal for a hostile demonstra- 
 tion. An old woman's cry, a child's wail, a 
 drunken man's ravings were sufficient to incite 
 a mob among the idle, half starved people. 
 
 As a result of these conditions the Queen 
 Regent and the Cardinal feared to pass beyond 
 the protection of the palace gates and guards. 
 Several months of dreary imprisonment had 
 caused them to long for a breath of fresh air; 
 therefore late in the spring they determined to
 
 74 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 take the Little King and a part of the court 
 to the Queen's country home at Rueil. To make 
 the journey they would have to pass through the 
 streets of Paris and they dreaded the ordeal. 
 The Cardinal recommended going by night or 
 under a strong guard, but the Queen's other ad- 
 visers suggested that it would not be wise to 
 allow the Parisians to know that Her Majesty 
 feared them. The discontented people would be- 
 come dangerous only when they learned their 
 power. 
 
 At the time of the intended journey quiet had 
 reigned in Paris for several weeks, so after many 
 consultations the Queen and the Cardinal deter- 
 mined to start early one morning, accompanied 
 only by the usual guard of outriders, and to go 
 by way of the Porte de Vincennes, that being the 
 gate nearest the Palais Royal. 
 
 Early on the appointed morning the court 
 started for Reuil, leaving the palace gates 
 one carriage at a time to avoid attracting 
 attention. In the first carriage were the Little 
 King and the Queen Regent on the back seat. 
 Facing them on the front seat were Madame de
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 75 
 
 Motteville and Sweet Mam'selle. The Queen did 
 not travel in the golden coach of state, but in a 
 modest uncovered carriage, accompanied by four 
 outriders of the Swiss Guards, bearing halberds. 
 Three or four hundred yards behind the royal 
 carriage came the Cardinal, his secretary, the 
 Queen's Almoner and the Marquis de Villeroi. 
 
 All went well till they approached the Porte 
 de Vincennes, when an old woman began to fol- 
 low the royal carriage, shouting invectives against 
 the Queen and the Cardinal because the collec- 
 tors of the House Tax were robbing the people 
 of their homes and were snatching the very food 
 from the lips of the starving. 
 
 Trouble might have been averted if the old 
 woman had been allowed to relieve her mind and 
 have her say, but the Queen grew angry and 
 ordered one of the outriders to silence her. A 
 blow from a halberd laid the old woman low, 
 and instantly a swarm of half starved, half 
 crazed demons in human form sprang up - as if 
 from the dust of the street The Swiss Guards- 
 men attacked the rioters but were pulled from 
 their horses and beaten unmercifully.
 
 76 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 After the brief conflict with the Guardsmen 
 the mob turned against the Queen and began to 
 gather on all sides of the carriage. Just at the 
 moment when it seemed that the Queen would be 
 dragged to the street, the Little King rose, brave 
 and unmoved, to look for the Cardinal. In 
 turning he saw standing near the carriage wheel 
 a little girl in whose great brown eyes and be- 
 dimpled face he recognized an old friend. 
 
 "Ah, there is Louise Jarbeau," he cried, clap- 
 ping his hands and smiling in his quaint fashion, 
 half kingly, half childish. The smile was oil 
 upon the waters and the astonished mob paused 
 to gaze in admiration at the Little King's beau- 
 tiful face. 
 
 "Oh, there's Fourteen!" cried Louise. 
 
 Immediately the people surrounding the car- 
 riage turned their attention to the ragged little 
 girl who was exchanging smiles with the King of 
 France. 
 
 Without a moment's delay the Little King 
 opened the carriage door, sprang to the ground, 
 ran to Louise and embraced his long lost friend 
 in full view of a surprised and appreciative audi-
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 
 
 77 
 
 f 
 
 tf 
 
 ence. He had acted 
 solely on the impulse of 
 the moment, but if he 
 had been as wise as 
 King Solomon and had L 
 deliberately studied the 
 situation he could not V 
 have taken a better plan 
 to stay the mob's wrath. 
 i Louise and her parents 
 had moved from the 
 rivage several months before and were living in 
 the neighborhood of the Porte de Vincennes, 
 where the child was known and loved by every 
 man and woman in the quarter. When the people 
 saw the Little King embrace her, they smiled 
 and soon began to laugh. When he took her 
 by the hand in his courtly fashion and led her 
 to the Queen, they began to wonder. But their 
 wonder turned to awe when he lifted her to the 
 high step and helped her into the royal carriage. 
 After the Little King and Louise had climbed 
 into the carriage, he stood for a moment hold- 
 ing her hand. Then he looked down to the
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 people, smiled and 
 placed his arm about 
 her neck, when a 
 glad shout of "Vive 
 le Roi!" rent the 
 air and the Queen 
 knew she was safe. 
 The Queen turned 
 to look for the 
 Cardinal's carriage, 
 but it had disap- 
 peared. His Excel- 
 lence had fled from the mob and had started 
 back to the Palais Royal to procure help for 
 Her Majesty, as he afterwards explained. The 
 Queen ordered the postilions to drive on, and as 
 the crowd parted she gave a great sigh of relief. 
 
 Hardly had the royal carriage begun to move 
 when a woman ran to the steps, crying: 
 "Where are you taking my child?" 
 It was Mother Louise. The Little King rec- 
 ognized her and said: 
 
 "We shall bring her back, good madam. Do 
 not fear."
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 79 
 
 Mother Louise did fear, however, for among 
 other absurd stories relating to the Cardinal, she 
 had heard that he ate little children. So she 
 followed the carriage till Sweet Mam'selle said: 
 "We'll take good care of Louise and bring 
 her back well and happy this evening." Then 
 Mother Louise, though not entirely without fear, 
 was reassured. 
 
 When well away from the mob the Queen 
 turned to Madame de Motteville, saying: 
 
 "Put the filthy little wretch out of the car- 
 riage." 
 
 Louise turned on the Queen, her great eyes 
 luminous with surprise and indignation. No one 
 had ever before called her "a filthy little wretch." 
 She was used to affection, caresses and flattery. 
 After looking the Queen over in a contemptuous 
 manner quite new to Her Majesty, Louise said: 
 "Are your Fourteen's mother? Is your name 
 Anne?" 
 
 "Diable!" cried the Queen. "Put her out this 
 instant !" 
 
 "I am not a devil child!" cried Louise, her 
 eyes ablaze with anger.
 
 8o THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "If Louise goes out of the carriage, I go, 
 too," said the Little King, his face almost ugly, 
 lacking the smile. 
 
 "What?" demanded the Queen. "Why do you 
 keep her?" 
 
 "Because she has just saved you from the mob, 
 and and because I like her. It is the King's com- 
 mand that she remain and that is sufficient reason." 
 
 He looked every inch a king as he stood wait- 
 ing for his remark to have its full effect. In a 
 moment he continued: 
 
 "She is Louise Jarbeau, the little girl I met 
 on the rivage Christmas Day. She taught me 
 the meaning of the word 'Christmas.' 'But we 
 are more blessed when we give,' eh, Louise? 
 You taught me the song, didn't you?" 
 
 "Yes," began Louise, more than willing to 
 sing the whole song. " 'We thank good St. 
 Nicholas for all ' ' But the Queen interrupted her. 
 
 "She gave you the smallpox, too." 
 
 "I did not," protested Louise, indignantly, em- 
 phatically. "I- had it long before I ever saw 
 Fourteen, when I was a little girl. Mother 
 Louise told me so."
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 811 
 
 The Queen being a Spaniard, was lacking in 
 humor, but Sweet Mam'selle and Madame de 
 Mottville could not help laughing at Louise's 
 fighting spirit. Presently the Queen smiled despite 
 her effort to remain angry and seemed to unbend 
 toward her little antagonist. 
 
 Louise was not to be mollified. Dropping her 
 long black lashes and pouting exquisitely, she 
 proceeded to annihilate her enemy. 
 
 "People like you, with only one name, haven't 
 any right to abuse a little girl who has two 
 names, and her mother two names and her fa- 
 ther two names, and even her sister two names. 
 I know you. Your name's Anne and that's all 
 the name you have, and I don't like you even 
 if you are Fourteen's mother." 
 
 The respect that Madame de Motteville and 
 Sweet Mam'selle felt for the Queen did not help 
 them to smother their laughter. The Little 
 King, too, laughed, and the Queen, finding her- 
 self vanquished, began to soften. She smiled 
 graciously, and Louise, magnanimous in victory, 
 dropped the long lashes for a moment, then 
 raised her great brown eyes to Her Majesty. 
 
 6
 
 82 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "I do like you and I am sorry I was a bad 
 girl," she said by way of apology. 
 
 "Perhaps I was a bad woman," answered the 
 Queen. 
 
 Louise's victory was complete, and peace was 
 declared when Her Majesty lifted the child to 
 her lap and kissed the rosy little face. Louise 
 rubbed the kiss away and began to relieve her 
 mind on many interesting topics, much to the 
 amusement of the elder portion of her audience 
 and greatly to the Little King's delight, for to 
 him her babble was as the music of one of the 
 rivers that flowed out of Paradise. 
 
 Soon after the reconciliation between the Queen 
 and Louise the carriage turned into the Rue 
 Saint-Antoine and came up with the Cardinal 
 who had waited a short distance below the Rue 
 Royale. After a consultation it was determined 
 to postpone the visit to Rueil till another day, so 
 the Cardinal drove on towards the Palais Royal 
 and the Queen followed. 
 
 When their Majesties reached the Rue Royale 
 a short street leading from the Rue Saint-An- 
 toine to the Place Royale Madame de Motte-
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 83 
 
 ville suggested that they stop and pay a visit to 
 Madame de Sable, whose hotel was in the Place 
 Royale near by. 
 
 The Place Royale was built on three sides of 
 an oblong court, and the houses were occupied 
 by some of the most distinguished persons of the 
 French nobility. The plaza was a paved open 
 space in the center of which there was a smooth 
 well-kept lawn surrounding an equestrian statute 
 of the late king, Louis XIII. The plaza was 
 used frequently for small public entertainments 
 and had been the scene of many a duel. 
 
 As an argument in favor of stopping, Madame 
 de Motteville said: 
 
 "Madame de Sable is very entertaining and 
 something is always happening in the Place Roy- 
 ale. I heard that something of great importance 
 would occur there to-day." 
 
 The Queen hesitated, saying: 
 
 "I fear we should return to the Palais Royal, 
 but as you say, Madame de Sable always has an 
 interesting budget of scandal, and and. What 
 is apt to happen in the Place Royale to-day?" 
 
 "I am not at all sure, but I believe the Due
 
 84 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 de Guise and M. de Coligny meet there to settle 
 their quarrel. M. le Rochefoucauld's valet said " 
 
 "Let us drive in, by all means!" cried the 
 Queen. "There will be seconds, probably thirds 
 and fourths. Dleu! It will be a battle rather 
 than a duel! These men hate each other, and 
 there will be no mercy on either side. We 
 may see it from Madame de Sable's windows. 
 We'll draw the curtains and no one will know 
 that we are there." 
 
 So the postilions were ordered to drive to 
 the Place Royale. 
 
 Madame de Sable welcomed the Queen heart- 
 ily, and when she saw Louise, fell to her knees 
 before her, exclaiming : 
 
 "Where did Your Majesty find this little beauty? 
 Beauty in rags it is, truly enough!" 
 
 The story was soon told. Then Madame de 
 Sable gave Louise a kiss, which Louise stealthily 
 brushed away as she nestled toward her new-found 
 friend. 
 
 After the Queen's wraps had been removed 
 she sat down near a window and graciously asked 
 Madame de Motteville and Madame de Sable to
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 85 
 
 be seated. The King being present, the two 
 ladies sat on hassocks, a number of which were 
 always kept in every room likely to be visited 
 by His Majesty. It is hard to understand the 
 distinction made during the Old Regime between 
 sitting on a chair and on a hassock in the King's 
 presence unless the low seat gave the impression 
 of humility. Ladies of exalted birth took chairs 
 at the King's request, but those of lower degree 
 were satisfied with the humble hassock. 
 
 At any rate, Louise did not appreciate the dis- 
 tinction, so she pushed a chair over to the Little 
 King, climbed into it and indicated by her manner 
 that she was ready to talk. Her babble was so 
 sweet and interesting that she had always found 
 every one eager to listen. To talk was to Louise 
 a part of the process of "being good," and on 
 this occasion she wished to be more than good 
 she would be gracious. 
 
 When she climbed into the chair the Queen 
 cried out: "Oh, oh! Has the child no sense of 
 propriety?" 
 
 "You must not sit down," said Madame de 
 Sable, gently taking Louise by the hand and draw-
 
 66 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 ing her from the chair. Every one in the room 
 laughed, and Louise, too, laughed, not because 
 she saw anything funny, but because she wanted 
 to be agreeable. She was so delighted to see her 
 beloved Fourteen again that she was on her best 
 behavior, and Louise's best behavior, with its eager- 
 ness to please, its smiles, its dimples and its little 
 feminine affectations was well worth beholding. 
 After a moment's silence, Louise said: 
 "I'm tired. Why may I not sit down?" 
 "Because the King is present," explained Madame 
 de Sable, laughing softly. 
 
 "The King?" queried Louise, groping in the 
 haze of entire non-comprehension and looking about 
 the room anxiously. Louise's ideas of a king 
 were crude and ill-defined, but she had gathered 
 from what she had heard that a king was a huge, 
 frightful monster, desperately ugly and always to be 
 feared. Former reference to Fourteen as "the King" 
 she considered entirely in the light of a jest, for 
 he was beautiful beyond all others she had ever 
 seen and certainly was not huge nor to be feared. 
 
 After looking about the room for a moment in 
 search of the king, Louise's eyes fell upon a
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 87, 
 
 large, grotesque figure of a Cingalese god, and 
 she supposed she had found the monster so dreaded 
 by the people. 
 
 This distinction was made by the King's sub- 
 jects: they loved the child Louis, but they hated 
 the King, for to them the King was the Queen 
 Regent and the Cardinal, to whom France owed 
 all her trouble. 
 
 When Louise saw the Cingalese god, she shud- 
 dered, laughed nervously and said with evidence 
 of trepidation: 
 
 "Well, the King is mighty ugly." 
 
 Every one save the Queen laughed. 
 
 She was silent, for Louise had committed lese- 
 majesty in its most flagrant form. After an em- 
 barrassing silence the Queen said: 
 
 "If the child does not know, she should be 
 taught what is due to His Majesty." 
 
 Here the Little King interrupted his mother 
 impatiently : 
 
 "She thinks that thing is the King," he said, 
 laughing. "She doesn't know who the King is 
 and I don't want her to know. I am Fourteen. 
 Here, Louise, sit down again."
 
 88 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 The Little King drew her chair close beside 
 his own, rose and took Louise by the hand. She 
 hesitated, cast a frightened glance toward the 
 Cingalese god and looked inquiringly at Madame 
 de Sable, who in turn looked inquiringly at the 
 Queen. No one spoke and Louise still hesitated. 
 The Little King turned angrily to his mother, 
 exclaiming: 
 
 "Who is king of France?" 
 
 The Queen rose hastily and said to Louise: 
 "You may be seated. The King commands it." 
 
 "No. Fourteen commands it," insisted the Little 
 King, smiling, yet very much in earnest. 
 
 "Yes, yes, Fourteen commands it," said the 
 Queen, correcting herself by an effort. Then the 
 Little King led Louise to her chair, bowed and 
 said: 
 
 "Permit me." 
 
 When she was seated he sat down beside her, 
 and presently the smile came to his face again, 
 making every one happy. 
 
 'After a long, awkward silence, Louise turned 
 her beaming face toward the King, exclaiming 
 softly: "Fourteen!"
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 89 
 
 It was only one word, but it was spoken with 
 a little sigh that expressed so much admiration 
 and affection that all hearts, even the Queen's, 
 warmed to the child for the sake of her deep, 
 unconscious loyalty. The Little King took her 
 hand and Louise continued: 
 
 "I thought I was never going to see you again. 
 Mother Louise prays for you every night and at 
 every shrine, because you got Father Pierre out of 
 the Prison Sur le Pont." 
 
 Louise was climbing to the hearts of her audi- 
 ence by leaps and bounds. Presently Madame 
 de Sable drew her hassock over beside her and 
 said coaxingly : 
 
 "Won't you please tell me your name and 
 then 'I'll take you upstairs and have your face 
 washed." 
 
 "I don't want my face washed," replied Louise 
 emphatically, "but my name is Louise Louise 
 Jarbeau." Then her face lighted up as she glanced 
 triumphantly from Fourteen to the Queen, and 
 continued: "I have two names. So has Mother 
 Louise. When Father Pierre was in prison he 
 had a number like " She nodded her head
 
 90 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 toward the King. Much to her astonishment 
 every one laughed, so she, too, laughed. 
 
 When all was quiet again the King tried to 
 tell the story of his first meeting with Louise, 
 but talking was not his strong point, so he turned 
 to Sweet Mam'selle and asked her to finish the 
 narrative. With the Queen's permission, Sweet 
 Mam'selle told the story of the Christmas Day 
 on the rivage, including Louise's song, her offer 
 to give the Little King her beloved doll, and 
 the release of Father Pierre from the Prison Sur 
 le Pont. She was careful, however, to conceal 
 her own part in Father Pierre's release, and made 
 it appear that the act of mercy had been all 
 the King's. She used the words "Sire" and "His 
 Majesty" in speaking of the Little King, so that 
 Louise might not understand, though it would 
 have been impossible to convince her that Four- 
 teen and the King were one and the same person. 
 
 After Sweet Mam'selle's recital, Madame de 
 Sable and Madame de Motteville ran to the 
 Little King, knelt before him, kissed his hand, 
 praised his goodness and prophesied great things 
 for France when he should come to rule. Louise
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 91 
 
 had received a great deal of adulation in her 
 brief life, but this went so far beyond her 
 experience that she was a bit jealous, so she 
 leaned back in her chair and was inclined to pout 
 until the ladies laughingly knelt before her. Then 
 she smiled and was happy once more. 
 
 Hardly had the ladies risen when the clatter 
 of horse's hoofs and the rumble of heavy wheels 
 were heard in the Rue Royale. Louise and her 
 affairs were forgotten at once, and the ladies 
 hurried to the windows, drawing the curtains 
 together and eagerly watching the courtyard. 
 
 The room in which Madame de Sable had 
 received her guests was on the first floor, and 
 the windows opened on a narrow balcony from 
 which it was but a low step to the pavement. 
 Louise, whose curiosity was none the less because 
 she herself was small, having been unable to 
 secure an advantageous outlook at the windows 
 occupied by the ladies, sought a window for her- 
 self at the further end of the room, where she 
 awaited developments. 
 
 The audience that had assembled in the win- 
 dows of the Place Royale had not long to wait.
 
 92 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Presently four men in gorgeous costumes came 
 from the coaches on the Rue Royale, entered 
 the paved court and hastened toward the grass 
 plot at the king's statue. One of these men, the 
 Due de Guise, wore a costume of blue velvet, 
 richly embroidered with gold lace and studded 
 with precious stones. On reaching the grass plot 
 he threw his cloak to the ground, then removing 
 his short doublet or waistcoat, placed it beside 
 his cloak and stood in his shirt-sleeves ready for 
 the fray. The richly embroidered doublet caught 
 Louise's eye and filled her soul with covetousness. 
 With the Due de Guise was his second, the Mar- 
 quis le Bridieu. Standing at a little distance 
 were Coligny and his second, the Comte d'Es- 
 trades, all in their shirt-sleeves, their rich ap- 
 parel scattered about them on the grass. 
 
 The Due de Guise was a large, strong man. 
 Coligny was smaller and was recovering from an 
 attack of fever. He appeared to be no match 
 for Guise. He was, however, an accomplished 
 swordsman, and having been successful in many 
 duels, where the odds had seemed greatly against 
 him, his vanity now led him to believe that he
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 93 
 
 could easily kill his apparently superior antag- 
 onist. 
 
 Unlike the seconds in latter day duels, whose 
 duty was only to speak for their principals and 
 to see fair play, those of the seventeenth century 
 fought each other as bitterly as if the quarrel 
 had been between themselves. At that time the 
 duel was not a spectacular display in which a 
 drop of blood gave satisfaction, but an affair of 
 death. 
 
 The men stood testing their swords, bending 
 them with points on the earth and twanging them 
 in the air, till Coligny's second gave the signal 
 that he and his principal were ready. Still Guise 
 did not lift his sword-point from the ground, 
 which should have been the responding signal. 
 Instead he spoke to his second, who went sword- 
 less to d'Estrades and said that M. le Due again 
 offered his apology. After consulting with his 
 principal d'Estrades gave answer in one word: 
 "No." Then the four men at once took their 
 stand opposite each other, perhaps thirty feet apart, 
 where they stood with sword-points resting on the 
 ground. After a few seconds of heavy silence,
 
 94 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 de Bridieu lifted his sword in the air. The 
 others did likewise and immediately started with 
 measured tread, each man toward his foe. 
 
 When within two yards of each other the 
 antagonists paused, each intently watching the 
 eyes of the man before him. Then like a flash 
 the sword blades shot forth, met with a clash 
 and a stream of sparks and the battle was 
 on. 
 
 The Little King and the ladies at Madame 
 de Sable's window watched the duel with eager 
 interest, and though the principals and the sec-
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 95 
 
 onds were their friends, seemed to enjoy it as 
 much as if it had been a play. 
 
 "Coligny has appointed the day of his death," 
 whispered Madame de Sable to the Queen 
 
 "Yes," answered Her Majesty. "But if he is 
 so great a fool as to furnish the entertainment 
 for us, it is his affair, not ours. He fights only 
 to show the ladies how brave he is. If his 
 family had always been as wise as it has been 
 brave, it would now be the greatest house in 
 France and the French people would all be Hugue- 
 nots. The house of Chatillon has always failed 
 when pitted against the house of Guise." 
 
 When the first clash came Coligny fell back 
 a few steps before Guise, but soon recovered 
 himself and attacked the Due with great fury, 
 driving him back almost to the steps of the 
 king's monument. 
 
 "Ah Dieu, 'Sieur Bleu! Fight, fight!" cried 
 Louise, talking to herself. She had seen many 
 a street fight, and had witnessed more than one 
 duel in the Bois de Vincennes. 
 
 "Bravo, Coligny!" whispered Madame de Motte- 
 ville. "Your day has not yet come!"
 
 96 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Guise is but saving himself till he gets his 
 wind and until Coligny loses his," remarked the 
 Queen. "Don't you see that Guise is fighting 
 easily? del! That was for the heart. Good 
 thrust, Coligny. But save yourself! You're 
 almost exhausted. Soon Guise will stick you as if 
 you were a pig. How pale Coligny is, and 
 breathing like a wind-broken horse already. As 
 usual he is playing the fool. There, there! See 
 how Guise beats him back at will." 
 
 Suddenly the Queen rose and clasped her hands 
 exclaiming: "Ah Dieu! See that child what is 
 her name? Louise there, sitting on the steps of 
 the statue like the mask of comedy laughing at 
 death ! How did she get there ? She's almost 
 under their feet. Peste! She is in their way. 
 Yes, it is drizzling and she has thrown the 
 Due's doublet over her shoulders! Ah, the little 
 wretch! But she is droll." 
 
 Louise, wishing a nearer view of the contest, 
 had slipped out through the window to the balcony 
 and had run across the pavement to find a seat 
 on the steps of the statue. As the Queen had 
 said, rain had begun to fall, and Louise, having
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 97 
 
 appropriated the coveted blue doublet, was sitting, 
 greatly interested, in the midst of the fray. 
 
 Meantime the principals and seconds were fighting 
 desperately. Now and then the knell-like click- 
 ing of the swords would cease for an instant 
 while the duelists watched each other's eyes, wait- 
 ing for an opening. Then came a faint click or 
 two, followed by a thrilling rattle of steel and 
 an occasional flash of sparks. In the midst of 
 it all sat Louise, unmoved and very happy. 
 
 Presently when Guise saw that Coligny was 
 growing weak, he began in earnest, and the 
 scene was terrible to behold. Doom was written 
 on Coligny's pale face, but he kept on fighting 
 desperately, though his thrusts were growing weaker 
 each moment. Soon his attack ceased altogether, 
 and his waning strength was given entirely to 
 his guard in the vain hope of keeping Guise's 
 glittering sword-point from his heart. He had 
 changed places with the Due and had retreated 
 backward step by step till he was almost at the 
 foot of the statue where Louise was sitting. 
 Neither he nor Guise had noticed her. 
 
 Louise, fearing that she and the beautiful blue 
 
 7
 
 98 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 doublet might be trampled on, rose to seek a 
 place of safety. In so doing she ran behind 
 Coligny, who in taking a step backward stumbled 
 against her. In trying to recover himself he 
 slipped and fell to his knee. Under the laws 
 of dueling at that time, Guise had the right to 
 kill, and with that intention deliberately brought 
 his sword-point over Coligny's heart. At the 
 same instant he saw the droll figure of Louise 
 wearing his blue doublet hurrying away behind 
 Coligny. She turned and smiled. The Due smiled. 
 Then he put his foot on Coligny's sword and 
 slapped him lightly on the cheek with the flat 
 of his own blade, saying: 
 
 "I do not intend to kill you, but to treat 
 you as you deserve for having addressed your- 
 self to a prince of my birth without provocation." 
 
 Guise stepped back, Coligny rose to his feet, 
 snatched his sword from the ground and again 
 attacked the Due. Guise had lost his anger in 
 Louise's smile, so he seized Coligny's sword with 
 his left hand and passed his own through his 
 adversary's sword arm, placing him hors de combat. 
 Then he separated the seconds, both of whom
 
 TWO SMILES AND A DUEL 99 
 
 were wounded, and the last great duel ever fought 
 in the Place Royale ended happily because of a 
 child's smile. 
 
 When the Queen and the Little King left 
 Madame de Sable's they took Louise Jarbeau 
 with them to the Palais Royal. There she was 
 introduced to a world as distasteful as it was 
 new to her, so with the true instinct of Eve, she 
 proceeded to make as much trouble as possible 
 as quickly as possible.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE LITTLE KING LOST IN PARIS 
 
 ALTHOUGH Louise Jarbeau was accus- 
 tomed to quick transitions, and despite 
 the fact that she had lived but six brief 
 years, usually found nothing to surprise her in 
 great and rapid changes, her sudden rise from 
 the streets of Paris to the Palais Royal was 
 more than she could or would endure without 
 remonstrance. The court children seemed to her 
 like fancifully dressed dolls and the courtiers lost 
 their identity as men and women in the blinding 
 colors of their costumes. 
 
 As mere costumes, Louise knew them all by 
 sight, having seen them time and again in the 
 pawnbroker's show windows or in the second- 
 hand clothing shops back of the Hotel de Ville 
 and on the narrow streets off the Rue des Petits- 
 Champs. 
 
 Shortly after entering the Palais Royal Louise 
 
 TOO
 
 LOST IN PARIS 101 
 
 announced her intention to go home, but the 
 Little King wanted her to stay, so, Sweet Mam- 
 'sell promising to take her home early in the 
 evening, she reluctantly consented to remain. 
 
 They gave her a fine dinner from the King's 
 table, but she did not like the strange food. 
 Above all she did not take kindly to the knife 
 and fork. She was afraid she would cut her- 
 self with the knife and flatly refused to use the 
 fork, saying: "I just know I'll be jagged all 
 over my face if I try to eat with that sharp 
 thing." So she threw them both away and pro- 
 ceeded to eat her dinner in comparative comfort 
 with the implements God had given her her 
 fingers. 
 
 After dinner her face and hands were washed, 
 much to her disgust, and again she wanted to 
 go home to Mother Louise, who, she declared, 
 washed her face only mornings and evenings. 
 During the afternoon she grew restless and began 
 to complain to Sweet Mam'selle of the ladies 
 and children who crowded about her, asking foolish 
 questions and still worse, kissing her. Tears came 
 to her eyes, for with all her strange precocity!
 
 102 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 born of self-dependence and knowledge of the 
 world, Louise was still a baby. 
 
 The Little King, seeing her distress, suggested 
 that he and Louise be allowed to go down to 
 the King's garden. This suited Louise, so she 
 brushed away the tears and submitted graciously 
 to the ordeal of being kissed before she went. 
 The Queen consented, telling Sweet Mam'selle to 
 rjjjjp-i / watch the two children 
 {FHyh^K? from the King's win- 
 
 ",-5- t. 
 
 dow. 
 
 So the Little King, 
 te^* holding up Louise's 
 hand as if they were 
 
 ' 7 ^W 7 ;' . , , 
 
 "V walking through a co- 
 tillion, led her to the 
 garden where they ram- 
 bled about rather stiff- 
 ly, Louise thought, 
 among the flowers and bushes. 
 
 When the Little King had taken Louise to 
 every nook and corner of the small garden, he 
 graciously asked her to be seated and sat down 
 beside her on a bench in the shade of a lilac
 
 LOST IN PARIS 103 
 
 bush. After a short silence she spoke, with a sigh: 
 
 "This is a nice place, but it isn't so nice as 
 the street." 
 
 "Of course not," agreed the Little King, with 
 a far deeper sigh. "But if you had to stay up 
 there all the time as I do," (he nodded toward 
 the palace) "you would think this place very 
 nice indeed." 
 
 "Yes, oh, yes," sighed Louise, her heart full 
 of pity for unfortunate Fourteen. He was not to 
 be blamed because he had to live in a big, dark, 
 cold house like a prison. So, after a long pause 
 she continued apologetically: "And this is nice, 
 too, but it is so lonesome, and and the stillness 
 is is so loud. No horses, no carts, no boys, no 
 girls, no dogs, no goats, no cats, no anything. 
 Oh, my!" 
 
 "Yes, it is lonesome, oh, so lonesome," returned 
 the Little King with a sigh born of ennui. "I 
 stay there in the palace all day and then all day 
 and then all day, just looking out the windows, 
 till I sometimes want to die." 
 
 "You don't live there all the time, do you?" 
 asked Loviise, pityingly.
 
 104 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Yes, all the time," he answered. "I am the 
 King, you know." 
 
 The last statement was a slip; he had not 
 intended to tell her he was the King. 
 
 Louise laughed and said: "Well, I'd hate to 
 think you were. You're such a funny boy. You 
 don't know what kings are like. You are not 
 at all like a king. Maybe you didn't see that 
 king at the other place at the first house we 
 went into?" 
 
 Louise paused, wondering why Fourteen kept 
 up the absurd jest, for in her opinion he was 
 as far from being a king as it was possible for 
 any one to be. He was the nicest boy she had 
 ever known, and was beautiful, too, so how 
 could he be a king a horrid monster, a child- 
 eating bogey. The grotesque Cingalese god she 
 had seen at Madame de Sable's was entirely in 
 accord with her conceptions and would always 
 remain her idea of a king. 
 
 The King realized that there was something 
 wrong in Louise's notions of royalty, but he could 
 not find the error, so he remained silent, and 
 after a long pause, she continued:
 
 LOST IN PARIS 105 
 
 "Now, if there were a whole lot of boys like 
 you, and if you didn't have on your mass clothes 
 all the time, it wouldn't be so lonesome, don't 
 you know ?" 
 
 No, he did not know, so he answered hesitat- 
 ingly: "I I don't believe I understand." 
 
 There were many boys about the palace, in- 
 cluding his brother, who was called "Monsieur"; 
 still the King was lonesome. 
 
 "Why, you see, if there were a lot of boys 
 like you, and a few girls like me, and some dogs 
 and maybe some goats, we could play hide and 
 seek." 
 
 "We could wha what?" stammered the Little 
 King. 
 
 "Why, we could play hide and seek, and 
 catcher, and marbles if we had any marbles to- 
 play with, and wolf, and anything we wanted 
 to play." 
 
 The Little King was silent. He did not know 
 what Louise was talking about, though there was; 
 a sweet, vague suggestiveness in what she said 
 that thrilled him. 
 
 Louise saw his trouble and tried to explain
 
 106 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the processes of hide and seek. After several 
 efforts she found she could not do so in words, 
 but she could show him how the game was 
 played, so she said: 
 
 "Shut your eyes tight and put your hands over 
 your face till I cry, 'Seek me.* Then you find 
 me." 
 
 The proposition seemed absurd to the Little 
 King, but he obeyed, and when Louise called 
 he started out to seek her. When, after a long 
 search, he found her hidden in a large empty flower 
 vase, he understood the game and knew why it 
 was enjoyable. Louise laughed and clapped her 
 hands, and Louis smiled, which was his kingly 
 substitute for a laugh. 
 
 They ran back to the bench under the lilac 
 bush and the Little King told Louise to hide 
 again. He found her the second time and became 
 enthusiastic in a stiff, kingly fashion all his own. 
 Again he returned to the bench, leading Louise 
 by the hand, uplifted as if in a cotillion. When 
 they had been seated a moment, he suggested: 
 
 "You shut your eyes and I'll hide." 
 
 Louise closed her eyes and waited for the
 
 LOST IN PARIS 107 
 
 King's signal. When it came she hastened to 
 find him. She looked under every bush and 
 behind every pedestal and vases in the garden, 
 but he was not to be found. Soon she became 
 frightened and called: 
 
 "Fourteen! Please, please, where are you?" 
 The Little King answered and Louise, turning 
 in the direction of his voice, saw a small, nail- 
 studded door in the wall of the palace. It was 
 the door to the tunnel-like passage through which 
 the Little King and Sweet Mam'selle had escaped 
 to the street on two or three never to be for- 
 gotten occasions. A laborer who had been working 
 in the garden had left the door open when hur- 
 rying away from the presence of the King. 
 
 When Louise found the Little King she was 
 delighted but her attention was soon drawn to 
 other things. The dark passage fascinated her 
 and curiosity prompted her to investigate it. 
 Then Louis told her in whispers how once 
 in a long, long while he and Sweet Mam'selle escaped 
 through the tunnel, andj how they had done 
 so the day they first met her on the rivage. 
 The street door stood ajar, admitting a thin
 
 io8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 stream of light which seemed to accent the 
 gloom. The tunnel, the darkness, the faint gleam 
 of light, but above all the magic word "escape" 
 bore down on Louise's soul with irresistible force, 
 and she did tempt him. 
 
 "Does that door open on to the street?" she asked. 
 
 "Yes," answered the Little King, already alive 
 to the possibilities of the situation and eager to 
 be tempted. 
 
 "Let us go to the street and run down to the 
 Porte de Vincennes, and play with the boys and 
 the dogs and the goats. Oh, Fourteen, you never 
 saw anything so fine! You would be so happy 
 you would never want to come back here!" 
 
 The Little King believed her with all his heart, 
 but he had misgivings. 
 
 "It is a long way to the Porte de Vincennes," 
 he suggested. 
 
 Louise did not share his hesitancy, so she said: 
 "Well, I'm going while I have the chance." 
 
 She went and the Little King followed her with 
 longing in his heart and doubt in his heels. 
 
 When fairly in the street Louise began to run 
 as if she were fleeing from justice. The Little
 
 LOST IN PARIS 109 
 
 King followed at full speed, and soon they turned 
 a corner into a narrow street which was strange 
 to him, though he had lived within a stone's 
 throw of it all his life. Down the narrow street 
 Louise ran and the King ran after her. Another 
 corner was turned and still another. The streets 
 were growing narrower and were filthier than 
 any the King had ever seen. The houses 
 were over-toppling and dingy and the few scat- 
 tered shops were small and unattractive. When 
 the King looked back and could not see the 
 Palais Royal, his heart failed him, but pride 
 spurred him onward, and he kept Louise's fleeing 
 form in view. After a long run she stopped to 
 wait for him, and he soon came up to her almost 
 out of breath. 
 
 When he was able to speak, he said : "Perhaps 
 we had better return." 
 
 "I'm not going back," she answered, with con- 
 vincing emphasis. 
 
 "But they will miss me," suggested the Little 
 King. 
 
 "And they will miss me, too," answered Louise, 
 taking evident satisfaction in the thought. "But
 
 i io THE LITTLE KING 
 
 I don't care. Why should you care? You are 
 a boy; I am a girl. Shame to you, Fourteen!" 
 
 There was not another word of protest from 
 Fourteen, and when she resumed her flight he 
 fled, too, keeping close by her side. Despite 
 occasional spasms of fear, the King enjoyed his 
 new freedom greatly. The dingy shops, the tumble- 
 down houses, even the unkempt men, women and 
 children were new and interesting. He wanted 
 to see all and tried to look in twenty directions 
 at once. The poverty of man in having only one 
 pair of eyes suddenly astounded him. At any 
 rate, a king should have all the eyes he needs. 
 
 When he had traveled a long way and had 
 seen many wonders the Little King began to 
 realize that night was approaching, so he said to 
 Louise : 
 
 "It will soon be dark and I must go back to 
 the Palais Royal." 
 
 Louise agreed with him and when he said 
 hesitatingly: "I I don't know the way," she 
 answered confidently : 
 
 "I do. I'll show you." 
 
 They started back, as the King supposed, but
 
 LOST IN PARIS in 
 
 after a time he began to doubt, and asked her 
 if she knew where she was. She answered: 
 
 "Yes, right over there are the pawnbrokers' 
 shops. I've been there with Mother Louise many 
 times." 
 
 But her knowledge of the pawnbrokers' shops 
 did not help her to find the way to the Palais 
 Royal and soon she was compelled to admit that 
 she was lost and began to cry. 
 
 Louise's tears summoned the King's manliness, 
 and he spoke up boldly: 
 
 "Never mind, Louise. I'll ask some one to show 
 us the way to the Palais Royal, and Sweet 
 Mam'selle will take you home. Now, don't cry." 
 
 Men were hurrying past them through the nar- 
 row streets, and others were standing in the shop 
 doors. The Little King tried to speak to several 
 of them, but they looked so savage and were so 
 forbidding in appearance that his courage failed 
 him and he went on, leading Louise by her up- 
 lifted hand, hoping to meet a man whose face 
 bore some traces of humanity. But he found none. 
 
 The men were not so hideous to Louise, so 
 after several failures, she said encouragingly:
 
 112 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Now, speak to the next one. Here he comes.'* 
 Thus spurred on, the Little King determined 
 to speak to the next man he met. The next 
 one looked like a ruffian, but Louise was in dire 
 straights, so he made the attempt. It was only 
 an attempt, for he got to stammering and could 
 not finish. Turning to Louise, he said: 
 "You you a ask him." 
 
 "He wants to know 
 the way to the the 
 his home," said Louise, 
 starting out with con- 
 fidence but closing in 
 failure. She could not 
 remember the words 
 "Palais Royal." 
 
 "Home," growled 
 the man, s>) roughly 
 that he frightened even 
 Louise. "Where is his 
 home?" 
 
 The Little King did not answer, so Louise, 
 turning to him, asked: 
 "Where is it, Fourteen?"
 
 LOST IN PARIS 113 
 
 "That is what I want to know," answered Four- 
 teen, doing his best to stay the tears. 
 
 "If you don't know where your home is, how 
 do I know?" demanded the man. "Who are 
 you, anyway?" Then turning to Louise: "And 
 who are you?" 
 
 "I I am Louise Jarbeau, and he he is Four- 
 teen 'Sieur Fourteen. He hasn't any real name 
 just a number, but that isn't his fault." 
 
 The man looked at the small human specimens 
 before him, laughed softly and mumbled: 
 
 "He is more like a fourteenth." But the bad 
 jest was lost. 
 
 The Little King saw the man smile at his own 
 humor, and supposing it meant kindliness, brought 
 himself to say: 
 
 I_ am _the K k king." 
 
 The man laughed: "Oh h h! The K k 
 king? Perhaps you are the Cardinal and the 
 Queen, too. I wish you were so that I could 
 wring their necks. They turned my little ones 
 into the street and took our last mouthful of 
 bread to pay the accursed House Tax. I wish 
 you were the King. I'd have my revenge this 
 8
 
 1 14 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 night and all the world would hear of it." 
 
 The man looked at Louise in her rags, then 
 examined the King's finery. 
 
 "Where did you steal that lace and that doublet 
 and the shoe buckles? Where did you steal 
 them?" he asked. "That is right. Steal every- 
 thing you can from the greedy rich, who grow 
 fat while we starve. But you had better move 
 on or the Prefect's police will be along and 
 they'll show you a way home you won't like." 
 
 The mention of the Prefect's police frightened 
 Louise, so without a moment's delay she took 
 the man's advice to move on. The Little King, 
 too, was frightened, having caught a vague hint 
 of his danger from the fellow's threat. 
 
 At the next corner Louise and the Little King 
 turned into a street flanked by shops and houses, 
 darker and more squalid than any they had yet 
 seen. One direction seemed as dangerous as 
 another. They were hopelessly lost. While they 
 were standing in confusion, knowing not where 
 to turn, a horse and cart came clattering down 
 the street. The Little King supposed it would 
 stop rather than run over him, for the street
 
 LOST IN PARIS 115 
 
 was so narrow there was not room for a person 
 to stand with safety between the houses and the 
 cart wheels. But Louise knew better than to wait 
 for the carter to stop, and Fourteen soon dis- 
 covered his mistake. 
 
 Louise, knowing the usual proceeding in such 
 cases, started to run and the King started after 
 her, impelled to full speed by the law of self 
 preservation which is very strong in kings. He 
 had grave doubts of his ability to keep ahead of 
 the cart, for it seemed to be drawn by the swift- 
 est horse in France. But when it was almost 
 upon him, Louise sought refuge in a doorway 
 and succeeded in drawing him in after her just 
 as the cart dashed by, grumbling, the King thought, 
 because it had missed its prey. He was fright- 
 ened and very angry, but said nothing. 
 
 Being out of breath, though not in the least 
 frightened, for the occurrence was not new to 
 her, Louise stepped down from the doorway into 
 a dark shop filled with old clothing, odds and 
 ends of old furniture and junk of all sorts. The 
 Little King was glad to follow her, for any place 
 was better than the street. Another race with
 
 ii6 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 a cart would surely frighten 'him to death. 
 
 Louise and the King had been standing in the 
 shop perhaps two minutes two minutes of deli- 
 cious respite for Fourteen when a hideous old 
 man emerged from the black regions in the rear. 
 
 "What do you want?" he demanded gruffly. 
 "Get out of my shop, you little thieves. You did 
 not see me so you came in to steal." 
 
 He took the Little King roughly by the shoulder 
 and pushed him toward the door. When they 
 came into the light the old man saw that the 
 boy's apparel was rich and costly, so he held 
 him back and said gruffly: 
 
 "Ah, you have been stealing already. I know 
 that doublet, those trunks and shoe buckles. They 
 belong to the son of my friend, the Comte de 
 Brissac. They were stolen this morning. His 
 Excellency's servants were here looking for them. 
 Off with them, you little thief!" 
 
 The Little King showed fight, but in less than 
 a minute he stood barefooted and almost naked. 
 The man tossed the King's garments to the floor, 
 giving him in exchange a rough, torn shirt and 
 a pair of ragged trunks or breeches which came
 
 LOST IN PARIS 
 
 117 
 
 to the boy's ankles and were so large in the 
 waistband that they reached almost twice around 
 him. But he was glad to get anything to cover 
 
 him, and with Louise's help, hurriedly got into 
 them. 
 
 When the task of re-clothing the King was 
 finished, Louise, having recovered from her sur- 
 prise, attacked the shopkeeper with a cat-like
 
 ii8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 viciousness as astonishing as it was effective and 
 so entirely out of proportion to her size that 
 for a moment Fourteen stood dumbfounded but 
 only for a moment. She kicked the despoiler of 
 her friend, bit his hand, snatched a broomstick 
 from the floor, struck him a well directed blow 
 on the head and retreated before he was fully 
 aware that he had been whipped. The King had 
 anticipated Louise in the matter of retreat and 
 was speeding down the street, doing his best to 
 hold up his trunks, when she emerged triumphant 
 from the shop door and ran after him. 
 
 The King being handicapped by his trunks, 
 was soon overtaken by Louise, but neither of 
 them had any thought of lessening their speed. 
 The cobble stones bruised the Little King's feet 
 and between fright and pain he was in deep 
 distress. Presently he heard again that awful 
 grumbling, rumbling clatter from which he had 
 so recently and so narrowly escaped, and on 
 looking back, his distress and fear were augmented 
 to the last degree; for there came another deadly 
 cart. Taking a firmer grip on his trunks, he fled 
 before the new danger with a speed of which he
 
 LOST IN PARIS 119 
 
 had never before believed himself capable. But 
 at last another doorway offered a chance for life 
 and he and Louise were quick to take advantage 
 of it. 
 
 After the cart had passed, the Little King 
 began to realize his danger. The threats against 
 the King made by the man to whom he had 
 spoken awakened him to his real peril. He had 
 always longed to "go down where the poor peo- 
 ple live." He was there now to his heart's infinite 
 discontent. He suggested to Louise that they go 
 to her mother's home, but Louise was hopelessly 
 lost and had cast her burdens on the King. She 
 who could fight so viciously could also collapse. 
 He readily accepted the responsibility and tried 
 to console his friend, who in small matters had 
 always taken the lead. He felt sure that some- 
 thing would be done by the Queen and the Cardi- 
 nal, but what they would do or when they would 
 do it, he did not know. 
 
 Of course, there was great consternation in the 
 Palais Royal when it was learned that the Little 
 King was missing. The huge palace was searched
 
 120 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 from cellar to attic. On a former occasion the 
 Little King had been found after many hours, 
 asleep behind a chest in an old armor loft. 
 The royal household expected to find him again 
 and night was approaching before hope was 
 abandoned. 
 
 The Queen Regent, the Cardinal and the Marquis 
 de Villeroi held a council, but fear seemed to 
 have routed wisdom and no definite action was 
 taken. They hesitated to spread the news through- 
 out Paris that the Little King was missing, and 
 very properly feared that an attempt to find him by 
 public proclamation might result in his capture 
 and detention by one of the many revolutionary 
 bands. In such a case the people might hold him 
 and might demand as ransom one or more of 
 the many reforms for which they clamored. The 
 removal of the oppressive House Tax or the 
 abolition of the hated Taille might be the price 
 demanded. Either reform would be costly to 
 Mazarin and the Queen; both reforms might 
 mean the fall of the Cardinal. 
 
 After the council had discussed many ways of 
 seeking the King, the Cardinal suggested that
 
 LOST IN PARIS 121 
 
 they send for Sweet Mam'selle. She was brought 
 in, weeping bitterly, and submitted meekly to the 
 reproaches of the Queen and Villeroi. 
 
 When she was permitted to speak, she said: 
 "If I may go out alone, I know I shall find the King." 
 
 She was told to go, and immediately started 
 out to seek her little master. 
 
 The Marquis de Villeroi and a half score of 
 others who could be trusted with the dangerous 
 secret were sent out to search for the valuable 
 needle lost in that terrible haystack, the streets of 
 Paris. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle sought her lover, Jean Bre- 
 ton, and together they sought the old Jewish 
 physician. The Marquis de Villeroi ordered his 
 coach and drove to the Bastile. 
 
 Meantime Louise and the Little King were 
 having troubles of their own. His first and most 
 pressing trouble, after having found refuge from 
 the cart, was with his trunks. He had no way 
 to keep them on save by holding them up, and 
 though it may seem to have been a minor affair 
 in the midst of so many great troubles, it caused
 
 122 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 him anguish and fright almost equal to that 
 inspired by the cart. Being a small matter, 
 it fell within Louise's limits, so she found a 
 string with which she tied the trunks more or 
 less securely about Fourteen's waist. That trouble 
 settled, the Little King began to grow brave in 
 the face of real danger and assumed the arduous 
 duty of Louise's protector as naturally as if he 
 had been used to it all his life. 
 
 Feeling confident in the security of his trunks, 
 the Little King took weeping Louise by the 
 hand, saying once more: 
 
 "Don't cry, Louise. Come with me. I'll take 
 care of you. I'm going to the Bastile." 
 
 "No, no," protested Louise, to whom the name 
 brought terror. "Not there, not there! They'll 
 put us in!" 
 
 "No, they won't," answered the King. "I 
 know the Governor." 
 
 Trusting entirely to Fourteen, Louise clung to 
 his hand and they proceeded on their way to 
 the Bastile, hopeful if not rejoicing. 
 
 After wandering through many streets, very 
 tired and very much frightened, Louise said:
 
 LOST IN PARIS 123 
 
 "Ah, Fourteen, there is the Bastile at last." 
 
 The King looked in the direction Louise had 
 indicated and was overjoyed to see the frowning 
 walls of the fortress-prison at the end of the little 
 street they were on. But when they reached it 
 they found they were not at the entrance. A 
 great forbidding wall sprang skyward in front 
 of them and a deep, black moat was at their 
 feet. They turned back and found another street 
 with like result. It seemed as impossible to get 
 into the Bastile as it was said to be difficult to 
 get out. 
 
 Nothing daunted, the Little King tried another 
 street, and succeeded in reaching the front or 
 tower entrance. He went boldly to the gendarme 
 who was walking back and forth before the 
 portcullis. Night had fallen but the gates were 
 still open, though the portcullis was down and 
 the drawbridge was up. 
 
 "I want to see the Governor," said the Little 
 King. 
 
 The gendarme looked down smilingly to the 
 little fellow in rags and said: 
 
 "His Excellence will be delighted to see you.
 
 124 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 He wants you to take supper with him and has 
 been expecting you this long time." 
 
 The face of earth 
 turned bright once more 
 for the Little King and 
 his heart jumped with 
 joy, for now he knew 
 that word had been sent 
 from the Palais Royal 
 and that his troubles 
 were at an end. 
 
 But when the gen- 
 ^ darme turned away and 
 proceeded on his beat, 
 the Little King's heart 
 sunk, for he began to suspect that the man was 
 given to irony. 
 
 When the gendarme came up to him again the 
 Little King demanded : 
 
 "Why don't you send word to His Excellence, 
 telling him that I am here? Lift the portcullis at 
 once and lead me to the Governor. I am the King." 
 "Ah, die King?" exclaimed the gendarme, laugh- 
 ing. "I am sorry to keep Your Majesty waiting,
 
 LOST IN PARIS 125 
 
 but I must tell you that the Governor is eating 
 a boy about your size just now, and will be 
 ready for you when he has finished." 
 
 Louise saw no reason to doubt the man's state- 
 ment, so her heart almost turned over. 
 
 "You said he was expecting me. What do 
 you mean, fellow?" demanded the Little King, 
 in tones right bold and kingly. Louise clung to 
 his hand and admired him more than ever before. 
 Fourteen in rags was a hero. She would have 
 compared him to one of the gods if she had 
 ever heard of them. 
 
 While the King was speaking a coach came 
 dashing up the paved street leading to the Bas- 
 tile. The Little King, remembering the terrible 
 carts, climbed to the top of a pile of broken 
 stone with all the haste he could make. Hardly 
 were he and Louise perched in safety when a 
 great coach drawn by four splendid horses drove 
 up and stopped before the portcullis. One of 
 the men in the coach spoke to the gendarme. 
 Immediately the portcullis began to rise and the 
 drawbridge to come down. 
 
 When all was ready the horses started forward.
 
 126 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and as the light from the great flambeau above 
 the gate fell on the faces of the men in the 
 coach, the Little King recognized his Governor, 
 the Marquis de Villeroi, and his uncle, the Due 
 d'Orleans. In his haste he almost fell from the 
 pile of stone. Then he hurried after the coach, 
 climbed to the steps and cried out: 
 
 "M. le Marquis! Wait, wait!" 
 
 But the Marquis thrust the child away and 
 hastened into the Bastile to advise with the Gov- 
 ernor as to the best way of finding the lost King. 
 
 The drawbridge slowly went up and the port- 
 cullis came down with a bang. So did the Lit- 
 tle King's heart. 
 
 "Now, be off !" ordered the gendarme, not 
 unkindly. "The Black Patrol will be here on 
 their rounds in a minute or two, and if they 
 find you loitering about the gate, into the moat 
 you'll go." 
 
 Retreat in the face of superior force was 
 Louise's strong point. She wanted to go at once. 
 
 "I've heard of the Black Patrol," she whis- 
 pered to the King. "They kill every one who 
 gets in their way."
 
 LOST IN PARIS 127 
 
 Her fears were infectious and her statement 
 was alarming. Still the Little King stood his 
 ground, eager, as he supposed, to meet the Black 
 Patrol single handed and alone. But when he 
 saw a score of black figures slowly oozing out 
 of the darkness into the light of the flambeau, 
 caution, self-preservation and Louise's safety all 
 prompted him to immediate flight. So away he 
 ran, clutching his trunks with one hand while 
 Louise clung desperately to the other. 
 
 Surely it was a difficult matter to get into the 
 Bastile, though doubtless many others had found 
 it all too easy. 
 
 Again the Little King and Louise were wander- 
 ers. The shops were closing. One by one the 
 lights in the windows were going out, and in a 
 short time the streets were deserted. Now and 
 then a dim, phantom-like form sprang from the 
 darkness and passed on leaving the children almost 
 paralized -by fear. The forms did not seem 
 to be men and women. Doubtless they were 
 frightful, child-destroying demons, and the King 
 and Louise wondered at their marvelous escapes 
 from them. Louise suggested that the dark forms
 
 128 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 might be black ghosts, and the King was ready 
 to admit that perhaps she was right. 
 
 At times the trembling children stood clinging to 
 each other. Then they would wander on again, 
 hardly conscious of what they were doing. Thus 
 several hours passed, and little by little the wanderers 
 traveled a long unknown way, the King always 
 holding up Louise's hand like the pompous little 
 gallant that he was. In their aimless wander- 
 ing they came to a woman sitting on a doorstep. 
 She held a baby in her lap, while a little girl 
 slept at her feet. When the King saw her he 
 took courage, and with an instinct born of man- 
 liness, seemed to know that he would find sym- 
 pathy here, because he was about to seek it of 
 a woman. 
 
 "We are lost," he said, bowing in his courtly 
 fashion before the woman. "Won't Madame help 
 us and give us something to eat? We are very 
 tired and hungry. I am the King." 
 
 The woman did not laugh. The day had been 
 one of woe to her and she could not laugh, 
 answered simply: 
 
 "The King asks help from his poorest subject.
 
 LOST IN PARIS 129 
 
 He sent his tax gatherers here to-day to collect 
 the House Tax, and they took all I had; my 
 poor bed, my chair; even my small sack of black 
 flour. I have nothing to eat, and I fear my little 
 ones will starve that the Queen and the Cardinal 
 may live in luxury." 
 
 The Little King paused to gather his thoughts, 
 and after a deal of stammering replied: 
 
 "But I am the King. You are mistaken. I 
 did not send the tax collectors. I am lost. Please, 
 Madame, help me to find the Palais Royal." 
 
 The woman, supposing that the child's mind 
 had been touched by madness born, possibly, of 
 her own familiar affliction, hunger, humored his 
 whim and answered: 
 
 "I can't take you to the Palais Royal, but you 
 and the little girl may come into my house and 
 may sleep on the bare floor. I have nothing 
 else to offer you except my pity." 
 
 The Little King was very tired, and knew 
 that Louise could not keep her eyes open much 
 longer. Anything was better than wandering in 
 the streets, where a deadly cart was apt to 
 spring from the darkness any moment. So the 
 
 9
 
 i 3 o THE LITTLE KING V 
 
 woman's offer was accepted, and soon the royal 
 eyes were sealed. All night long the King lay 
 beside Louise, the hard boards for a bed and his 
 bended arm for a pillow, but His Majesty was 
 asleep dreaming of deadly carts, and vowing death 
 to all carters the day after his coronation. 
 
 The next morning the King awakened just as 
 Louise rose beside him and announced that she 
 was hungry. It took him some time to realize 
 where he was. He was dazed. But while he 
 was rubbing his eyes a painful sensation strangely 
 in accord with Louise's statement helped him toward 
 wakefulness. He was terribly hungry. The woman 
 had gone, but the little girl and the baby slept 
 in the corner of the room. 
 
 When entirely awake the Little King went to 
 the door. The sun was shining brightly. Oh, 
 how much better was the day than the awful 
 night ! 
 
 It was still early, though a few of the shops 
 were open, and now and then a hated cart dashed 
 past the door. 
 
 Presently the woman returned. She closed the 
 door, looked carefully about her to see that no
 
 LOST IN PARIS 131 
 
 one was watching, and drew a small loaf of 
 black bread from the folds of her gown. She 
 awakened the little girl and the baby, broke the 
 loaf into four pieces piteously small they were 
 and gave one to each of her little ones. She 
 hesitated, then as if fleeing from temptation, thrust 
 one of the remaining pieces of bread into Louise's 
 hand and the other she gave to the Little King. 
 
 Louise fell upon her bread ravenously and would 
 have devoured it all very quickly had she not 
 glanced up to the eager face of the half-starved 
 woman. Instantly Louise broke her bread in two 
 pieces and offered one to the woman, saying: 
 
 "There's too much for me. You eat it." 
 
 Tears started to the woman's eyes and she 
 caught Louise to her breast. 
 .. The Little King, learning his second lesson of 
 love from Louise, said in his courtly fashion: 
 
 "Madame, pray have a part of my bread, 
 too. I'm not very hungry." 
 
 God's gentle finger had touched that desert place, 
 a king's heart, and it had blossomed. 
 
 The woman clasped him to her heart, too, and 
 looked almost happy as she ate her own bread
 
 132 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 that had been cast upon the waters, instantly to return. 
 
 While they were eating their meager breakfast, 
 two men entered the house and arrested the 
 woman for having stolen the loaf from a baker. 
 The penalty for her crime was death or worse. 
 
 The scene that followed was too distressing 
 to dwell on, though similar scenes for like offenses 
 were enacted every day in Paris, while Mazarin 
 grew rich and the Queen Regent squandered her 
 millions. 
 
 The woman was led away, carrying her baby, 
 while the little girl, the King and Louise fol- 
 lowed in a mournful procession. 
 
 Hardly had they taken twenty steps from the 
 house when the Little King saw an old Jew, two 
 young men and a beautiful young woman crossing 
 the street a short distance in advance. At first 
 he could not trust his eyes, but yes, he was 
 right! He pinched himself and he was sure he 
 was right, so he cried out joyfully: 
 
 "Sweet Mam'selle! Sweet Mam'selle!" 
 
 The next moment the beautiful young woman 
 was on her knees in the mud of the street, with 
 the Little King's arms clasped about her neck.
 
 LOST IN PARIS 133 
 
 Explanations followed quickly, and the men. 
 who had arrested the woman fled in terror from 
 the King's presence. The erstwhile mournful pro- 
 cession faced about and following the lead of 
 Jean Breton, hurried to the opposite end of the 
 short street, turned a corner, and there to the 
 King's surprise stood the Palais Royal, within 
 three minutes' walk of the house in which he 
 had spent the night, elbow to elbow with starva- 
 tion. 
 
 There was great rejoicing when tht Little King 
 returned. His first care was for the poor woman 
 who had divided her stolen loaf with him. Her 
 days of want were over. Truly her bread had 
 been cast upon the waters and had returned. 
 
 After the Little King's story was told, he 
 turned to Mazarin, lifted his hand in a threaten- 
 ing, kingly, though childish manner, and said: 
 
 "M. le Cardinal, it is the King's command 
 that the House Tax be abolished in Paris." 
 
 And the Little King's command was obeyed.
 
 LA SAINTE CROIX
 
 CHAPTER V 
 A JEW THREE THOUSAND YEARS OLD 
 
 AT the time of the Little King's tenth 
 birthday, there was in the city of Paris, 
 a short, narrow street just off the Rue 
 de Bethisy called the Rue Sainte Croix, which 
 ceased to exist so long ago that its very name 
 has been forgotten save in musty tomes and 
 ancient legendary. With the true spirit of para- 
 doxy which at the time seemed to be the familiar 
 spirit of Paris, the score or more of houses com- 
 posing the quaint little street bearing this holy 
 Christian name were, with two or three excep- 
 tions, occupied by Jews. One of these exceptions 
 was a high two-story wooden building whose over- 
 hanging roof and heavy beams leaned so far into 
 the street that they seemed to threaten with de- 
 struction any stranger invading the Sabbath-like 
 stillness of Rue Sainte Croix. 
 
 This ancient structure was occupied by a Chris- 
 137
 
 J3 S THE LITTLE KING 
 
 tian, Baptiste Guiron, an alchemist, who kept 
 what we should now call an apothecary shop on 
 the first floor. As if to save the house from 
 being an entire exception to the Hebraic rule, 
 the second floor was occupied by an old Jew 
 whose name was Benoni; not Benoni Smith, nor 
 Jones, nor Brown, but simply Benoni, for the 
 Jews at that time had no family names, as all 
 the world knows. 
 
 One cold Sunday morning in the month of 
 December, nearly ten years before the Little King 
 Louis XIV was born, a Jew was standing near 
 the chain fence which surrounded a space perhaps 
 one hundred feet square in the plaza fronting 
 the cathedral of the city of Toulouse. In the 
 center of the square were two iron stakes and at 
 the stakes stood chained a man and a woman, 
 husband and wife. They were heretics. A priest 
 held a cross before them, fagots were piled at 
 their feet, and two executioners stood ready to 
 apply the torch. Near the Jew stood a boy 
 eight or nine years old, watching with streaming 
 -eyes the frightful proceedings.
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 139 
 
 The woman was brave till she turned her face 
 toward the child. Then she begged for mercy, 
 protested her innocence and offered to make any 
 recantation, reparation or confession Holy Church 
 might ask. But her entreaties were unheeded. 
 The executioners applied the torch and stepped 
 back with the priest to the chain fence, leaving 
 the man and the woman to the mercy of the 
 fire. 
 
 When the fagots were well aflame, the woman 
 turned her face toward the boy and held out her 
 hands to him as far as her chains would permit. 
 After a moment's hesitancy the boy crawled under 
 the chain fence and ran to her, where he stood 
 during the rest of the awful scene, warming 
 his hands at the flames which were consuming 
 the only friends he had on earth, his father and 
 his mother. 
 
 Soon the crowd of spectators began to depart, 
 for the auto da fe was an old story in Tou- 
 louse, and within an hour only the boy, the Jew 
 and the executioners were left to witness the end 
 of the tragedy. When the executioners prepared 
 to go they ordered the boy to leave the enclosure
 
 140 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and enforced their com- 
 mand by a blow from 
 the half-charred pole 
 with which they had 
 been stirrings the embers. 
 The boy went back 
 to where he had been 
 standing near the Jew, 
 turned his face toward 
 his dead father and 
 mother, leaned against 
 the chain and wept bit- 
 terly. 
 
 After watching him for a little time, the Jew 
 went to his side and asked gently: 
 "Where are you going, my son?" 
 "I I don't know," sobbed the boy. 
 "Have you no home, no friends?" 
 "No." 
 
 "Will you go home with me?" asked the Jew 
 pleadingly. One might have supposed he was 
 seeking a favor. 
 
 "Yes," answered the sobbing boy, holding up 
 his hand to be clasped. So Baptiste Guiron went
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 141 
 
 home with Benoni the Jew and grew to manhood 
 under his rooftree. 
 
 How Baptiste became a learned alchemist under 
 the teaching of Benoni, how Benoni, having on a 
 certain occasion cured Louis XIII of an illness 
 while that monarch was on a visit to Toulouse, 
 obtained from the king permission to live in Paris 
 with his wife, his baby daughter and young Bap- 
 tiste, how, being rich, he bought the house of 
 the disbanded cloister, La Sainte Croix, from 
 which the little street took its name, how Bap- 
 tiste opened an apothecary shop in the overhanging 
 building, back of which stood the cloister house, 
 how he prospered, how the old Jew kept his wife 
 and his beautiful daughter snugly hidden in his 
 real home, the cloister house of La Sainte Croix, 
 and how, being a learned physician, he plied his 
 healing arts, cured the rich for pay and the poor 
 gratis, are all matters that happened long before 
 the King's tenth birthday and therefore are no 
 part of this story, the principal events of which 
 occurred on that day. 
 
 But the Jew's daughter Miriam, who had "hap- 
 pened" some seven or eight years before the Lit-
 
 142 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 the King was born, being wonderfully beautiful, as 
 Baptiste would have testified, naturally, becomes 
 an important part of the story, as a beautiful 
 girl is apt to do whenever she is connected with 
 any story. 
 
 Of course Baptiste's relations to the Jew were 
 carefully hidden from the world, for while a Jew 
 himself might prosper in trade and might be 
 tolerated, at least for a time, a Christian who 
 associated with a Jew was sure to be despised, 
 frowned upon and spurned as an unclean thing 
 hiding under the Master's cloak.
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 143 
 
 It must not be understood that Baptiste was 
 ungrateful to the man that had sheltered him. 
 On the contrary, he loved him, and as for his 
 daughter but all that concerns her will come 
 in its turn. Baptiste stood aloof from the Jew 
 only so far as the outer world could see, but 
 whatever he did was done under Benoni's advice. 
 
 Among Baptiste's Christian friends was Jean 
 Breton, Sweet Mam'selle's lover. Jean and Sweet 
 Mam'selle knew that the Jew lived over Baptiste's 
 shop, but they knew nothing of the strange re- 
 lationship. They, in common with all other Chris- 
 tians, hated the Jews, but after Benoni had helped 
 Jean to see the Little King and had thereby 
 enabled him to rescue Sweet Mam'selle from the 
 Bastile, and later had aided them in finding the 
 Little King on the eventful night when "Four- 
 teen" and Louise Jarbeau were lost in the streets 
 of Paris, they began to respect the old man, then 
 to love him, and soon found themselves forgetting 
 that he was a Jew. 
 
 They knew also that it was Benoni's skill 
 which had saved the Little King when His Maj- 
 esty was ill with the smallpox, though the Queen
 
 I 4 4 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and the Court gave the credit to Seguine, the 
 court physician, who received all the reward. 
 
 At that time superstition and science went hand 
 in hand, but superstition's hand was much the 
 larger. Alchemy was the link connecting Black 
 Magic with medicine, the curative arts and the 
 science we now call chemistry. Astrology was 
 the link between magic and astronomy, while the 
 power of numbers, mystically arranged to foretell 
 the future, chained even prosaic mathematics to 
 the realm of the supernatural. 
 
 Even the men who were learned in natural 
 science were unable to divest themselves of the 
 barnacles of superstition, and were prone to en- 
 courage by many artifices the half-frightened awe 
 with which the people looked upon them. 
 
 One of the commonest modes of inspiring awe 
 was a pretense of great age. It was an innocent 
 imposture, but it was an imposture nevertheless. 
 Benoni was three thousand years old, if one may 
 accept his word for that startling fact. Why he 
 pretended to so great an age is hard to under- 
 stand unless it inspired a sort of awe-tinged
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 145 
 
 respect for and confidence in his power to heal 
 suggestive perhaps of Satanic origin which 
 brought him patients who did his general coffers 
 fill. 
 
 Where one of these learned men lived there 
 could always be found among the people from 
 king to peasant a whispering undercurrent of gossip 
 hinting that Satan had his finger in the pie 
 somewhere. No matter how great a benefactor 
 the supposed friend of Satan may have been, the 
 people, if stirred by religious fanaticism, were eager 
 to fall upon him and to work his ruin. If the 
 devil did all the good with which he was charged, 
 he was a better fellow than many persons can be 
 brought to believe, and if he received all the 
 punishment honestly intended for him he had his 
 due long ago. 
 
 Benoni, though ostensibly living in the rooms 
 over Baptiste Guiron's shop, in fact dwelt with 
 his wife and daughter in the old cloister house 
 of La Sainte Croix, which stood within a walled 
 enclosure just back of the shop. Surrounding the 
 small stone dwelling was a diminutive garden of 
 trees and flowers, so beautifully arranged and so 
 
 10
 
 i 4 6 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 well cultivated by the Jewish family that to step 
 from the bleak little street into Baptiste's dingy 
 shop, and thence from the back door of the shop 
 through the well concealed gate in the high 
 cloister wall was like passing from a desert into 
 fairy-land. 
 
 When one entered the house and beheld the 
 rich oriental tapestries, the luxurious couches, 
 the rare rugs, the many colored hanging lamps 
 of sparkling crystal, and breathed the per- 
 fumes of myrrh and the attar of roses, one 
 might well believe that an esthetic genie or an 
 artistic Satan had helped in its creation. Com- 
 pared to it, the grandeur of the Palais Royal 
 was comfortless and commonplace. 
 
 But all that was beautiful in the Jew's house 
 paled beside the loveliness of his daughter Miriam. 
 She was fair of skin (her mother was a beautiful 
 Circassian whom Benoni had purchased in Bag- 
 dad), her hair was golden red, the color Titian 
 loved, and her face showed none of the distinct- 
 ively Jewish features. Her father had paid one 
 thousand sequins or about eighteen hundred dol- 
 lars, for her mother; he could have sold the
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 147 
 
 daughter in the same market for ten times that 
 sum. But all the gold of the earth could not 
 have bought her. She was dearer to Benoni 
 than the blood of his heart. 
 
 Until near the time of the Little King's tenth 
 birthday, no one save Baptiste Guiron had been 
 permitted to behold the enchanting scene within 
 the walls of La Sainte Croix, and no one so 
 much as suspected its existence. Even the Jews 
 living in the neighborhood supposed the cloister 
 house was an uninhabited ruin, for the walls sur- 
 rounding it were so high that it could not be seen 
 even from the roofs of nearby houses. Neither 
 did any one suspect that the Jew had a beautiful 
 wife and a still more beautiful daughter, for 
 when on rare occasions they ventured abroad, 
 they left and returned through Baptiste's shop, 
 and when on the street dressed in the fashion of 
 the time and wore masks as was the wont and 
 privilege of all women. 
 
 Benoni, knowing only too well the terrible spirit 
 of the times, fully realized that the only safety 
 for him and his little brood lay in concealment, 
 so for many years they had lived happily hidden
 
 i 4 8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 from all the world in the heart of La Sainte 
 Croix. Save for the fact that this story could 
 not have been told, it would have been well had 
 Benoni never relaxed his vigilance. But though 
 learned in the ways of the evil heart, he under- 
 estimated the danger to all things good which 
 lurks in superstition, ignorance and greed, and 
 like all who trust to the mercies of the world, 
 he paid the penalty. 
 
 And this is how it all came about. 
 
 When the Little King was lost with Louise 
 Jarbeau on that terrible night in the streets of 
 Paris, and was found by the help of the Jew 
 and Baptiste, Jean and Sweet Mam'selle each 
 received rich rewards which they, being honest 
 folk, felt should be divided with those who had 
 helped them. The Jew, wishing to avoid pub- 
 licity, refused the proffered portion, and Bap- 
 tiste insisted that he himself was entitled to no 
 reward. 
 
 So Baptiste and the Jew found a warm 
 place in the hearts of Jean and his sweetheart, 
 resulting in many visits to Baptiste's shop and 
 the Jew's rooms above. The four grew to be
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 149 
 
 great friends, so one evening shortly before the 
 King's tenth birthday, Benoni, longing for com- 
 panionship and feeling that his new-found friends 
 were to be trusted, invited them to cross the 
 threshold of La Sainte Croix, and presented them 
 to his sacred world; his wife, his daughter and 
 his home. 
 
 Jean and Sweet Mam'selle were enchanted with 
 the beautiful scene and the still more beautiful 
 daughter, and when cautioned by the Jew, prom- 
 ised in all sincerity not to betray his secret 
 
 As the Little King's birthday approached, the 
 whole court, including the Queen, the Cardinal, 
 and all the courtiers strove to invent some new 
 entertainment that would interest the little mon- 
 arch, who was already growing blase and hard 
 to amuse. The man or woman that suggested 
 the entertainment in which his little Majesty should 
 evince the greatest interest would be sure of an 
 enviable distinction among the courtiers, at least 
 for a time, and would receive something substantial 
 by way of reward from the Queen or the Car- 
 dinal, or both.
 
 150 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle and Jean had spent several 
 evenings in the Jew's interesting house before the 
 discussion of the King's birthday entertainment 
 had begun at court. On one occasion Benoni 
 entertained them with a few strange exhibitions 
 of what they and, in a way, he himself con- 
 sidered manifestations of Black Magic. 
 
 To say that Jean and Sweet Mam'selle were in- 
 terested, though very much frightened, would by 
 no means express their state of mind on leaving 
 the Jew's house. But at a distance from danger, 
 curiosity is stronger than fear, so they bought 
 protective amulets from a priest and returned 
 again and again to witness the wonders of Ben- 
 oni's strange art, feeling measurably safe from 
 the all too interesting devil who, they suspected, 
 was indirectly furnishing their entertainments. 
 
 While the great personages of the court were 
 puzzling their brains to find a novelty in the 
 way of amusement for the King's birthday, what 
 wonder is it that Sweet Mam'selle, having in 
 mind the Jew's wonderful powers, should long to 
 exploit a plan that would have entertained the 
 King even in his old age, after he had run the
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 
 
 gamut of all amusements that the ingenious French 
 brain could discover or invent? But she was true 
 to her promise to Benoni, and would tell no one 
 about La Sainte Croix until she had received 
 permission from its lord. 
 
 While Miriam was a child Baptiste called her 
 his sister and so regarded her, but when she 
 became a young woman of 
 fifteen or sixteen, his brother- 
 ly love underwent a great 
 and disturbing change. 
 Spurred by his new love, he 
 spoke to Benoni on the sub- 
 ject and received hearty per- 
 mission to woo the girl. 
 Baptiste lost no time, but 5 
 set about the pleasing task at 
 once, and within a reason- 
 able period received such as- 
 surances as a modest girl may give that he might 
 have her, her hand, and best of all, her heart, 
 if the transfer could be arranged satisfactorily to 
 all concerned and without arousing the ire of
 
 152 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 those who had no right to be concerned at all. 
 
 The difficulties in the way of a happy mar- 
 riage between the twain lay in the fact that 
 under the Mosaic law a Jew could not marry a 
 gentile, and under the French law a Christian 
 could not marry a Jew. 
 
 So far as Benoni was concerned, the Mo- 
 saic law might have been infracted with his 
 entire consent, for learning had long since 
 delivered him from the bondage of Judaism. 
 He was willing that his daughter should abjure 
 the faith of her fathers and enter Holy Church 
 if she might thereby receive Baptiste as a reward 
 for her apostasy, for he believed that one who 
 worshiped God honestly, in any way, worshiped 
 Him in truth. His brother Jews were the ones 
 who would be apt to create disturbance in this 
 Parisian Judea, for of all the people of earth, 
 your religious fanatic loves best to make trouble, pref- 
 erably for others, but failing in that, for himself. 
 
 It is true that Benoni had not intrusted his 
 great secret even to his own people, but the 
 marriage of his daughter would make it public, 
 and he feared that his meddlesome brethren,
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 153 
 
 zealous and jealous for the sake of a religion 
 which had cursed their race for centuries, would 
 eagerly drop their own affairs to interfere in his 
 and to make as much trouble as possible for 
 him and his household. 
 
 The prospect of trouble with his Jewish brothers 
 did not disturb Benoni so much as his fear of 
 the French law, which, if infracted, would bring 
 down upon him the heavy hand of the Cardinal's 
 greedy minions. The marriage was very near his 
 heart and the matter was frequently discussed in 
 the family councils during a period of several 
 months prior to the King's tenth birthday. 
 
 "How may it be brought about, my children?" 
 asked Benoni one evening when the interesting 
 subject was under discussion. He had asked the 
 same question many times before. "If you marry 
 in the Jewish manner well, Baptiste is a Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 "That fact will in no way hamper me," said 
 Baptiste. "The Church burned my father and 
 mother and left me to starve. I was saved by 
 a Jew." Then he clasped Miriam's hand and 
 kissing it tenderly, continued: "Here is my religion.
 
 154 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Other religions have brought me only evil. I 
 would worship all my life at this shrine." 
 
 Miriam clasped his hand warmly and whispered: 
 "No, no, Baptiste, I shall be the worshiper and 
 you will be the shrine. I do hope you and 
 father may discover some means whereby I may 
 kneel before my shrine all the days of my life." 
 
 "If by good fortune we could obtain a royal 
 sanction to the marriage, we should be safe in 
 celebrating it," said Benoni, falteringly. 
 
 "Why not buy it from the Cardinal?" sug- 
 gested Baptiste. "I have a small bag of gold 
 which" 
 
 "That is the last resort," interrupted Benoni. 
 "If we buy the Cardinal to-day, we shall have 
 to buy him or some of his officers to-morrow. 
 The extortion will continue as long as His Emi- 
 nence believes we have a sou left. Then when 
 we are stripped of all we have, he will turn upon 
 us and rend us because we have no more to give. 
 No, no, my son! Privileges from Mazarin are 
 but gifts of the devil, granted to lure a vic- 
 tim to ruin." 
 
 "I fear you are right," responded Baptiste, 
 dolefully.
 
 A VERY OLD JEW 155 
 
 'But I have been wondering, of late, if the Little 
 King could not be reached through our friends, 
 Jean Breton and his Majesty's nurse," continued 
 Benoni, thoughtfully. "He loves her devotedly, 
 and though he is still but a child, I have heard 
 that he has exhibited a right royal temper, and has 
 had his own way on many occasions, despite the 
 opposition of every one. In four short years he 
 will be crowned, and I suppose the courtiers are 
 beginning to seek his favor for future use." 
 
 "The very thing!" cried Baptiste, joyfully. "The 
 very thing!" Then turning to Miriam and her 
 mother, he told them all about Jean Breton and 
 Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 Miriam, of course, gave it as her opinion that 
 her wise father and still wiser lover had solved the 
 problem and that the obstacles to her happiness 
 would soon be removed by royal sanction. This 
 all happened before Jean and Sweet Mam'selle 
 had visited La Sainte Croix, though not before 
 their visits to Baptiste's shop and to the Jew's 
 rooms above the shop, as already told. 
 
 Miriam was for plunging into the affair at 
 once, but Benoni advised making haste slowly.
 
 156 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Baptiste and I have seen this Jean Breton 
 and his sweetheart on only three or four occa- 
 sions. We don't know them and they don't know 
 us. I believe they are honest and may be trusted, 
 but we must know it before we place ourselves in 
 their power. We must be reasonably sure that 
 they will be willing to accept the responsibility of 
 asking this favor at the King's hands before we 
 attempt to thrust it on them. After Baptiste 
 and I have seen more of them, I hope we shall 
 be willing to entrust them with our secret to the 
 extent of inviting them to our house to break 
 bread with us if they will come. Of course, 
 they hate a Jew. Our first task is to turn that 
 hatred into love. I doubt if it ever has been 
 done, or or can be done. One of the paradoxes 
 of life is the bitterness with which man hates 
 man, because of his love of God." 
 
 It was after this conversation that Jean and 
 Sweet Mam'selle were invited to La Saintc Crokc 
 and entrusted with the secrets of the Jewish 
 household. After that, events piled one upon 
 another with that fatal, confusing rapidity which 
 usually precedes disaster.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 
 
 THE Little King, the Queen and the Cardinal 
 had been voluntary prisoners in the Palais 
 Royal for many months because of the 
 hatred the Parisians bore the Cardinal and the 
 Queen. The people always loved their child king 
 and after the burden of the House Tax had been 
 removed by his childish command, he had become 
 dearer to them than ever before. Long confine- 
 ment in the palace was beginning to tell on his 
 health, so once in a while he was permitted to 
 go out incognito with his nurse, Sweet Mam'selle. 
 Of course, these occasions were red letter days to 
 the Little King. 
 
 One evening Jean, Sweet Mam'selle, Baptiste 
 and Miriam planned to go to the country, out 
 in the direction of the Bois de Vincennes to spend 
 the afternoon on the following Sunday. When 
 
 157
 
 i 5 8 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 told of the excursion, the Little King at once 
 said that he, too, would go. 
 
 "We will see if it can be arranged," said the 
 King's governor, the Marquis de Villeroi, when 
 His Majesty told him of his intention. 
 
 "We will see?" exclaimed the King, angrily. 
 "Who are you, M. le Marquis, to say that you 
 will see what the King shall do? You are 
 always interfering in my affairs. Wait till I am 
 crowned, and I will show you who is King in 
 a way you will not like." 
 
 The Marquis, in common with every one else 
 about the court, was beginning to have a whole- 
 some dread of the day when the Little King 
 should be crowned. The result was that His 
 Majesty was growing more imperious day by day 
 and had his will in nearly everything. He would 
 soon be ten years old. At fourteen he would 
 be crowned. He had a good memory and four 
 years is a very short time. No King could be 
 expected to forget an injury, fancied or real, in 
 so brief a period, however quickly he might 
 forget a benefit. So every one about the King, 
 with perhaps the one exception of the Queen,
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 159 
 
 was growing wary of this child, who would soon 
 hold life and fortune in the hollow of his hand. 
 
 "We shall have two other friends with us, 
 Your Majesty," suggested Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "Who are they?" asked the King. 
 
 "Monsieur Baptiste Guiron and his sweetheart, 
 Mam'selle Miriam," answered Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "Baptiste Guiron," said the Little King, trying 
 to think. "Oh, he is the man who helped you 
 to find me the night I was lost with Louise 
 Jarbeau. That was the night you, M. le Mar- 
 quis, thrust me from your carriage steps in front 
 of the Bastile." 
 
 The Little King had never forgiven his gov* 
 ernor that moment of blindness. 
 
 "I beg Your Majesty not to mention that awful 
 mistake," pleaded the Marquis; "I was half 
 crazed with fear lest harm should befall you, 
 and was not responsible for what I did." 
 
 "You should not have thrust me off so cruelly, 
 even had I been only what you thought I was, 
 a boy of the street." 
 
 "I pray forgiveness," answered the Marquis; 
 "I was guilty of a great "
 
 i6o 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Never mind, M. le Marquis," interrupted the 
 King; "You go to the Queen and bring me her 
 consent to go with Sweet Mam'selle to the Bois 
 de Vincennes next Sunday and I'll forgive you. 
 If the Queen refuses, I'll hang you the day after 
 I am crowned." 
 
 In the course of an hour the Marquis returned. 
 The King had grown impatient. When Villeroi 
 entered the room, the little despot exclaimed angrily : 
 
 "A whole hour, M. le Marquis! If you con-
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE i6f 
 
 tinue to be as tardy on the King's business well, 
 just wait till I am crowned!" 
 
 The office of governor to the King had ceased 
 to be a sinecure. 
 
 "I was delayed in obtaining an audience with 
 the Queen, Your Majesty,'* answered Villeroi. 
 
 "Did she know you sought her with a message 
 from me?" asked the King. 
 
 "Yes, Your Majesty. The Queen graciously 
 consents." 
 
 "Well, when I am crowned, her Majesty had 
 better had better " The King stopped, hardly 
 knowing what he would do with his mother after 
 he was crowned. He could hang everybody else, 
 but that course with his mother might be ques- 
 tionable. So he dropped the subject, turned to 
 Sweet Mam'selle and said: "I'll wear a plain 
 black suit and a hat without plumes. Remove 
 the gold buttons from one of my dark cloaks 
 the one I wore last and take the diamond buck- 
 les off the shoes. We'll get Louise and take her 
 with us." 
 
 "Yes, Your Majesty, if the Queen consents," 
 whispered Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 ii
 
 162 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Go, M. le Marquis! Do you hear? Go to 
 the Queen and tell her that we intend to take 
 Mam'selle Louise Jarbeau with us. Oh, I wish 
 I were crowned now!" He stamped his foot 
 impatiently. "This sending off to the Queen every 
 time I want to blink my eye grows irksome." 
 
 Villeroi returned with permission, and the Lit- 
 tle King began to plan the excursion in detail. 
 
 It was arranged that a carriage, though not a 
 royal carriage, should await the excursionists just 
 beyond the Porte de Vincennes. In the carriage 
 there should be a basket well filled with lunch, 
 and following the carriage at a respectful dis- 
 tance, there should come four or five members of 
 the Swiss Guard in citizen's garb. The King 
 and his friends would walk to the Porte de 
 Vincennes, picking up Louise Jarbeau on the way, 
 and when they were tired walking, they would 
 take the carriage outside the gate. 
 
 When Baptiste and Miriam were informed of 
 the honor in store for them, they were delighted, 
 and when Benoni heard the news, he said: "Every- 
 thing seems propitious. I hope the King will 
 learn to love my daughter and Baptiste. If so,
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 163 
 
 we may easily obtain a royal sanction to the 
 marriage." 
 
 The Little King thought the long days would 
 never drag out their weary way, but they did, and 
 at last the eventful Sunday came, bringing with it 
 a bright, soft sun. His Majesty, Sweet Mam- 
 'selle, and Jean Breton 
 went to Baptiste's shop, 
 where the King received 
 the apothecary with a 
 .gracious smile. While 
 waiting for Miriam, he 
 stood with Sweet Mam- 
 'selle at the back door 
 of the shop, facing 
 what appeared to be a 
 blank wall less than 
 two yards away. Sud- 
 denly the wall opened as 
 if by magic, and from 
 it emerged Benoni's daughter, fair and radiant 
 as an houri, and strange as a visitant from an- 
 other world to the eyes of the Little King.
 
 164 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "This is Monsieur Baptiste's sweetheart, Mam- 
 'selle Miriam, your Majesty," said Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 Miriam fell to her knees before the King, who 
 gazed at her in astonishment for a moment, and 
 then held out his hand. She took the proffered 
 hand and kissed it reverently. She remained on 
 her knees waiting to be told to rise, but for a 
 time the Little King spoke not a word. He 
 stood a full minute, gazing at Miriam's beautiful 
 face; then bent forward and kissed her lips, 
 after which he stepped back, breathed a sigh and 
 murmured half in reverie: "Now you may rise." 
 
 The hidden gate had remained ajar during the 
 brief scene, so that when Miriam rose the Little 
 King caught a glimpse of the beautiful garden 
 within the walls of La Sainte Croix. Baptiste, 
 noticing his glance, hastened to close the gate, 
 but his Majesty was too quick for him, and 
 springing forward, entered before Baptiste could 
 reach it. 
 
 This premature discovery alarmed the friends, 
 for their plans had not yet fully ripened. But 
 there was no way of correcting the mistake, so 
 they all followed the King, who evidently intended
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 165 
 
 to explore the strangest, fairest spot of earth he 
 had ever beheld. 
 
 Baptiste closed the gate after the mischief had 
 been done and awaited the will of his Majesty. 
 The Little King walked about for a few minutes 
 in open-eyed wonder, drinking in the fairy-like 
 beauties of the place. It seemed to be a corner 
 of Paradise. The narrow white paths between 
 hedges of flowers and shrubs, all new to the 
 King, the tiny pergolas, the minareted summer 
 houses of fairy mimicry, the miniature trees so 
 small that their shade seemed sufficient only for 
 a race of elves, bewildered and enchanted the 
 King. After a little time he rubbed his eyes, 
 clasped Sweet Mam'selle's hand and asked: 
 
 "Where am I? What place is this?" 
 
 "This is Miriam's home," answered Sweet 
 Mam'selle. 
 
 "Is is tha that wh why she is so beauti- 
 ful?" stammered the Little King 
 
 "I suppose so," replied Sweet Mam'selle, smiling. 
 
 The King looked about him, walked through 
 two or three of the narrow paths, went back to 
 Sweeet Mam'selle and said with emphasis:
 
 i66 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "We'll stay here; we'll not go to the Bois de 
 Vincennes." 
 
 "But the carriage will be waiting at the gates, 
 and the Swiss Guardsmen will be there," sug- 
 gested Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "You go and tell them not to wait for me," 
 said the Little King, turning to Jean. 
 
 "But they will not believe Monsieur Jean, my 
 King," said Sweet Mam'selle. "If he goes, they 
 will return to the palace with the report that you 
 are lost. Then the Cardinal and M. le Marquis 
 will send out to find you and our fine day will 
 be spoiled. Besides we promised to take Louise 
 Jarbeau, and she will be waiting all decked out 
 in her clean mass gown. We must go to the 
 Porte de Vincennes, my King." 
 
 "Then we'll all go together, and I'll tell the 
 carriage and the Swiss Guardsmen that I don't 
 want them. We'll get Louise Jarbeau and come 
 back here, and we'll shut the gate, and no one 
 will know where I am." 
 
 Little Majesty was determined; there was no 
 other course for Sweet Mam'selle to take, so 
 they all hurried off to the Porte de Vincennes.
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 167 
 
 They went first to seek Louise Jarbeau, whom 
 they found playing with a half score of children, 
 dogs and goats. She wore her mass gown, which 
 had been clean earlier in the morning, but was 
 sadly the worse for contact with numerous boys, 
 compared to whom the goats and dogs were 
 shining examples of cleanliness. 
 
 When Louise espied the King, she cried out: 
 
 "Oh, there's Fourteen!" Then she ran to his 
 Majesty, who received her with a childish, stately 
 smile, and with a courtliness never excelled in his 
 later days, introduced the new friends: 
 
 "Mam'selle Louise Jarbeau, I present you to 
 Monsieur Baptiste and and his sweetheart." 
 
 Louise, who was not in a gracious mood that 
 morning, simply glanced toward Miriam and Bap- 
 tiste without in any way acknowledging the in- 
 troduction; then took Fourteen by the hand, saying: 
 
 "Now we can play real hide and seek. There 
 is a goat here that can find you no matter where 
 you hide." 
 
 The temptation to play hide and seek with the 
 wonderful goat was hard for the King to resist, 
 but a glance up to Miriam's face recalled the
 
 i68 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 beauties of La Sainte Croix, so he answered, 
 smiling : 
 
 "We'll play with the goat some other time, 
 Louise. We are going now to the Porte de 
 Vincennes to get our lunch basket; then we are 
 going back to the house of Mam'selle Mam- 
 'selle " He paused, turned, smiling, toward 
 Miriam, and said in his childish courtly manner: 
 "I , crave pardon. The name has has I have 
 forgotten it." 
 
 "Mam'selle Miriam," interposed Sweet Mam- 
 'selle. 
 
 "Yes, we are going to the beautiful home of 
 Mam'selle Miriam," said the King. 
 
 Louise hung in the wind for a moment, think-
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 169 
 
 ing of the disagreeable afternoon she had spent 
 in Fourteen's house, then began to pout, and 
 drawing away from the King, said with emphasis: 
 
 "I don't want to go to anybody's home, and 
 I won't go." 
 
 Louise's "won't" was a word to be respected, 
 for she belonged, every inch of her, to that large 
 and interesting class of Eve's descendants who 
 won't when they won't. She was perhaps the 
 only person in France who would have dared say 
 "won't" to Louis XIV. 
 
 The Little King, startled by the unusual 
 word, looked at Louise for a moment with a 
 smile of amusement, then turned to Sweet Mam- 
 'selle and shrugged his shoulders as if to say: 
 "In a case like this, even a king is helpless." 
 But he wanted Louise. With her impertinent 
 little airs, she was even more beautiful to him 
 than the golden-haired Miriam, so he turned to 
 her smiling. 
 
 "But I I wa want you to to co come with 
 us," he said, stammeringly. 
 
 Louise looked at him for a moment, laughed 
 softly and observed: "Why, you talk like a goat.'*
 
 170 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Surely Louise was not in a pleasant mood this 
 morning. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle stepped quickly to her side, 
 and caught her by the shoulder, shaking her 
 gently. 
 
 "If you speak so disrespectfully, we'll not take 
 you with us, and we'll never come for you again." 
 
 "I don't care," answered Louise, shaking off 
 Sweet Mam'selle's hand. "I'd rather play with 
 the goat anyway." 
 
 She gave convincing evidence of her preference 
 by starting toward the group of boys, goats and 
 dogs that stood at a respectful distance watching 
 Louise and her fine friends. 
 
 "We'll leave her here," said Sweet Mam'selle, 
 turning to go. But the King plucked her by the 
 sleeve, saying : 
 
 "Tell her we have a nice lunch with sugar 
 bonbons in the basket." 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle was reluctant, but she went 
 to Louise again and said: 
 
 "We have a nice basket of lunch in the car- 
 riage down by the Porte de Vincennes. There 
 are bonbons, and all sorts of good things to eat."
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 171 
 
 But "good things" to Fourteen and Sweet 
 Mam'selle were not "good things" to Louise. 
 She had dined once in the Palais Royal and had 
 found the cooking detestable. After a moment's 
 hesitancy, she answered: 
 
 "I'm afraid to eat with a knife, and I won't 
 eat with that thing that has three sharp points." 
 
 However, her manner showed that she was 
 wavering and wanted to be coaxed. Just at that 
 moment one of her boy friends, probably a cousin 
 to the goat, whispered: 
 
 "Don't go with them, Louise. They'll eat 
 your 
 
 Here was opposition from the other side of 
 the case, and that morning opposition from any 
 source was especially obnoxious to Louise. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle took a step or two backward, 
 indicating that she and the King were going to 
 leave. The boy's advice seemed to impel Louise 
 to take the opposite course, so she looked up to 
 Sweet Mam'selle and asked: 
 
 "Have you lots of meat in the basket?" 
 
 "Yes, yes. You may have all the meat you 
 want if you come with us."
 
 172 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 On receiving this glad news, Louise dimpled 
 and smiled, took Sweet Mam'selle's hand and 
 walked graciously over to his Majesty, King 
 Louis XIV, who had been cooling his heels, 
 waiting on her whim. 
 
 The King was very happy because of Louise's 
 change of temper, and gave the word to start 
 for the Porte de Vincennes. There they found 
 the Swiss Guardsmen, the carriage and the basket 
 of lunch with "lots of meat" in it. To Louise 
 and to most of the people of Paris, meat was 
 the ne plus ultra of good things to eat. 
 
 The King being tired with his long walk, Sweet 
 Mam'selle suggested that they all ride back to 
 the Rue de Bethisy and stop at the Rue Sainte 
 Croix, where they would dismiss the carriage for 
 the day. The disguised Swiss Guardsmen received 
 no instructions so they followed the King, running 
 to keep him in view. 
 
 When the carriage was dismissed at the foot 
 of Rue Sainte Croix, the Swiss Guardsmen con- 
 tinued to follow the King at a respectful dis- 
 tance, and when they saw him enter Baptiste's
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 173 
 
 shop, loitered about the door, waiting like faith- 
 ful watchdogs for him to come out. 
 
 After waiting an hour or more, the captain 
 of the little Swiss company, who was an honest, 
 earnest, thick-skulled fellow from the Canton of 
 Berne, began to fear that evil had befallen the 
 King, so he knocked at the closed door of Bap- 
 tiste's shop. Receiving no response, for the King 
 and his friends were within the walls of La 
 Sainte Croix and could not hear, the worthy 
 Switzer continued to knock and after a time 
 broke down the door. The noise he made at- 
 tracted a crowd of curious idlers, who tried to 
 follow him when he entered the shop; but they 
 were driven back, and the broken street door 
 was barricaded from within. 
 
 Immediately the news spread throughout the 
 street, and thence up and down the Rue de 
 Bethisy, that four men had broken into the shop 
 of Baptiste Guiron. In a very short time the 
 crowd of curious idlers was augmented by many 
 others who came to see but remained to riot. 
 Meantime, the Swiss Guardsmen searched the shop 
 and the Jew's room upstairs, seeking the Little
 
 174 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 King. Failing to find him, they opened the back 
 door of the* shop, only to discover a small court, 
 closed in by a high stone wall in which no open- 
 ing could be found. 
 
 The Swiss Captain and his men became greatly 
 alarmed for the King's safety. They had been 
 sent to protect him and would be held responsible 
 if evil befell him. After carefully examining the 
 walled court, they returned to the shop and went 
 to the Jew's rooms to discover, if possible, a door 
 or opening through which the King might have 
 been spirited away. 
 
 While the Swiss were pursuing their search 
 upstairs, the crowd in front of the shop, wishing 
 to prevent robbery, broke down the barricaded 
 street door and rushed in to seize the robbers. 
 Hearing the commotion in the shop, the Swiss 
 came downstairs, and were immediately seized and 
 bound. 
 
 It had been the policy of Louis XIII, who 
 established the Swiss Guard, to select for Palace 
 Men those who could not speak French, believing 
 that they would be less apt to learn treason from 
 the Parisians. Thus it happened that only one
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 175 
 
 of the men who had been sent to guard the 
 King could speak French at all, and his vocabu- 
 lary was limited to a few words. He tried to 
 explain to his assailants that he was seeking the 
 King, but they could not or would not under- 
 stand him. 
 
 The Jew's house was so snugly hidden away 
 from the world that only a great noise -could 
 penetrate the walls, but the disturbance in Jean's 
 shop was so great that it was heard in the little 
 garden, and Baptiste ran to the rescue. 
 
 When he entered the back door of the shop 
 and beheld the angry crowd surrounding the 
 prostrate Swiss, he demanded the reason for the 
 outrage. 
 
 "These men broke down your shop door and 
 were robbing you," said one of the crowd, point- 
 ing to the Guardsmen. 
 
 "Nothing of the sort!" cried Baptiste, angrily. 
 "They are friends of mine. Get out of my shop 
 or I'll call the Prefect's police!" 
 
 After much persuasion, he succeeded in clearing 
 the shop. Then he closed the door and cut the 
 ropes that bound the Swiss Guardsmen.
 
 176 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 With difficulty the Captain made it understood 
 that he was seeking the Little King. Baptiste 
 saw the honest fellow's mistake and tried to 
 explain : 
 
 "If you will return to the street, the King will 
 come to you at once and will assure you that he 
 is well and unhurt." 
 
 The Captain was stubborn and insisted on being 
 led to the King, but after much importunity, con- 
 sented to wait in the street five minutes. Within 
 that time the Little King presented himself at 
 the door of the shop and the honest Switzers 
 gave voice to their joy in the only French words 
 they thoroughly knew : 
 
 "Five le Roif" 
 
 Immediately the crowd took up the shout, 
 thereby attracting so many to the scene that soon 
 the little Rue Sainte Croix and the Rue de 
 Bethisy were filled to overflowing. 
 
 The shop door was again closed and a council 
 of war was held within. Sweet Mam'selle wanted 
 the King to return to the Jew's house, while 
 Jean Breton went to the Palais Royal to bring a 
 large detachment of Swiss Guards to conduct his
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 177 
 
 Majesty home. But the Little King spoke up 
 bravely : 
 
 "No, I'll go home with you. I don't fear my 
 people. Come with me, Sweet Mam'selle. I'll 
 take Louise: you follow with Monsieur Jean and 
 Monsieur Baptiste." 
 
 When all were ready, he ordered the door 
 opened, took frightened Louise by the hand, and 
 holding it up in his courtly fashion as if he 
 were walking through a cotillion, stepped to the 
 doorsill, waved his hat to the people and smiled. 
 A great shout of "Five le Roi!" went up not 
 only from the throat but from the heart of every 
 man who saw the beautiful Little King. Then 
 he held up his hand for silence and spoke to 
 them: 
 
 "I thank you, my good people, and now I 
 want you to make way for me so that I may 
 go home." 
 
 He stepped bravely down to the pavement. An 
 aisle was made through the crowd, and as he 
 passed between its human walls, always holding 
 up Louise's hand, the people fell on their knees, 
 called God's blessing on his head, touched him 
 12
 
 178 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 reverently as he passed, kissed the skirts of his 
 "plain black cloak" and wept in an ecstacy of 
 hero worship such as could have sprung from 
 
 the hearts of no people save the French. How 
 it was possible for Louis XIV and his successor 
 to turn this great love to burning hatred is 
 one of the mysteries of human depravity which 
 surely no one can understand. 
 
 Jean, Sweet Mam'selle and Baptiste followed 
 the King and Louise. Two men of the crowd 
 took it on themselves to clear the way for the 
 King, so he easily passed through and soon started
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 179 
 
 up the Rue de Bethisy on his way to the Palais 
 Royal, the crowd following at his heels. A baby 
 king on the streets of Paris accompanied by a 
 baby girl from the gutter was a sight as new as 
 it was interesting to the Parisians. The crowd 
 gathered numbers as it moved, and long before 
 it arrived at the Palais Royal had assumed large 
 proportions. 
 
 The news that a mob was approaching spread 
 quickly to the royal apartments, carrying terror 
 to the hearts of the Queen and the Cardinal. 
 Every one hurried to the windows of the King's 
 apartments over the gate, and when they saw the 
 great crowd marching up the street with the 
 courtly Little King in the lead, still holding up 
 Louise's hand cotillion fashion, their fear changed 
 to wonder and their wonder to amusement, for 
 the crowd marched in orderly silence and with 
 bared heads. They were bringing home their 
 pompous Little King. 
 
 When Louis reached the palace, Rupert, the 
 captain of the Swiss Guard, opened the gates 
 for his Majesty, but the King beckoned to him 
 to come outside. Rupert was very tall. When
 
 i8o THE LITTLE KING 
 
 he knelt, cap in hand, before the Little King, 
 Louis whispered : 
 
 "Lift me to your shoulder, Monsieur Rupert, 
 and stand on the mounting block, just as tall as 
 you can make yourself." 
 
 In a moment the Little King was seated on 
 the shoulder of the tall Swiss captain, who im- 
 mediately climbed to the mounting block near the 
 gate. Instantly Louise was standing by his side 
 on the block. She had no intention of being 
 left out of the interesting occasion. 
 
 For a moment the Little King overlooked 
 the crowd, then waved his hat and kissed his 
 hand. The shout of gladness that answered his 
 salute was balm to the fearful hearts within the 
 palace. After allowing the crowd to shout itself 
 hoarse, the Little King lifted his hand to com- 
 mand silence, and when quiet was restored, spoke 
 in clear, childish tones: 
 
 "I thank you, my good people, for bringing 
 me home. When I am crowned I'll be a good 
 king to you and make you as happy as I can. 
 Now, please go home and love your Little King." 
 
 Then the gates were opened and the Little
 
 THE OLD CLOISTER HOUSE 181 
 
 King entered the palace on the shoulder of his 
 tall captain, followed by the glad shouts of the 
 people. As he was passing through the gates, he 
 called to Louise who was still on the mounting 
 block. 
 
 "Come in, Louise, come in!" 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle offered to lift Louise to the 
 ground, saying : 
 
 "Fourteen wants you to go into the palace 
 with him." 
 
 But Louise shook her head emphatically, as 
 she answered : 
 
 "I don't want to go in there and I won't. I 
 was in there once and I didn't like it" 
 
 She suited the action to the word, sprang from 
 the mounting block and was almost lost in the 
 crowd before Jean Breton could overtake her. 
 But he caught her and took her home, where he 
 left her very happy, playing hide and seek with 
 the wonderful goat "that could find you no mat- 
 ter where you hid."
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 
 
 OF course the adventures of the Little King 
 must be told to the Queen and the Car- 
 dinal, so after much questioning he under- 
 took the narrative. He soon began to stammer 
 and Sweet Mam'selle was commanded to finish. 
 She told the story of the day, speaking briefly as 
 possible of the house of La Sainte Croix, re- 
 ferring to it only as the home of Monsieur Bap- 
 tiste Guiron's sweetheart. She introduced Bap- 
 tiste, whom the king had invited into the palace, 
 and explained that he was one of the friends 
 who had helped to find the King when his Maj- 
 esty was lost. She made no mention of Benoni, 
 but laid great stress on the enthusiasm of the 
 people, saying : 
 
 "I know little of the affairs of state, but 
 despite my ignorance, I feel sure that his Majesty 
 is nearer to the hearts of his people than ever 
 
 182
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 
 
 183 
 
 before. When they saw him among them, trusting 
 them implicitly, it brought tears to their eyes, 
 and when he walked in their midst, so bold and 
 
 brave, they fell to their knees and poured out 
 their love at his feet. I hope and believe, your 
 Majesty and your Eminence, that this day's work 
 by our Little King will make your tasks easier 
 and will make the people of France happier." 
 
 Before she had finished speaking, tears came to 
 her eyes and she fell to her knees beside the
 
 184 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Little King, clasping him in her arms as he 
 placed his cheek against hers. 
 
 The Cardinal was far too shrewd a statesman 
 not to see that the Little King had done more 
 in one day to soften the hearts of the Parisians 
 and to win their submission than his Eminence, 
 the Queen and all the ministers had been able to 
 do in years. He knew that the story would travel 
 to every part of France and would touch the hearts 
 of the French people; he knew that to govern 
 an ignorant people, one must arouse their love; 
 he knew that the most despotic tyrant could hold 
 a people in submission only by holding their 
 hearts and by keeping them from thinking; therefore, 
 he knew that the Little King, by Sweet Mam- 
 'selle's help, had stemmed the tide of public 
 hatred, at least for a time, and had given his 
 Eminence a new lease of despotic power. 
 
 So it turned out that the adventure, which 
 might have brought trouble to Sweet Mam'selle, 
 brought credit to her. The Queen, the Cardinal, 
 the Due d'Orleans and all the courtiers had been 
 terribly frightened when they saw the crowd of 
 people marching on the palace. But when the
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 185 
 
 affair turned out so favorably, their fear changed 
 to hysterical joy and Sweet Mam'selle, the King's 
 humble nurse, became for the moment a person 
 of importance. 
 
 After their Majesties and the Cardinal had re- 
 ceived the congratulations of the courtiers, the 
 King began to tell them of the beauties of La 
 Sainte Croix. 
 
 "Ajid Monsieur Baptiste's sweetheart! You 
 should see her!" cried the King, enthusiastically. 
 "She is not like our women. Her eyes are blue, 
 not black, and her hair is the color of of it 
 is like copper and gold. You never saw any one 
 so beautiful!" 
 
 "Yes, yes, tell us more about her," pleaded the 
 Due d'Orleans. 
 
 The Cardinal, too, pricked up his ears and said 
 in his oily, unctious manner: 
 
 "Ah, golden hair, say you?" 
 
 "Yes," answered the King. "And and " Just 
 at that point he caught a glance from Sweet 
 Mam'selle's eyes and stopped speaking. Urged 
 by the Duke and the Cardinal, he stammered for 
 a moment, turned to Sweet Mam'selle and said:
 
 i86 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "You you te tell them about her." 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle said: "There is little to tell 
 about her, your Eminence, save that she is a 
 very worthy young girl, and the fiancee of our 
 friend here, Monsieur Baptiste." 
 
 "But her beauty; tell us of it," insisted the 
 Duke. 
 
 "She is rather pretty, but I fear your Highness 
 would not admire her," answered Sweet Mam- 
 'selle. "Her hair and eyes are of a light color, 
 but" 
 
 "Your Majesty just said she was wonderfully 
 beautiful," said the Duke, turning toward the 
 King. 
 
 Louis did not know why Sweet Mam'selle 
 wished to conceal the fact of Miriam's beauty, 
 but he felt sure she had a good reason, so he 
 turned his back on Baptiste and said, in under- 
 tones, to the Due d'Orleans: 
 
 "All ladies are beautiful, Uncle. I praised 
 this one to please her lover, Monsieur Baptiste." 
 
 The Queen, the Cardinal and the Duke ex- 
 changed smiling glances and shrugged their 
 shoulders; Sweet Mam'selle breathed a sigh of
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 187 
 
 relief, and the King was more convinced than 
 ever that the less he said about La Sainte Croix 
 and Miriam, the better it would be for them. 
 
 The damage to Baptiste's shop proved to be 
 small and easily repaired. The kindliness of the 
 crowd and the abject apologies of the too earnest 
 Swiss Guardsmen went a long way toward giv- 
 ing the whole affair a humorous complexion, and 
 removed all anger or fear from the hearts of 
 Baptiste and Benoni. Then, too, the pride they 
 felt in having had the King under their roof 
 would have been balm to a far more serious 
 wound. 
 
 One evening, not long after the eventful Sun- 
 day, Jean Breton and Sweet Mam'selle went over 
 to La Sainte Croix, where the good though mis- 
 taken motives of the Swiss Guardsmen were dis- 
 cussed and laughed over. 
 
 While sipping a glass of rose wine, Benoni 
 said: 
 
 "If we could see more of the King, we might 
 be able to obtain his royal sanction to the mar- 
 riage which is so near our hearts."
 
 i88 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "I feel sure we can bring his Majesty here 
 again," said Sweet Mam'selle. "I know he will 
 be glad to come, and as the last visit turned out 
 so satisfactorily to the Cardinal, I am equally 
 sure his Eminence and her Majesty will consent, 
 especially as the King needs recreation. Every 
 one at court is trying to invent entertainment for 
 the King's birthday. Our poor little King cer- 
 tainly does need amusement." 
 
 "Perhaps you might induce her Majesty and 
 his Eminence to come with you and the King 
 some evening if you drop a hint of the entertain- 
 ment we can give them here," suggested Benoni. 
 
 "The Cardinal, being a churchman, might ob- 
 ject to what he would see in our house," said 
 Baptiste. "Black Magic is under the bane, you 
 know." 
 
 "It should not be," said Benoni. "The great- 
 est works on Black Magic are the book of Pope 
 Honorius and the Great Key of King Solomon. 
 Surely when the Pope and King Solomon teach 
 an art, it cannot be evil, and so wise a man as 
 his Eminence cannot find evil in it. But all that 
 I shall show them can be explained on purely
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 189 
 
 natural principles, though I admit that the Prince 
 of Darkness may have a great deal to do with 
 certain strange and unusual manifestations of nat- 
 ural forces." 
 
 "That is all true but will his Eminence want 
 to believe it?" asked Baptiste. 
 
 "The Cardinal is a learned man," answered 
 Benoni, "and is no more a Christian than I am. 
 His god is Mazarin and the best means to suc- 
 cess is his religion. I feel sure that I could in- 
 terest him, and if we might thereby obtain his 
 sanction under seal, Miriam could easily be taken 
 into the Church, and the object of my life at- 
 tained in the happiness of my two children. 
 
 The plan and the picture were alluring, and 
 the little party of friends within the walls of 
 La Sainte Croix spent a very happy evening 
 discussing them. The result of the discussion 
 was that Sweet Mam'selle consented to mention 
 the subject to the King, and to ask him to men- 
 tion it to the Queen and the Cardinal. 
 
 When the Fates would ruin a man, they use 
 alike his wisdom and his folly, his virtues and 
 his faults. All paths lead down hill.
 
 igo THE LITTLE KING 
 
 So it was with poor old Benoni. His pride 
 in entertaining royalty, his love for Miriam and 
 Baptiste, his wise, adroit plan for making the 
 seemingly impossible marriage feasible, all has- 
 tened the day of his sorrow. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle, though instinctively doubtful 
 of ultimate good, willingly consented to take the 
 King again to La Sainte Croix, and during the 
 week following the family council, watched for a 
 favorable opportunity of broaching the subject 
 to him. He saved her the trouble by informing 
 her one Saturday evening that he intended visit- 
 ing Monsieur Baptiste and his sweetheart the fol- 
 lowing day after mass. 
 
 "Have you the Queen's consent, and the Cardin- 
 al's and M. le Marquis'?" asked Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "The Queen's consent! The Cardinal's con- 
 sent! M. le Marquis! Why am I King of 
 France if I must ask every one's consent when- 
 ever I want to turn around?" 
 
 "I'll take you, my King, without any one's 
 consent, if you insist," said Sweet Mam'selle, 
 meekly. "But afterwards I, not you, shall have 
 to pay dearly for the fault. I should be denied
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 191 
 
 the pleasure of serving you and of loving you, 
 and of being near you. That would break my 
 heart, my King. Then, also, they might put me 
 in the Bastile, as they did once before. But I'll 
 take you if you wish." 
 
 "No, no!" cried the Little King, throwing his 
 arms passionately about her neck. "I'll ask every 
 one. I'll say to the Queen: 'Madam, I humbly 
 beg your permission.' I'll say to my governor: 
 'Will M. le Marquis condescend to permit the 
 King to have a little liberty?' And I'll say to 
 the Cardinal, whom I hate: 'Will your Eminence 
 graciously permit your slave, the King, to go out 
 of a Sunday after mass?' Oh, the Cardinal! 
 Just let him wait till I am crowned! He'll find 
 the border of France much too far south for his 
 convenience !" 
 
 Thus it came about that with everybody's con- 
 sent, Sweet Mam'selle and Jean Breton again 
 went with the Little King to visit La Sainte 
 Croix the following Sunday after mass. 
 
 Soon after entering the garden, rain began to 
 fall, whereupon the Little King and his friends 
 sought shelter in the house. The cloister win-
 
 192 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 dows were few and small, so the dusk interior, 
 even in the daytime, was lighted by hanging 
 lamps of many colored crystal and fantastic 
 shapes. The oriental splendor of the room, with 
 ,its bright colored cushions, 
 its quaint divans, its soft 
 .floor rugs woven in a hun- 
 dred mystic patterns and as 
 rnany exquisite hues, bewil- 
 dered the King, and even 
 rnore than the fairy-like 
 garden, aroused his admira- 
 'tion and awe. At first he 
 showed signs of alarm and 
 clung to Sweet Mam'selle's 
 hand. 
 
 Unobserved by the King, she motioned to Jean 
 and Baptiste to leave the room, and when she 
 was alone with her little master, fell to her 
 knees, placing her arms about him. 
 
 "Does my King want to remain, or shall we 
 return to the Palais Royal?" she asked. "The 
 rain, I fear, will prevent our going any place 
 else to-day."
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 193 
 
 The King did not reply, but clung more closely 
 to Sweet Mam'selle and continued to look about 
 him, apparently to convince himself, if possible, 
 that all he saw was real. After a long pause, 
 Sweet Mam'selle said: 
 
 "Monsieur Jean and I have been here many 
 times. All these beautiful things are real. In 
 the East the houses of all wealthy persons are 
 like this. Mam'selle Miriam's father, Monsieur 
 Benoni, is from the East. He is a very old man 
 and a very good man. There is no one 
 here save him, Mam'selle Miriam and her 
 mother. Besides you know you may trust me; 
 I would not bring you into danger. Do not- 
 be afraid." 
 
 The word "afraid" aroused the king's manli- 
 ness. He disengaged himself from Sweet Mam- 
 'selle's arms, took a step or two from her, and 
 said, boldly: 
 
 "I'm not afraid. Nothing can harm me. I 
 am the King." 
 
 He went to a divan piled high with bright 
 colored cushions and showed his bravery by throw- 
 ing them all to the floor, laughing. When his 
 
 13
 
 194 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 eyes had grown used to the dusk, he looked into 
 every corner, peeked into all the quaint cabinets, 
 and examined the room thoroughly; then running 
 back to Sweet Mam'selle, who had remained kneel- 
 ing, he put his arm about her neck, laughed 
 nervously and said: 
 
 "I thank you for bringing me here. I never 
 before saw anything so beautiful, but I'm not 
 afraid. I wasn't afraid at first. I took your 
 hand only because the room was so dark I could 
 not see where I was going. You don't think I 
 was afraid, do you, Sweet Mam'selle?" 
 
 "No, my King. I know you are brave. I 
 wonder if you would like to see Monsieur Benoni, 
 Mam'selle Miriam's father?" 
 
 "Yes, yes!" cried the Little King, eagerly, 
 bolstering up his courage with his pride. 
 
 "But I must tell you about him before you 
 see him, if you wish to hear." 
 
 "Yes, yes. Please tell me," answered the Kin^, 
 whose curiosity was now thoroughly aroused. 
 
 "First, my King, you must know he is a Jew," 
 said Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 The King recoiled. "A Jew!" he exclaimed.
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 195 
 
 Of all things on earth, a Jew was the most 
 despicable, not only to the King but to all who 
 held the Christian faith. 
 
 "Yes, a Jew," continued Sweet Mam'selle. "But 
 I'll tell you more about him. He is a good 
 Jew; better than many Christians you and I 
 know. Before I knew Monsieur Benoni I thought 
 there could not be a good Jew, but after I knew 
 him I changed my mind, and so will you, my King. 
 Monsieur Benoni is a learned physician, who de- 
 votes his time to healing the sick. From the 
 rich he receives pay, but from the poor he takes 
 not a sou. He gives alms and does good secretly. 
 Before your Majesty removed the House Tax, 
 Monsieur Benoni furnished many a poor man 
 money with which to pay the tax and thereby 
 save his home. Monsieur Baptiste says and I 
 believe him that the Jew is the wisest man in 
 Paris. I'll tell you something else if you will 
 promise never to tell any one." 
 
 "I promise," returned the King. His childish 
 word was always the truth, though afterwards, 
 in a moment of forgetfulness, he broke this 
 promise to the Jew's undoing.
 
 196 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "Your Majesty has often seen Monsieur Benoni 
 In the palace; in your very bedroom." 
 
 The King began to get nervous and stammered : 
 
 "Wh wh when, ho how?" 
 
 "When you were ill with the smallpox, he 
 saved your life. He was the old woman that 
 came every morning to teach me how to nurse 
 you." 
 
 The King's uneasiness increased visibly as he 
 asked : 
 
 "Ca can he he change hi himself from a 
 man to a woman, and and th then t to a 
 a m man again?" 
 
 "No, no, my King," answered Sweet Mam- 
 'selle, laughing. "He was ordered by Seguine 
 to disguise himself as a woman, so that no one 
 should know he was telling Seguine how to treat 
 you." 
 
 "Oh, I see it all now!" exclaimed the Little 
 King. "I often heard her explaining to Seguine 
 what to do. Then when the old woman was 
 gone, Seguine gave the orders with as big 
 a voice as if he knew what he was about. I 
 always thought Seguine was a fool. Now I
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 
 
 197 
 
 know he is also a knave. I'll hang him the day 
 after I'm crowned. I want to see the Jew! Quick, 
 quick!" 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle touched a chime of bells and 
 Jean Breton immediately entered the room. 
 
 "I want Mam'selle Miriam, too," cried the 
 King. 
 
 "Tell Mam'selle Miriam and Monsieur Benoni 
 that the King wants to see them," said Sweet 
 Mam'selle, turning toward Jean. 
 
 When Jean had gone, she rose and led the 
 Little King to a divan, where he sat down amid 
 billows of many colored cushions.
 
 198 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Presently Jean, Baptiste and Miriam came in. 
 Miriam dropped to her knee before the King, 
 who leaned forward and taking her face between 
 his hands, kissed her lips. Then he leaned back, 
 looked at her for a moment, and said: 
 
 "You seem to belong here. But Sweet Mam- 
 'selle thinks you are not beautiful." Turning 
 quickly to Sweet Mam'selle, he continued: "Why 
 did you not want me to tell my uncle and the 
 Cardinal that Mam'selle Miriam was beautiful? 
 I wondered at the time, but forgot to ask you 
 afterward." 
 
 "I'll tell your Majesty why to-night," answered 
 Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 Miriam remained kneeling until the King, re- 
 membering himself, told her to rise. Then Benoni 
 entered, went to the King and knelt. 
 
 After the Little King had scrutinized Benoni's 
 face carefully for a minute or two, he said 
 haltingly: "You had no beard when you were 
 a woman, and came to tell Seguine how to cure me." 
 
 "No, your Majesty. I was compelled, much 
 against my will, to shave my face for the sake 
 of the disguise."
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 199 
 
 "Sweet Mam'selle tells me you are very wise 
 and learned," observed the King, smothering a 
 yawn. "Before long I'll be crowned and shall 
 be king in real truth. Then I suppose I, too, 
 shall have to be wise and learned. But it hurts 
 my head to try to be wise and learned now. 
 Doesn't it hurt your head?" 
 
 "No, your Majesty." 
 
 "I suppose it doesn't hurt one's head when 
 one gets older. Perhaps one's head gets harder 
 when it gets gray," observed the King. 
 
 "I believe that is true, your Majesty," agreed 
 Benoni. "But the heart should not grow hard 
 with age." 
 
 The Little King yawned, remained silent for 
 a moment, and answered: 
 
 "The Cardinal is always saying that a king 
 should have no heart at all unless it is as hard 
 as a rock. He said he learned that from 
 Richelieu." 
 
 "That is one of the many things about which 
 I don't know, your Majesty," answered the Jew, 
 humbly. "The Cardinal is far more learned and 
 much wiser than I."
 
 200 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 The King breathed a sigh: 
 
 "Then you don't know much. I'm going to 
 hang him just as soon as I'm crowned. I'll 
 hang Monsieur d'Emeri, too, and my uncle, the 
 Due d'Orleans, and my mother, the Queen, too, 
 if she doesn't doesn't " 
 
 The King checked his words, thinking perhaps 
 he might be going too far in hanging his mother. 
 
 "I'm afraid your Majesty is already hard- 
 hearted," observed Benoni, laughing. 
 
 "If you think 7 am, you should know the 
 Cardinal and the Queen and my uncle, and oh, 
 everybody else at court. They would hang any 
 one for a sou. I love Sweet Mam'selle oh, I 
 do love her, and Louise and Monsieur Jean, and 
 I believe I'll love you. Now you may rise. 
 And, oh yes, I love Mam'selle Miriam best of 
 all because she is the most beautiful." But he 
 glanced toward Sweet Mam'selle as if to say: 
 "Of course, excepting you." 
 
 "I thank your Majesty," said Benoni, rising. 
 "Mam'selle Miriam is my daughter, as you 
 know." 
 
 "Ah, yes, a Jew," exclaimed the King.
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 
 
 201 
 
 "Yes, your Majesty, a Jew," answered Benoni. 
 
 The King remained 
 thoughtful for a mo- 
 ment, then spoke as if 
 to himself: 
 
 "Mam'selle Miriam a 
 Jew's daughter?" 
 
 "Yes, Your Majesty," 
 answered Benoni, but 
 added as if in mitiga- 
 tion: "though her 
 mother is not a Jew." 
 
 The King lay back X 4 
 among the cushions, and <r 
 after a short time, spoke 
 as if addressing the 
 ceiling : 
 
 "Well I love her anyway.' 
 his elbow, he turned to Benoni: "And I'm sure 
 I shall love you, too. Sweet Mam'selle says 
 there are a few . She, too, is very wise and 
 learned. She knows almost everything. Her head 
 is just as hard as it can be, and it doesn't hurt 
 it to be wise, even if she isn't old and gray; 
 
 Then rising to
 
 202 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and her heart oh, Jew, you should know her 
 heart. It is so soft and tender " 
 
 He sprang from the divan, ran to where Sweet 
 Mam'selle was standing, climbed to a hassock 
 beside her, and throwing his arms about her 
 neck, rested his head upon the heart he knew to 
 be soft, loving and true. After a moment on 
 Sweet Mam'selle's breast, he continued speaking 
 to Benoni : 
 
 "She says there are a few good Jews and that 
 you are one of them. You must be good be- 
 cause you saved my life. Sweet Mam'selle says 
 you did." 
 
 "I hope that I helped to save your Majesty's 
 life," answered Benoni. 
 
 After a long, thoughtful pause, the King said: 
 "But of course you did it for pay?" 
 
 Benoni paused before answering; but the unpro- 
 pitious Fates were leading him, and he said: "I 
 neither sought nor received one sou for the poor 
 services I rendered your Majesty. My all-suffi- 
 cient reward was your Majesty's recovery." 
 
 "You did not receive a sou?" demanded the 
 King in astonishment. "I heard the Queen tell
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 203 
 
 the Cardinal to instruct M. d'Emeri to pay 
 Seguine five thousand gold pistoles. Yet Seguine 
 did nothing save as you told him. I heard you 
 tell him." 
 
 "Such is the way of the world, your Majesty. 
 I want no pay," said Benoni, beginning to be 
 sorry he had spoken. 
 
 "But you shall have it !" cried the King. 
 
 The Jew saw the danger he had brought on 
 himself, and hastened to avert it if possible. 
 Seguine's enmity would mean ruin to him and 
 all his cherished hopes. 
 
 "I want no pay and I told M. Seguine I 
 would accept none. I pray your Majesty not to 
 speak on this subject at court. It would bring 
 great trouble to me. There may come a time 
 when I shall ask a great favor at your hands, 
 one which will cost you nothing." 
 
 "Ask it now," promptly responded the King. 
 
 "I may not ask it now," returned the Jew. 
 "The time is not ripe. But I shall ask it before 
 long, and if you see fit to grant it, I shall have 
 a reward far beyond the poor services of which 
 your Majesty speaks so graciously."
 
 204 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "When you ask it, it shall be granted, if I 
 can grant it," said the King. "You know, Jew, 
 that the Queen, who is regent, and the Cardinal, 
 who orders her as he wishes, often interfere with 
 my will. My uncle, the Due d'Orleans, too, 
 sometimes takes it on himself to thwart my pur- 
 poses, and I, the King! Just let them wait till 
 I am crowned! But in your case, Jew, it shall 
 be as you ask." 
 
 "I feel sure the Cardinal and the Queen will 
 gladly join your Majesty in granting the small 
 favor I shall ask small to you, but oh, so great 
 to me!" 
 
 The King thought for a moment and prompted 
 by curiosity, clung to his inquiry: 
 
 "I should like very much to know at once 
 what it is you want." 
 
 "If your Majesty will honor me by coming to 
 my poor house again very soon, I shall be only 
 too glad to tell you," said Benoni. 
 
 "I'll come to-morrow afternoon no, to-morrow 
 the Queen gives a fete for the Polish ambassa- 
 dors, and I must be there. I wish they had 
 remained at home. I'll come the next day."
 
 THE KING AND THE JEW 205 
 
 "The next day there is to be a Bed of Justice, 
 my King," suggested Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 "Oh, yes, there is," said the Little King, 
 impatiently. "They have been trying for a 
 month to coax me to go. I don't want to go 
 nor will I go. But Sweet Mam'selle, I heard 
 the Cardinal say that the Estates would not be 
 ready before next week. So I'll come the day 
 after to-morrow, Jew, and you may proffer your 
 request. If the Queen and the Cardinal object 
 to my granting it, I won't go near the Parlia- 
 ment. I won't hold a Bed of Justice and I 
 should like to see a Bed of Justice without the 
 King." 
 
 The King's suggestion filled Benoni's heart with 
 joy, for it seemed to clear the way to the mar- 
 riage of Baptiste and Miriam. 
 
 After the King had sipped a little rose wine, 
 he, Sweet Mam'selle and Jean took their leave, 
 promising to return the second day after.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 BLACK MAGIC 
 
 THAT evening after supper, in the Queen's 
 parlor, the Queen, the Cardinal and the 
 Due d'Orleans were discussing the all- 
 absorbing question of a Bed of Justice. It was 
 an all-absorbing subject at that time, because the 
 royal treasury was empty and all possible methods 
 of filling it had been exhausted, save the extreme 
 remedy of a Bed of Justice to be held before 
 the Parliament by the Little King. After they 
 had all spoken, the Little King, who was brim- 
 ming over with the Jew's secret, though he 
 would not speak of it because of Sweet Mam'selle's 
 admonition, rose from the floor where he and 
 his brother, Monsieur, had been quarreling over 
 a book of pictures, and addressed the Cardinal: 
 "You can't hold a Bed of Justice without me, 
 and I won't go!" 
 
 Although only a child, the fact that he was 
 206
 
 BLACK MAGIC 207 
 
 king had become firmly planted in his mind, and 
 every one, not excepting the Queen and the Car- 
 dinal, knew that the time had arrived when "thou 
 shalt" and "thou shalt not" were not only use- 
 less but dangerous in the face of the Little 
 King's "I will" and "I will not." So when he grew 
 stubborn and said "I won't," gentle and persuasive 
 methods had for some time taken the place of 
 peremptory commands. Sweet Mam'selle owed her 
 enviable, though humble position at court entirely 
 to the fact that she more than any other could 
 influence the King, and as her influence was, or 
 at least seemed to be exerted only at the behest 
 of the Queen, she became a useful instrument to 
 the Cardinal, for the Queen acted only at the 
 behest of his Eminence. 
 
 The Little King's protest against holding the 
 Bed of Justice was humored by the Cardinal, 
 who answered in his oiliest words: 
 
 "We are only presuming to advise Your Majesty. 
 You yourself shall determine the question of the 
 Bed of Justice, for as you say, there can be 
 none without the King." 
 
 The King stooped, took the picture book from
 
 208 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 his brother after a struggle in plain words, a 
 fight went to a table, looked at the pictures for 
 a moment, turned quickly toward his Eminence 
 and delivered his ultimatum: 
 
 "I'll answer you the 
 day after to-morrow 
 evening. There may 
 ,be a matter in which 
 I shall give you certain 
 orders, M. le Cardinal. 
 If I receive instant obe- 
 dience the Bed of Jus- 
 tice may be held." 
 
 "But we may want 
 to hold the Bed of Jus- 
 tice the day after to- 
 morrow at noon, if the Estates are ready," sug- 
 gested the Cardinal. 
 
 'We hold a Bed of Justice, M. le Cardinal!" 
 responded the Little King, with no effort to con- 
 ceal his contempt. "Pray what have you to do 
 with it? Only the King holds a Bed of Jus- 
 
 tice. 
 
 'True, true," answered the Cardinal, meekly.
 
 BLACK MAGIC 209 
 
 "I crave your Majesty's pardon. When I used 
 the word 'we' I referred to your Majesty." 
 
 "But we won't hold a Bed of Justice the day 
 after to-morrow. When I see how you obey my 
 command, I'll tell you when we shall hold a Bed 
 of Justice." 
 
 "But your Majesty must consult the convenience 
 of the Estates," suggested the Cardinal. 
 
 "My convenience shall be the convenience of 
 the Estates. Where is Sweet Mam'selle? I want 
 to go to bed." 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle was summoned and the King 
 went with her to his bedroom. Neither the Car- 
 dinal nor the Queen had dared to speak further 
 to him on the subject of the Bed of Justice. 
 They had already begun to fear him, though he 
 was only a child of ten. What wonder is it 
 that he was a despot at twenty? 
 
 From his childhood this King possessed one 
 of the rarest of all qualities: he knew when to 
 remain silent. His reason for hurrying off to 
 bed was his desire to avoid further conversation 
 and to consult his real prime minister, Sweet 
 Mam'selle. How different would have been the 
 14
 
 210 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 story of France had he been able to keep her 
 as his prime minister during the entire seventy- 
 two years of his long and awful reign. But he 
 lost her soon after the affair of La Sainte Croix, 
 and with her went the last good influence that 
 touched his life. 
 
 The consultation with Sweet Mam'selle was 
 short, for the King was sleepy. Her advice was 
 brief. 
 
 "My King, I hope you will speak to no one 
 about the Jew's affairs till you have asked his 
 advice. You owe him a debt of gratitude, and 
 when you learn what he wants at your hands, 
 if you wish to grant his request, I feel sure that 
 he in his wisdom will tell you in what manner 
 you may best serve him and pay your debt." 
 
 "Do you know what he wants?" asked the 
 King. 
 
 "Yes, but I may not tell you. It is not my 
 secret," returned Sweet Mam'selle. 
 
 The King, who was sitting on the bed, dressed 
 for the night, while Sweet Mam'selle knelt by 
 his side, put his arm about her neck, placed his 
 cheek against hers and whispered coaxingly:
 
 BLACK MAGIC 211 
 
 "Now you'll tell me, won't you, Sweet Mam- 
 'selle?" 
 
 "No, no, my King, I may not." 
 
 The King knew that Sweet Mam'selle's "I 
 will not" resembled his own, so he breathed a 
 sigh and answered: 
 
 "I like you for not telling what you have no 
 right to tell. You are true to others and you 
 will always be true to me." 
 
 "Yes, my King." 
 
 Then his Majesty knelt beside Sweet Mam- 
 'selle while they said their rosaries and breathed 
 a little prayer for the people of France, which 
 Sweet Mam'selle had taught him out of the 
 strength and purity of her own heart; a mere 
 cry to God not to be found in any prayer-book 
 ever printed. 
 
 On the day set by the Little King, he, Jean 
 Breton and Sweet Mam'selle paid another visit 
 to La Sainte Croix. When Benoni appeared, the 
 Little King cried out eagerly: 
 
 "Now, quickly, quickly, Jew I Tell me your 
 wants 1"
 
 212 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Benoni, who had risen, knelt again and said: 
 
 "I beg to tell your Majesty that my daughter 
 and Monsieur Baptiste long in their hearts to 
 become one in marriage. Monsieur Baptiste, 
 being a Christian, and my daughter a Jewess, it 
 were not safe nor proper for them to marry 
 without let and sanction from some one in 
 authority in church and state. My daughter, 
 desiring to smooth the way to her marriage, 
 wishes a dispensation permitting her to be taken 
 into Holy Church without probation, and to these 
 two ends I pray your royal help. I pray for 
 your sanction and for a dispensation from the 
 Cardinal or the Bishop of Paris." 
 
 "Is that all?" asked the Little King, evidently 
 disappointed. He had hoped for an opportunity 
 to do some glittering act of kingly grace or favor. 
 
 "Your Majesty has heard my prayer," answered 
 Benoni, still kneeling. "It must seem small to 
 the King of France, but to the Jew and to those 
 who dwell in his heart, your Majesty's compli- 
 ance will bring happiness untold." 
 
 "Rise, Jew! Your prayer is granted," said the 
 Little King, holding up his hand as if he were
 
 BLACK MAGIC 213 
 
 bestowing a benediction or pardoning a criminal. 
 He enjoyed playing king in so real a manner 
 and loved to hear his own voice speaking in 
 authority. 
 
 "My life's devotion shall be my King's poor 
 recompense," Benoni answered. 
 
 When the Jew rose, Sweet Mam'selle went to 
 the King and asked: "Shall I tell Monsieur 
 Benoni that your Majesty would have his advice 
 concerning the best manner of bringing about 
 what he desires?" 
 
 "Yes, Jew," said the Little King, falling back 
 among the cushions. "As it is a matter con- 
 cerning only you and yours, you may, if you 
 wish, advise me. I shall give you the sanction 
 and the dispensation on my tenth birthday, which 
 will be five days from now. This is a Tuesday. 
 My birthday will be Sunday next. How, say 
 you, shall I go about getting it?" 
 
 The little party in the softly lighted room at 
 once formed a council by which it was decided 
 that the best way to proceed would be for the 
 King to lay the matter before the Queen and the 
 Cardinal as soon as possible. Having obtained
 
 2i 4 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 their consent, let the royal sanction be signed_ by 
 the King and the Queen as regent; then let the 
 King summon the Bishop of Paris, or the Coad- 
 jutor, M. de Condi, from whom the dispensation 
 permitting Miriam to enter the church should be 
 obtained. 
 
 The King thought well of the plan, and the 
 Jew said he would pay to Holy Church all 
 required dues. 
 
 The council being at an end, the rose wine 
 was passed, and Benoni asked the King if he 
 would like to see a few simple manifestations of 
 the marvelous art of Black Magic. 
 
 All learned men of the time studied the art 
 seriously, and sought to discover new methods in 
 occultism with which to astonish a credulous 
 world. If by chance a scholar discovered a spec- 
 tacular scientific fact, he kept his secret well 
 hidden and exploited it as of the realm of magic, 
 for he knew that he would be considered much 
 greater as a magician than as a scientist. In 
 truth, if a marvelous exhibition could be traced 
 to mechanical devices or natural causes, the magi- 
 cian was sure to be pronounced a charlatan and
 
 BLACK MAGIC 215 
 
 his performance condemned as a mere trick. 
 
 When Benoni offered to show his skill, the 
 Little King crossed himself and said that he 
 would be very glad indeed to see the Jew give 
 a small a very small exhibition of his art, but 
 when the door was closed and the curtains drawn 
 to darken the room, he said : 
 
 "I think I'll not trouble you now, but will 
 return some other time with a priest and an 
 amulet, when I shall be pleased to see see 
 you you do do wh what you can to to 
 interest me." 
 
 "I beg your Majesty not to bring a priest to 
 my poor house unless it be M. le Coadjutor or 
 his Eminence, the Cardinal," said Benoni, im- 
 ploringly. 
 
 "They are not priests," answered the King. 
 "Neither is in orders." 
 
 "I again pray your Majesty not to bring a 
 priest to my house. All priests hate a Jew and 
 would gladly work my ruin," said Benoni, falling 
 to his knees. 
 
 But Sweet Mam'selle interposed, saying: "We'll 
 talk it over later, my King." Then her plan of
 
 216 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 an entertainment for the King's birthday came 
 out. "Perhaps Monsieur Benoni will give an 
 exhibition on your birthday at which her Majesty, 
 the Cardinal, the Marquis de Villeroi and one of 
 the ladies in waiting may be induced to accom- 
 pany your Majesty. The room is too small to 
 hold a greater number." 
 
 The idea delighted the King and he told Benoni 
 that a royal visit would be made in accordance 
 with it. 
 
 Poor old Benoni felt that his fortunes were 
 mounting beautifully, and asked the King to say 
 to her Majesty and to his Eminence that he 
 would be a happy man indeed if for one hour, 
 his humble roof could shelter those great per- 
 sonages. 
 
 When the King and Sweet Mam'selle returned 
 to the Palais Royal, his Majesty, full to over- 
 flowing with his new plans, hurried to the Queen's 
 parlor and summoned the Cardinal. 
 
 After the King had told the Queen and the 
 Cardinal of the Jew's request, his Majesty said: 
 
 "Now, if your Eminence and the Queen will
 
 BLACK MAGIC 217 
 
 help me obtain the sanction and the dispensation 
 for this old Jew, I'll attend the Bed of Justice 
 whenever you arrange for it." 
 
 The King's words relieved the Cardinal of a 
 great burden. He could have shouted for joy, 
 but he smothered the inclination and said: 
 
 "The sanction for the marriage is a simple 
 matter, easily arranged. I am sure her Majestv 
 will be glad to sign and seal it for your sake." 
 
 "And I, too, and you, too, M. le Cardinal," 
 interrupted the King. 
 
 "Yes, your Majesty, I, too, and of course, 
 your Majesty may do as he wishes. The dis- 
 pensation will be quite as easily obtained. The 
 desire to enter Holy Church is a rare and pious 
 aspiration in the Jewish girl. It shall all be 
 done as your Majesty directs. I shall send my 
 secretary to you at such time as you suggest to 
 take the names of all persons concerned, that 
 he may write out the necessary papers." 
 
 The King then told the Queen and the Car- 
 dinal of his project for a birthday entertainment. 
 The Queen was delighted, though she feared to 
 go on the streets, owing to the hatred of the
 
 218 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 people. His Eminence suggested that a very 
 small party composed of the persons the King 
 had named might disguise themselves and go to 
 the Jew's house after nightfall, followed at a 
 distance by a company of the Swiss Guard. 
 
 So, by the time of the King's tenth birthday, 
 the sanction and the dispensation were signed, 
 ready for delivery, and all arrangements had 
 been made for the birthday entertainment at the 
 Jew's house, where the devil was expected to 
 raise and lower the curtain. 
 
 Immediately after nightfall on the eventful 
 day, the royal party started for La Sainte Croix, 
 and soon the King and the Queen were seated 
 in the beautiful room beneath the soft light of 
 the many colored crystal lamps. The Marquis 
 de Villeroi, the Cardinal, the Due d'Orleans, 
 Madame de Motteville and Sweet Mam'selle 
 stood near their Majesties, every one gazing in 
 awe-tinged wonder at the unusual scene, and 
 expecting, they knew not what, in the way of 
 Satanic exhibitions when the show should begin. 
 The perfumed air they breathed was charged with
 
 BLACK MAGIC 219 
 
 mystery, while the tinkling of the crystal lamp 
 pendants, stirred by a breath that apparently 
 came from nowhere, seemed now like plaintive 
 cries from gnome-land, deep in the heart of 
 Mother Earth, and again like the far away 
 strains of an elfin chorus. 
 
 From the King and the Queen to Sweet Mam- 
 'selle, they all clung to their amulets and in- 
 stinctively ran their fingers over the beads of 
 their rosaries. 
 
 A hush of expectancy fell on the visitors, and 
 when in response to a summons, Benoni entered 
 the room and dropped to his knee before their 
 Majesties, every one felt that a cousin of the 
 devil was in their midst. The devil, however, 
 is more feared than hated, and as long as that 
 condition obtains in the human heart, a sort of 
 love for him is sure to arise as fear subsides. 
 
 Benoni's kindly face and humble, though digni- 
 fied bearing soon won the hearts of all save the 
 Cardinal. His heart was sensitive to only two 
 passions, cupidity and fear. On this occasion each 
 of these emotions was aroused within his breast. 
 He feared the devil when he could not use him,
 
 220 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and saw at a glance that all the beauties sur- 
 rounding the Jew could belong to none but a 
 rich man. To the Cardinal a rich Jew lived 
 only to be plucked. 
 
 At Benoni's request the guests took their places 
 close together, near the north wall of the room. 
 Against the south wall, perhaps twenty-five feet 
 distant from the guests, stood a plain divan six 
 or seven feet long, covered with a blood-colored 
 silk rug. Back of the divan and suspended from 
 the ceiling was a white velvet curtain which hung, 
 smooth and without a wrinkle against the wall. 
 In the center of the room stood a curiously 
 shaped hassock or stool, almost as high as a 
 small barrel. It, also, was draped in blood-col- 
 ored silk, on which were printed in gold the 
 cabalistic signs of the zodiac, supposedly useful 
 in practising the art of Black Magic. Near the 
 stool was a slender green bronze stand perhaps 
 five feet high, on which rested a small golden 
 plate also bearing the signs of the zodiac. The 
 room was dimly lighted by four lamps which 
 hung in a cluster just over the stool and the 
 stand. But amid all that was strange and uncanny,
 
 BLACK MAGIC 221 
 
 Benoni was the strangest. He wore an ample 
 gown of dead black material, from the shoulders 
 of which fell long, flowing sleeves, while on his 
 breast was embroidered in white a ghastly skull 
 and crossbones. 
 
 When all were ready the Jew took from a side 
 table a golden ewer out of which he poured a pint 
 or more of water into a long-stemmed crystal goblet. 
 This he passed to the guests, asking them to assure 
 themselves that it was water. All were afraid 
 to taste it until it reached Sweet Mam'selle and 
 Madame de Motteville, each of whom took a drink. 
 Then the Queen and the King tasted the contents of 
 the goblet though the Cardinal had protested 
 against her Majesty touching it and pronounced it 
 water. His Eminence would not take the goblet in 
 his hands, and the Due d'Orleans said that her 
 Majesty's word was sufficient to convince him 
 that the contents was water. 
 
 When the goblet was returned to Benoni, he 
 placed it on the golden plate, which was on the 
 stand, saying: 
 
 "With the permission of your Majesties, I 
 shall now extinguish the light."
 
 222 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 He waved his hands; the black flowing sleeves 
 stood out for a moment like the wings of a 
 huge bat, giving to their wearer a truly demoniac 
 appearance. Instantly the room was in darkness 
 save for the unearthly gleam of the skull and 
 crossbones on Benoni's breast. Within three or 
 four seconds the water in the glass began to 
 burn with a bluish flame at first, turning pres- 
 ently to an intense and lurid white. A short 
 distance above the goblet the ghastly white light 
 of the fumes took on a beautiful rose tint, which 
 still higher up deepened to the color of blood. 
 Near the ceiling the dark red merged gradually 
 into the gloom, and hung like a floating pall of 
 black over Benoni's head. 
 
 The Jew went to the divan which stood near 
 the south wall, lifted the silk cover and showed 
 his audience that it was simply a wooden 
 bench, incapable of being used as a hiding place 
 for any person or any thing. Then he folded 
 the silk and placed it on top of the bench, leav- 
 ing visible all the space beneath. After adjusting 
 the folded cover, Benoni stood erect in the glare 
 of the vari-colored light and at once seemed to
 
 BLACK MAGIC 223 
 
 grow in height till he appeared to be eight or 
 nine feet tall. Standing thus for a moment, he 
 held out his arms, gently waving the bat-like 
 wings. Immediately the light from the burning 
 water began to grow dim, distorting all that it 
 fell upon by its lurid gleam, and creating a 
 demoniac illusion truly terrifying. The Queen 
 screamed, Benoni waved his hands, the water 
 ceased to burn, the crystal lamps again cast their 
 soft light throughout the room, and the Jew 
 stood before his guests, a man, divested of all 
 Satanic semblance. 
 
 "The strangest manifestations are yet to come, 
 your Majesty," said Benoni, addressing the 
 Queen, "but I beg you to have no fear. Shall 
 I proceed?" 
 
 "Yes, yes, in God's name, proceed! And may 
 the Virgin protect us!" answered the Queen. 
 
 The Jew knelt, bending over the stool and 
 covering it with his gown. He was between the 
 stool and his spectators, his back to them, his 
 face to the divan, he and the stool being between 
 the divan and the awe-stricken audience. He 
 waved his bat-like wings and again the room was
 
 224 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 in darkness. Instantly a piercing shaft of light 
 fell on the wall back of the divan a ray that 
 seemed to come from no place illumining the 
 white drapery with a brilliant circle perhaps five 
 feet in diameter. In a moment there sprang into 
 the lighted circle a skeleton of bleached and 
 whited bones, which danced and capered in a 
 
 manner as startling as it 
 was ghastly. It seemed 
 to have sprung from the 
 floor, but the floor could 
 be seen by every one in 
 the room, and it had not 
 opened. After dancing for 
 a minute or two, the skel- 
 eton disappeared, and in 
 its place stood the devil in 
 flaming red, with tail, horns 
 and trident in true Satanic 
 style. The Queen, very much frightened, held 
 up her crucifix, and instantly the devil disap- 
 peared, a "casting out" of which her Majesty 
 was very proud to the end of her days. Cats, 
 dogs and apes appeared in turn, and then the
 
 BLACK MAGIC 225 
 
 spirit of the Little King the astral body, as 
 Benoni explained stood in the brilliant circle, 
 clad in his robes of state. The face was so dim 
 that it could not be recognized, but the form and 
 costume were unmistakably those of the Little 
 King. 
 
 When the King's astral body faded from view, 
 the fierce light went out for the space of per- 
 haps two minutes, leaving the room in total dark- 
 ness. When the light returned it shone upon the 
 divan, where nothing was to be seen but the red 
 silk cover, which Benoni had folded and placed 
 on the wooden bench. 
 
 "I beg your Majesties to watch the divan by 
 the wall," said Benoni, still bending over the 
 stool. All eyes were turned in the direction 
 indicated and the Queen muttered a short, pre- 
 cautionary prayer. 
 
 Presently the figure of a young girl, draped 
 in soft, clinging white silk, began to appear, 
 stretched full length on the divan. At first her 
 face and form were shadowy, but within three 
 or four minutes she took definite shape, and 
 appeared to be of real flesh and blood. The eyes 
 
 15
 
 226 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 were closed as if in 
 sleep, and the red, 
 dewy lips were 
 parted, showing two 
 rows of pearly teeth 
 within the exquisite 
 portals. The flush 
 of slumber was on 
 her cheeks, her eye- 
 lids, fringed with 
 long, black lashes, 
 trembled in the 
 light, her hair which 
 hung loose, tumbled 
 to the floor in a 
 cascade of copperish gold, and sparkled in the 
 radiance. A bare arm had fallen over the side of 
 the couch and shone like polished alabaster, while 
 the exquisite hand rested on the floor, limp and 
 white as snow. Her bosom heaved beneath its light 
 draperies, and she lay upon her red couch, to all 
 appearances, a living palpitating Hebe, summoned 
 from Elysium by the magic of this wonderful man, 
 Benoni, the Jew.
 
 BLACK MAGIC 227 
 
 After the entranced audience had gazed on 
 the wonderful picture for a little time, Benoni 
 said: 
 
 "The beauty of woman is but transitory, and 
 at the last is consumed in the fires of time." 
 
 Immediately thin spirals of smoke began to 
 rise from the reclining girl, slowly, quiveringly 
 at first, as if she were being consumed by a 
 kindling fire. The fumes soon began to grow 
 dense, the body grew dim and seemed to be fad- 
 ing away, while a pungent, though delicious odor, 
 almost intoxicating in its strange perfume, filled 
 the air. Presently, when the body had been con- 
 sumed, the astral face of the girl appeared, open 
 eyed, in the dark fumes above the couch; then, 
 her astral body hung for a moment in mid air, 
 and took its flight through the ceiling back to 
 its Elysian home. 
 
 The Queen screamed and became hysterical 
 and the Cardinal uttered a cry of terror just as 
 the beautiful vision disappeared; instantly the Jew 
 waved his hands, the fierce light was extinguished, 
 and the crystal lamps once more illumined the 
 room.
 
 228 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 As soon as the Queen 
 ihad recovered her com- 
 .posure, the Cardinal sug- 
 gested that they start 
 at once for the Palais 
 Royal, so the ladies put 
 on their masks and prep- 
 arations were hastily 
 made for leaving La 
 Sainte Croix. 
 
 As the royal party 
 was passing out the door, 
 Sweet Mam'selle whispered to the King, remind- 
 ing him that the papers granting the sanction and 
 the dispensation so much coveted by the Jew, had 
 not been delivered. Thereupon his Majesty spoke 
 to the Marquis de Villeroi, and the documents 
 were handed to Benoni.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 
 
 AFTER his guests were gone, the Jew hastened 
 to Miriam and Baptiste with the precious 
 papers and placed them in their hands, 
 saying: 
 
 "You must to church to-morrow morning early. 
 When you give the priests the well-filled purse 
 I shall send, I make sure they will lose no 
 time in taking Miriam into their fold and in 
 making my beloved children husband and wife. 
 After that, God may take me to his rest in his 
 own good time, for I shall die happy." 
 This was on a Sunday evening. 
 The great things of life usually come to us 
 unheralded. All the Jew's wisdom and magic 
 could give him no warning, even to die extent 
 of a faint, glimmering premonition what a single 
 day was to bring forth. 
 
 After the royal party reached the palace, they 
 229
 
 230 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 remained in the Queen's parlor, talking over the 
 marvelous sights they had witnessed in Benoni's 
 house. 
 
 "He's the most wonderful magician of the age," 
 said the Cardinal. "He seems to be rich. Does 
 he keep a shop?" 
 
 No one could answer the question, but the 
 King said that Sweet Mam'selle knew all about 
 the Jew, so she was summoned. 
 
 "He was brought here by the late King, whom 
 he had cured of an illness in Toulouse," said^ 
 Sweet Mam'selle, in response to the Cardinal's 
 questions. "He is a physician, but I believe he 
 practises his art chiefly among the poor people, 
 from whom he takes no fee. He has no shop." 
 
 "I thought as much," said the Cardinal, medi- 
 tatively. "He is an alchemist. If he is as great 
 in alchemy as he is in Black Magic, he can 
 transmute base metals into gold. That is how 
 he gets his wealth. We must learn his secret. 
 He is a great man." 
 
 "He is a great physician, too," said the Little King. 
 "He saved my life when I was ill with the smallpox." 
 
 A shower of questions fell upon the King,
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 231 
 
 who, forgetting for the moment his promise of 
 secrecy, told the story of the old woman who 
 had instructed Seguine and had received no pay. 
 At once there was a great commotion, and 
 Seguine came in for his full share of abuse, not 
 because he had not paid the Jew, but because he 
 had invoked the services of the devil to cure 
 the King. 
 
 "But I was ill and should have died without 
 the Jew's help," suggested the King. 
 
 "God would have saved you, my King," said 
 the Cardinal, piously. 
 
 "Then why didn't He do it, and not leave so 
 good an act to the devil?" asked the Little King. 
 
 "God's ways are mysterious to man," answered 
 the Cardinal. 
 
 "It is not true," insisted the King, growing 
 angry. "God used the wise Jew to cure me, 
 because Seguine, in his ignorance, would have 
 allowed me to die. The devil had nothing to do 
 with my cure. The Jew is a good, wise, learned 
 man, and he should have received the fee that 
 went to Seguine." 
 
 Early next morning the Cardinal summoned
 
 "232 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Seguine and told him all the Little King had 
 said about the Jew, whereupon the court physi- 
 cian grew very angry and swore vengeance 
 against Benoni. 
 
 "I believe he is rich," said the Cardinal, rest- 
 ing his elbows on his knees and speaking softly as 
 if talking to himself. "I have caused to be granted 
 a dispensation permitting his daughter to be taken 
 into the church, and a sanction for her marriage 
 to one Baptiste Guiron, a Christian who keeps 
 a shop just off the Rue de Bethisy, through 
 which the Jew's house, the old cloister of La 
 Sainte Croix, is entered. It is a strange place, 
 this Jew's nest. Beyond doubt he is rich, but 
 owing to the Little King's partiality, he has not 
 paid a sou for the privileges we have granted, 
 and will not unless he pays it in the way of 
 regular church fees. If it had not been for our 
 stubborn Little King, I should have made the 
 old pagan sweat gold." 
 
 "Perhaps it is not yet too late," suggested Seguine. 
 
 "Perhaps not," answered the Cardinal, softly. 
 "But I dare not lay my hand on him. The 
 King's coronation is only four years off, and he
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 233 
 
 is of a disposition to remember affronts." The 
 Cardinal remained in thought for a moment, then 
 spoke carelessly, as if the matter were no affair 
 of his. "You might see d'Emeri if you wish. 
 The people, especially the Jews of Rue Sainte 
 Croix, may rise and threaten the Jew with destruc- 
 tion if by any chance some one would whisper to 
 them that his daughter is about to marry a 
 Christian. In the event of trouble we must protect 
 the Jew, for the King loves him. If his danger 
 were pointed out to him, he might be willing to 
 give a good round sum for a cordon of gen- 
 darmes to scatter the mob and to protect his 
 house. If the Jew proves stingy, you may be 
 able to find some one to incite the mob. But I leave 
 it all to you, for I must not be known in the affair.'* 
 
 "Your Eminence need not fear. Your hand 
 shall not be seen," answered Seguine, glad of an 
 opportunity to punish the Jew. "There will be 
 a mob and we shall find the gold. I owe the 
 accursed Jew a grudge, and shall pay it and 
 be paid." 
 
 Seguine was about to leave, but the Cardinal 
 detained him: "Eh, Seguine, wait a moment I
 
 234 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 When you get the gold, bring it to me. You 
 and d'Emeri shall take half. I shall take half 
 
 for furnishing the information, and and you'll 
 not make the price of protection too small? As 
 I have told you, the Jew is rich, and and, un- 
 derstand me, Seguine, bring all the gold to me. 
 I shall divide it." 
 
 Seguine hastened to the Bastile, sought d'Emeri, 
 and told him of the golden opportunity suggested 
 by the Cardinal. 
 
 "Has the marriage been solemnized?" asked 
 d'Emeri.
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 235 
 
 "I feel sure it has not," answered Seguine. 
 "The dispensation and the sanction were given 
 only last night." 
 
 But Seguine was wrong. Miriam and Baptiste 
 were husband and wife, and at the time of 
 Seguine's conversation with d'Emeri, were on their 
 way home to eat their marriage breakfast in the 
 peaceful shelter of La Sainte Croix. 
 
 While Benoni and his family were eating break- 
 fast, happy because of their good fortune, a 
 knock was heard on the hidden gate of La Sainte 
 Croix. For more than fifteen years, no one had 
 knocked at the gate, since no one save Baptiste 
 had known of its existence. Benoni was alarmed, 
 so when the knocking grew violent, Baptiste went 
 to open the gate and found d'Emeri, accompanied 
 by two gendarmes. 
 
 "Does a Jew calling himself Benoni live 
 here?" asked d'Emeri. 
 
 "Yes," answered Baptiste. 
 
 "I want to see him. Tell him to come to 
 me at once," commanded d'Emeri. 
 
 Benoni came to the garden and greeted d'Emeri 
 with humility.
 
 236 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 "What does my lord seek In my humble house?" 
 
 "I am told that your daughter is to be mar- 
 ried to a Christian," answered d'Emri. 
 
 "She Is already married to Baptiste Guiron. 
 She, too, is a Christian, having been taken into 
 Holy Church this morning," said Benoni. 
 
 "Don't you know, Jew, that you must pay 
 for such privileges?" demanded d'Emri. 
 
 "We have sanction under the hands and seals 
 of the King, the Queen Regent and his Emi- 
 nence, the Cardinal. We have also a dispensation 
 from the Bishop of Paris, granted at the request 
 of his Majesty," answered Benoni, proudly. 
 
 "But there are others to be considered," replied 
 d'Emeri, angrily. "When the people learn that 
 your daughter has married a Christian they will 
 burn your house and throw you into the flames. 
 You may need protection, Jew, before the day 
 is ended, and if you receive it you must pay for 
 It." 
 
 "I am not a rich man, but I will give. How 
 much does my Lord want?" said Benoni, feeling 
 that it were safer to propitiate the Governor of 
 the Bastile.
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 
 
 237 
 
 "Bring ten thousand pistoles to the Bastile by 
 sundown, and I'll protect 
 you over night," replied 
 d'Emeri. 
 
 "All that I possess 
 would not equal that 
 sum," protested Benoni, 
 realizing that the day 
 of his ruin had come 
 as a flash of lightning 
 leaps from the sky. 
 
 "Find it, Jew, or the 
 people will bring your 
 house about your ears," 
 retorted d'Emeri. 
 
 "They will not, my lord, unless some one 
 incites them thereto," murmured Benoni. 
 
 "Find the gold, Jew, or take the consequen- 
 ces," answered d'Emeri, threateningly. Then he 
 turned and passed to the street through Baptiste's 
 shop. 
 
 Benoni returned to the house, but the marriage 
 feast that had begun so joyfully, was ended in 
 sorrow. A family council was held. Miriam and
 
 238 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Baptiste were for carrying their troubles to the 
 Little King, but the Jew objected, saying: 
 
 "The King would protect us if he could, but 
 the mob will come sooner or later. M. d'Emeri 
 will see to it if we do not give him all we 
 have, and when he has taken all, he will forsake 
 us. I fear the Jews. They will be eager to win 
 d'Emeri's favor, and will be glad to ruin me 
 when they learn that it will please him. They 
 hate me, because I have never been one of 
 them, and will take this marriage as an excuse 
 to show their love for a fellow Jew." 
 
 "But the Governor of the Bastile said he would 
 send gendarmes to protect us if we pay him," 
 said Baptiste, feeling that they had better lose 
 their gold than their lives. "I will gladly give 
 all I have, and it may be possible that you can . 
 I do not know what sum you would be willing 
 to pay." 
 
 "All the gold I possess, save, perhaps, a thou- 
 sand pistoles which I have here, is buried in the 
 cellar of my sister's house in Toulouse. But if 
 it were here, I should not be able to give this 
 man the sum he demands. Doubtless the Cardinal
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 239 
 
 is the instigator of this plan to ruin us, and 
 ruin may as well come now as a few days later, 
 for come it will swiftly and surely. There is 
 but one hope for us flight." 
 
 "I fear you are right, father," said Baptiste, 
 "but where shall we go?" 
 
 "To Toulouse," answered Benoni. "Thence, if 
 we can, to Alexandria or Bagdad." 
 
 "I am sure you are right, father," said Bap- 
 tiste, dolefully. "We must prepare to go at 
 once. It is now an hour past noon. To-night 
 may be too late. My little sum of gold is in 
 my shop. I'll take it and abandon all else. You 
 collect your gold and jewels and let us start 
 immediately." 
 
 "Your advice is good, my son," answered 
 Benoni. "Take Miriam and your gold with you, 
 and go to Monsieur Breton's shop. My wife 
 and I will follow as soon as I consider it safe 
 to leave. It is better that we go separately. If 
 we try to keep together, we shall attract atten- 
 tion and bring on our troubles before we can 
 escape." 
 
 So Baptiste and Miriam hurried down the
 
 240 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Rue Saint Antoine to Jean Breton's shop 
 where they told their story and found shel- 
 ter. Jean closed his shop doors, and went 
 at once ta seek Sweet Mam'selle, hoping 
 through her, to convey to the King intelligence 
 of what d'Emeri was doing. But to reach the 
 Palais Royal and to see Sweet Mam'selle required 
 so much time that the sun was less than two 
 hours high when Jean and Sweet Mam'selle, hav- 
 ing been unable to obtain speech with the King, 
 hurried toward La Sainte Croix to find that a 
 mob had already gathered before the doors of 
 Baptiste's shop. 
 
 "Let us go back to the Palais Royal and fetch 
 the King himself," pleaded Sweet Mam'selle. "I 
 will see him despite them all, and I know he 
 will come with me." 
 
 Jean doubted the wisdom of her suggestion, but 
 yielded, and they hurried back to the Palais 
 Royal, where Sweet Mam'selle had her way and 
 found the King. His Majesty was persuaded not 
 to go out on the street while a mob was gather- 
 ing, but the Cardinal, at the King's command, 
 sent, or pretended to send a message to d'Emeri,
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 241 
 
 ordering him to proceed at once to Rue Sainte 
 Croix with a sufficient number of gendarmes to 
 disperse the mob. 
 
 Jean knew that his effort to help his friends 
 would win for him the enmity of the Cardinal, 
 and he knew, also, that the Cardinal's enmity 
 meant ruin. 
 
 After seeing the King, Sweet Mam'selle and 
 Jean hurried back to Rue Sainte Croix, hoping, 
 though with little faith, that the gendarmes 
 ordered by the Cardinal had driven away the 
 mob. But the crowd was larger and more vicious 
 than when they had left it. Jean tried to force 
 his way to the shop door, but failed, and fell 
 back with Sweet Mam'selle to the Rue de Bethisy, 
 where they waited anxiously, though with little 
 hope, the arrival of the gendarmes. As they 
 expected, they waited in vain. 
 
 Just as the night darkened, they saw the mob 
 begin its work of destruction. Presently they noticed 
 smoke rising from Baptiste's shop, and were horrified 
 to see gendarmes dragging Benoni across the Rue 
 de Bethisy, his poor wife following almost bereft of 
 reason. 
 
 16
 
 242 
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 Jean and Sweet Mam'selle followed the gen- 
 darmes and the Jew till they were well away 
 from the crowd. For a moment Jean hoped that 
 the gendarmes had rescued Benoni and his wife, 
 
 but he soon learned that he was wrong. Turn- 
 ing down a narrow street, the captain of the 
 gendarmes tore the Jew's clothing from him and 
 snatched a girdle from his waist. The girdle 
 burst open, and in the light of the flambeaus, 
 Jean and Sweet Mam'selle saw a shower of gold 
 fall to the pavement. Immediately the gendarmes 
 fell to their knees, scrambling for the money.
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 243 
 
 When it was collected, one of the men rose to 
 his feet, and with an oath, struck Benoni a cruel 
 blow with his halberd. The Jew fell to the pave- 
 ment, and his wife threw herself upon him, 
 clinging to his lifeless form. A blow from a 
 halberd killed the woman, and thus in less time 
 than it takes to tell it, the curtain came down 
 on the tragedy of La Sainte Croix. When the 
 gendarmes were sure they had collected all the scat- 
 tered gold they hurried away, leaving Jean and 
 Sweet Mam'selle standing beside the stricken 
 forms of Benoni and his wife, murdered by Card- 
 inal Mazarin, who was waiting in the Queen's 
 parlor to receive his share of the gold. 
 
 It would have been useless for Jean and Sweet 
 Mam'selle to remain, so they hurriedly returned 
 to Jean's shop to give what help they could to 
 Miriam and Baptiste. As they turned to leave 
 the Rue de Bethisy, they saw that the fire was 
 spreading throughout the entire Rue Sainte Croix, 
 and were glad to know that the Jews would 
 suffer at least a part of the ruin they had brought 
 on their brother. 
 
 Jean and Sweet Mam'selle comforted Baptiste
 
 244 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 and Miriam as well as they could, and kept them 
 hidden until two hours after midnight. At that 
 hour the four ventured out to rescue the bodies of 
 Miriam's father and mother. But they were not 
 to be found. The ghouls of Paris had stolen 
 them. Miriam's beautiful home was a smouldering 
 ruin, and Rue Sainte Croix was but a name of 
 the past. 
 
 Now the story is nearly told. The day after 
 the tragedy Jean Breton received an anonymous 
 letter informing him that because he had harbored 
 the Jew's daughter, he would soon meet the Jew's 
 fate unless a certain sum of gold were paid for 
 protection. 
 
 Sweet Mam'selle knew that the Little King 
 was powerless to save her lover, so she advised 
 instant flight. Jean thought so much of his sweet* 
 heart's advice that he immediately sold his shop 
 for one-third its value, and converted all his 
 possessions into gold. On the same afternoon, 
 Sweet Mam'selle, Jean, Miriam and Baptiste left 
 Paris by different gates and met at an agreed 
 place two leagues south of the terrible city. There
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 245 
 
 they bought horses and a wagon, and journeyed 
 south to Toulouse, where they found shelter beneath 
 the roof of Benoni's sister. 
 
 Baptiste and Miriam obtained the gold which 
 Benoni had said was buried in his sister's cellar, 
 and at once began to look about for means of 
 escape from the land of their birth, which for 
 them had come to be a land of tribulation. 
 
 In and near Toulouse, there had been for years 
 a large number of Huguenots. Many of them, 
 including Baptiste's father and mother, had suf- 
 fered death at the stake. Others lived in seclu- 
 sion, though always in great danger, but by far 
 the larger number conformed outwardly to the 
 demands of the church, while cherishing their 
 beloved religion in their hearts. 
 
 Baptiste became acquainted with a Huguenot 
 gentleman, from whom he learned that a com- 
 pany of Huguenots had arranged to emigrate to 
 the new world, and that a ship was waiting down 
 in the Gironde, near Bordeaux, to take them to 
 their new home. If their project were discovered 
 their lives would be lost; therefore the gentleman 
 pledged Baptiste to secrecy. The voyagers were
 
 246 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 to board the ship at night, and hoped to make 
 sail under cover of darkness. Then ho, for libr 
 erty and God's blessing in the new world. 
 
 Baptiste and Miriam eagerly joined the emi- 
 grants, and begged their friends to go with them. 
 After taking a day or two in which to consider 
 so important a step, Sweet Mam'selle and Jean 
 paid their passage, and prepared to bid farewell 
 to France forever. 
 
 Before boarding the ship, Sweet Mam'selle 
 found means of sending a letter to her friend, 
 Madame de Motteville, enclosing one to the Lit- 
 tle King. 
 
 The Little King was very angry when he hearo! 
 of the disaster that had befallen his friends, and 
 openly charged the Cardinal with perfidy. 
 
 "Wait till I am crowned!" he said repeatedly, 
 with a threatening earnestness that caused his 
 Eminence many a sleepless night. 
 
 One day Madame de Motteville received a let- 
 ter in which there was one sealed and directed 
 to the Little King. That evening he was lying 
 on a couch in the Queen's parlor, listless and
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 247 
 
 half sick, for his heart was sore because there 
 was no Sweet Mam'selle to comfort him. Mon- 
 sieur, the King's brother, was playing at chess 
 with the little Duchess de Condi; the Cardinal, 
 the Queen, the Due d'Orleans and several ladies 
 in waiting were standing about the room. Dur- 
 ing the hum of conversation, Madame de Motte- 
 ville entered, made her obeisance to the Queen 
 and the Cardinal, courtesied to the King, and said: 
 "I have a letter for your Majesty." 
 The King sprang to his feet, exclaiming: "It 
 is from Sweet Mam'selle ! I know it is !" 
 
 He snatched the letter and read it hurriedly. 
 Tears came to his eyes, but he controlled him- 
 self and turned angrily on the Cardinal, saying: 
 "You will listen, M. le Cardinal, while I read." 
 Silence immediately fell upon the room. Then 
 the Little King, stammering and almost choked 
 by emotion, read Sweet Mam'selle's letter: 
 
 "MY REVERED AND BELOVED KlNG. 
 
 I am leaving France forever, and my heart is almost broken 
 because I must part from you. I pray the good God that the 
 Cardinal may not bring sorrow to you and ruin to the French 
 
 feople such as he has brought to those who are dear to you. 
 shall love you, my sweet King, all the days of my life, and I 
 pray you, for the sake of the great love I bear you, do not 
 forget me. 
 
 SWEET MAM'SELLE."
 
 THE LITTLE KING 
 
 The King stood, holding the letter for a 
 moment. Tears came to his eyes, but he did not 
 heed them. He looked steadily at the Cardinal, 
 and when he spoke, there was no stammering, 
 there was no emotion, there was no childish 
 softness; what he said rang clear as clanking 
 
 steel : 
 
 "And I'll not for- 
 get her, M. le Car- 
 dinal! Nor will I 
 forget her words con- 
 cerning you! Never, 
 never, never, so long 
 as I live! 
 
 And the Cardinal 
 slept not that night. 
 
 When the Little King had finished speaking, 
 he threw himself face down upon the couch and 
 wept. Sweet Mam'selle was gone, and from that 
 hour to the day of his death, sixty-seven long 
 years hence, the Little King was alone in the 
 world, stranded on the terrible throne of terrible 
 France. Could even an Infinite God mete out 
 to man a more awful fate?
 
 BLACKEST MAGIC 249 
 
 As it was with Benoni, so it came to pass with 
 the French people, because of the reign of the 
 Cardinals. 
 
 The Bordeaux ship with the Little King's 
 friends aboard found a haven on one of the 
 small outlying islands of the West Indies, which 
 seemed to have been placed there expressly for 
 their sanctuary. There the colonists lived happily 
 and left a numerous progeny whose blood still 
 exists in the Creole population. There, Sweet 
 Mam'selles quite as charming as their lovely 
 ancestress, are met at every turn, while Jeans and 
 Baptistes bask in the sun or sleep in the shade, 
 knowing and caring nothing about the troubles 
 of their once unhappy forbears.
 
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