'It was all an accident, M. le Chevalier,' replied the host, receiving my empty tankard with a profound bow. 'You must know, that one day Henry IV. was hunting in yonder wood, on the left bank of the Marne, and having outridden all his company, and left even the twenty-four chosen gentlemen of the Scottish guard far behind, he arrived here at nightfall weary and travel-stained, with a lame horse and a sharpened appetite. Of the hostess he inquired if he could have anything to eat. '"Monsieur has come too late," said she, taking him for a private gentleman, in his long black leather boots, and plain jackwambeson. '"Ventre Saint Gris!" muttered the King, in his strong Bearnais accent; "and for whom is all this dainty roast, which turns so savourily on your spit, madame?" '"For eight gentlemen, who are upstairs." '"Eight, who--madame?" '"Gentlemen, whom I believe to be solicitors of Paris." '"Then say to them, madame, if you please, that a gentleman, a traveller who is weary, begs the honour of being permitted to sit at the same board with messieurs the solicitors, and that he will gladly pay for his share of the repast with a good flask of wine to boot." 'The hostess duly delivered the message, but the solicitors being low fellows, loudly and rudely declined. '"No!" exclaimed they; "no, sang-dieu! not if your traveller were Henry IV. himself!" '"Ventre Saint Gris!" swore the King again, and, drawing his sword, laid hold of the roasted meat. 'At that moment a chevalier of the Scottish Guard appeared, having discovered the inn quite by accident, and the profound salute he accorded to her visitor surprised and terrified the landlady. '"Sieur Blane," said the King--' '_Blane!_' I reiterated; 'oh, heavens! this Scottish guardsman was _my father_!' But, heedless of me, the garrulous Frenchman, full of his story, continued: '"Sieur Blane," said the Bearnais, "I am likely to be starved in this devil of an inn, for there are up stairs eight solicitors of our city of Paris, who have seized all the provisions, and will not permit me to eat with them!" 'The Sieur Blane drew his sword, and, curling up his long mustachios, swore he would put every man of them to death; but at that moment in came the Sieur de Vitry, with ten more gentlemen of the Scottish Guard: so to teach messieurs the solicitors politeness for the future, they were all seized and sent to Grosbois, where they were well whipped with a bridle-rein, their threats, entreaties, and remonstrances only exciting laughter in the Sieur Blane and his comrades. Hence, monsieur, my inn bears the head of the brave Bearnais--king Henry IV.'