There was, in this exordium, an undercurrent of jealous resentment against the château which did not escape the Spaniard. He made haste to accept the rector's invitation, feeling certain that he should learn from him all that he had reason to hope or fear from the marquis's hospitality. [Footnote 11: This ornament, common in the time of Henri IV., may have come to France with Marie de Médicis, as an allusion to the arms of her family, which are, as everyone knows, seven little balls, literally pellets, in memory of the profession of the founder of the family.] [Footnote 12: Salt-smuggling nobleman.] [Footnote 13: This is one of the few spots where we can still find the wild balsam with yellow flowers.] XIV The rector began by speaking well of the marquis. He was a very good man; his intentions were excellent; he gave freely to the poor, there was no denying that; unfortunately he lacked judgment, he distributed his benefactions helter-skelter, without consulting the _natural intermediary_ between the château and the cottage, to wit the rector of the parish. He was a little mad, harmless in himself, dangerous by reason of his rank, his wealth, and the example of refined sensuality, of frivolity and indifference in religious matters, which he afforded those about him. And then he had a very suspicious individual in his household: that bagpipe player, who was not so dumb perhaps as he pretended to be, some heretic or sham scholar, who dabbled in astronomy, perhaps in astrology! Old Adamas was no better: he was a base flatterer and hypocrite; and that page, so absurdly tricked out as a petty gentleman, who, being a bourgeois, was not entitled to wear satin, and who came to mass on Sundays in some sort of damask doublet! The servants as a whole were a worthless lot. They were civil, nothing more, to Monsieur Poulain; no marked attentions; he had not yet received a special pressing invitation to dinner. They had simply told him once for all, that a cover was always laid for him. That was too unceremonious treatment. It was surprising on the part of a man who had lived a long while at court. To be sure, at the court of the Béarnais, they did not pride themselves on being over-refined, and nobodies were petted and spoiled there most shamefully. In short, Bellinde alone of all the people _at the château_ seemed to him a person of sense. D'Alvimar considered Monsieur Poulain's judgment excellent; the bagpiper especially seemed to him more than ever deserving of suspicion. However, he did not dwell long upon these trivial matters. As soon as he was assured that he would do well to repose no confidence in the old marquis, he advanced a step in his investigations, and wished to know what opinion he should hold of the leading men of the province.