Oh entering the cabinet of the Duke of Mayenne, Madame de Montpensier and her companion found him still engaged in listening to the reports of several military men. He instantly made a sign, however, for the purpose of enjoining silence as his sister approached; and turning to St. Real, he pointed to a seat. "The Marquis de St. Real, I presume?" he said, with an air of plain and unaffected dignity. "Your mourning habit, sir, reminds me that I should condole with you on the death of one of the noblest gentlemen that France has ever known. He would not, it is true, take part with those who wished him well; but, even had he drawn his sword against us, I should have lamented his death as a star gone out that may never be lighted again." There was a brief pause--for St. Real would not trust his voice with a reply--and the Duke, after having dismissed the officers by whom he had been surrounded, proceeded: "I trust, Monsieur de St. Real, that you know enough of him who speaks to you to believe, even without my saying it, that Charles of Mayenne is utterly incapable of such an act as that by which my safe-conduct was violated in your instance. For my own part, the persons who captured you allege, in their excuse, some dispositions of your troops, which gave cause to suspect an inclination to support our adversary, the young Duke of Longueville; but I--judging your sentiments by my own--absolve you from all such suspicion." "You do me justice, my lord," replied St. Real; "I am incapable of taking advantage of your pass in order to injure you; and, though in the first heat of anger at my arrest, I might cast the blame on you, I have since learned to judge better, and to know that it was the purpose of those who detained me to keep you in ignorance of my imprisonment. At least, I conclude so from the fact that, on my desiring one of the lookers-on, as I was carried through the streets, to bear the tidings to you, the commander, as he seemed, of the reitters threatened to cut the man's ears off if he obeyed. How the news was at length brought to you I know not, and would willingly hear." "'Twas a little misshapen dwarf," replied Mayenne, "whom I remember well about the court some years ago, that brought the tidings, and bellowed them forth just as I was mounting my horse to ride out this morning." "'Tis one of my own pages, doubtless," replied St. Real. "I fancied that the little pigmy could ill bear the fatigues of our long march, and I sent him on hither in a chariot, with another young lad, to prepare a lodging for me while in Paris." "I knew not, sir Marquis," replied Mayenne, "that you, who affect so much retirement in the provinces, took such pains to follow the modes of the court. What! you have dwarfs for pages, too, have you? And doubtless, in such a household as yours, you equal this Henry of Valois, and have the _tailleur aux nains_, as well as the dwarf's valet."