It was a common custom with Louis the Thirteenth to spend a part of the morning in that large circular piece of ground at Chantilly, called then, as now, the Manège; while his various hunters, in which he took great delight, were exercised before him. Here, while the few gentlemen that generally accompanied him, stood a step behind, he would lean against one of the pillars that surrounded the place, and remark, with the most minute exactitude, every horse as it passed him, expressing his approbation to the grooms when any thing gave him satisfaction. But on the same morning which had witnessed at St. Germain the arrest of De Blenau, something had gone wrong with the King at Chantilly. He was impatient, cross, and implacable: and Lord Montague, an English nobleman, who was at that time much about him, remarked in a low voice to one of the gentlemen in waiting, "His Majesty is as peevish as a crossed child, when Cinq Mars is absent." The name of his Grand Ecuyer, though spoken very low, caught the King's ear. "Do any of you know when Cinq Mars returns?" demanded he. "We never proceed well when he is not here.--Look at that man now, how he rides," continued Louis, pointing to one of the grooms; "would not any one take him for a monkey on horseback? Do you know where Cinq Mars is gone, _Mi Lor_?" "I hear, Sire," replied Lord Montague, "that he is gone with Monsieur de Thou to Troyes, where he has an estate, about which there is some dispute, which Monsieur de Thou, who is learned in such matters, is to determine." "To Troyes!" exclaimed the King, "that is a journey of three days--Did not some of you tell me, that Chavigni arrived last night, while I was hunting?" "I did so, please your Majesty," replied one of the gentlemen; "and I hear, moreover, that the Cardinal himself slept at Luzarches last night, with the purpose of being here early this morning." "The Cardinal at Luzarches!" said the King, a cloud coming over his brow. "It is strange I had not notice--We shall scarce have room for them all--I expect the Queen to-night--and the Cardinal and her Majesty are as fond of each other as a hawk and a heron poulet."