"Ha! Monsieur de Juvigny," he cried, as soon as his keen eye fell upon me, "I am glad to see you--I am glad to see you; but stay a minute till I have despatched all these affairs. I have a good deal to say to you, for Gourville has told me all about you." The minute which the Prince desired me to stay, extended itself to nearly an hour and a half; for no sooner was one application attended to, than another was made from a different quarter; and as soon as one visiter left his presence, another entered. "There! shut the door," he cried at length, as soon as he found that we were left alone even for a moment; "let any one who comes wait without till I am ready for them." The servant to whom he spoke instantly proceeded to put his commands in execution, and turning to me, the Prince added, in the brief, frank, perhaps abrupt tone, which he usually employed, "Well, Monsieur de Juvigny, I have not seen you since you were playing the garcon apothicaire, in the castle of Vincennes; and although our scheme did not succeed, and you have now, it seems, turned against me, yet I am not the less grateful for the extreme risk which you then ran in endeavouring to serve me. I hear from everybody the highest character of you. I myself have been a witness of your courage and dexterity. Such a person is now most needful to me; and what I wished to say to you is, that if you will consent to attach yourself to me, you shall find me a firm friend and an unfailing protector. I will advance you in the service, and whatever post about my person you will name shall be yours, unless it be already filled by some old and tried friend." The offer was not only a very tempting one, but it was difficult to refuse it without the chance of giving offence--at least those who did not know the Prince de Condé would have thought so. As it was perfectly impossible for me to comply, however, feeling, as I did, that he was absolutely in a state of rebellion against his King, and that I was even then bearing a commission in that monarch's service, I answered him boldly and straightforwardly, which I had always found to be the best way with men of his keen and rapid disposition. "Nothing I should consider a higher honour, nothing I should feel to be a greater pleasure than that of serving your Highness," I replied, "if your Highness' service were compatible with that of the King; but you must remember, my lord, that I have bound myself by oath to the cause of his Majesty." "Pshaw!" cried the Prince de Condé. "In these times no one minds such oaths as that. Why, there is not an officer in my service that does not come and go between my camp and the King's a dozen times in the year; and, in truth, I do not always very well know, when I meet a friend in the field, whether he is my own partisan for the time or not."