"Caumont," he said, using the old boyish name by which they had known each other in their wild Paris youth, "you have never liked me. You have never been truly my friend. Why do you come to seek me now?" The busy scheming brain behind the Valois favourite's brow was working. He had a bluff subject to deal with, therefore he would be bluff. "Your Majesty," he said, "there is no one in all France who wishes better to your cause, or more ill to the League than I. When you are King, you shall have no more faithful or obedient subject. But friendship, like love, is born of friendship; it comes not by command. When the King of Navarre makes me his friend, I shall be his!" "Spoken like a man, and no courtier," cried the Bearnais, slapping his strong hand into the white palm of D'Epernon with a report like a pistol; "I swear I shall be your friend till the day I die!" And the Bearnais kept his word, and gave his friendship all his life to the dark, scheming, handsome man, who had served many masters in his time, but had never loved any man save himself, any woman except his wife, and any interest outside of his own pocket. The soldiers of the Guard Royal made a rhyme which went not ill in the patois of the camp, but which goes lamely enough translated into English. Somewhat thus it ran: "Duke Epernon and his wife, Jean Caumont and his wife, Cadet Valette and his Cadette, Louis Nogaret and _his_ wife-- If ever I wagered I would bet My pipe, my lass, and eke my life, That this brave world was made and set _For Duke Epernon and his wife-- Jean Caumont and his wife, Louis Nogaret and his wife, Cadet Valette and his Cadette!_" And so _Da Capo_--to any tune which happened to occur to them in their semi-regal license of King's free guardsmen. Which was only the barrack and guard-room way of saying that Jean Louis de Nogaret, Cadet de la Valette, Duc d'Epernon and royal favourite, looked after the interests of a certain important numeral with some care. "Caumont," said the King of Navarre, "how came you to know I was in this town? I arrived but an hour ago, and in disguise."