But I had not yet come to the end of my emotions: a serio-comic incident followed apace. Sisowath, suddenly evading the watchfulness of my inspectors, who dared not detain him like a common malefactor, escaped, darted down the stairs, four steps at a time, opened a window on the ground floor and, with hoarse cries, began to fling into the square all the _louis d'or_ which he had in his possession. The moment he heard us coming, quick as lightning he was off and flew to another window. For a quarter of an hour, a mad steeple-chase was kept up through all the rooms of the Prefecture, amid the roars of the excited crowd in the streets. Fortunately, the King soon grew tired and accepted his defeat. As for me, I naturally looked upon my disgrace as assured. But Sisowath, thank goodness, was not vindictive. The next morning, he gave me his hand and, bursting into loud laughter, contented himself with saying: "Very funny!" 5. A week later, he took ship at Marseilles, with his court, to return to Cambodia. When I said good-bye to him on the deck of the steamer, he appeared heart-broken at having to leave our country. Heart-broken, too, seemed the little dancing-girls squatting at the foot of the mast, with their mechanical rabbits and their unbreakable dolls--the last keepsake to remind them of their stay in Paris--which they squeezed fondly in their arms. When, at length, the hour of parting had struck, good King Sisowath, greatly moved, called me to his side: "Here," he said. "Present for you." And he handed me a parcel done up in a pink-silk handkerchief. As soon as I was on shore, I hastened to open it; to my great confusion, it contained a splendid _sampot_ made of fine cloth of gold. The King of Cambodia had presented me with his state breeches, which were all that remained to me of my last "client" and of my Oriental dreams! FOOTNOTES: [1] In France, the premiership is very often held in conjunction with the portfolio of the Interior, or Home Office.--_Translator's Note._ [2] The _habit à la française_, once a military cloak, now used purely for livery, is a heavily embroidered coat, similar to that of an English flunkey, but of a less voluminous cut and shorter.--_Translator's Note._ [3] "Oho! An empress comes this way!"--_Translator's Note._ [4] _Jonkheer_ is a Dutch hereditary title of nobility, ranking below that of baron.--_Translator's Note._ [5] The family of Dumonceau is of Belgian origin and derives from an ancestor in the parish of Saint-Géry, Brussels.--_Translator's Note._ [6] Boniface of Savoy was nominated to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, in 1241, by King Henry III of England, who had married Boniface's niece Eleanor, daughter of Raymond Berengar, Count of Provence, and Beatrix of Savoy.--_Translator's Note._ [7] The late King of the Belgians shared the national peculiarity of interlarding his French with a succession of _savez-vous_.--_Translator's Note._ * * * * * *