La Fontaine in vain endeavored to gain attention to his verses; Sorel wanted to obtain a hearing for his _quatrain_.

He was obliged to retreat before M.le Comte de Charost, whose arm Fouquet had just taken.

L'Abbe Fouquet perceived that the poet, absent-minded, as usual, was about to follow the two talkers; and he interposed.

La Fontaine seized upon him, and recited his verses.

The abbe, who was quite innocent of Latin, nodded his head, in cadence, at every roll which La Fontaine impressed upon his body, according to the undulations of the dactyls and spondees.