How were you attacked ?" "Sire," stammered out the poor child, pale and trembling, "I really do not know." "You have been walking too far," said the king; "and fatigue, perhaps--" "No, sire," said Montalais, eagerly, answering for her friend, "it could not be from fatigue, for we passed most of the evening seated beneath the royal oak." "Under the royal oak ?" returned the king, starting.

"I was not deceived; it is as I thought." And he directed a look of intelligence at the comte.
"Yes," said Saint-Aignan, "under the royal oak, with Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente." "How do you know that ?" inquired Montalais.
"In a very simple way.

Mademoiselle de Tonnay-Charente told me so." "In that case, she probably told you the cause of Mademoiselle de la Valliere's fainting ?" "Why, yes; she told me something about a wolf or a robber.

I forget precisely which." La Valliere listened, her eyes fixed, her bosom heaving, as if, gifted with an acuteness of perception, she foresaw a portion of the truth.

Louis imagined this attitude and agitation to be the consequence of a terror only partially reassured.