.

Fontainebleau at Two o'Clock in the Morning.
As we have seen, Saint-Aignan had quitted the king's apartment at the very moment the superintendent entered it.

Saint-Aignan was charged with a mission that required dispatch, and he was going to do his utmost to turn his time to the best advantage.

He whom we have introduced as the king's friend was indeed an uncommon personage; he was one of those valuable courtiers whose vigilance and acuteness of perception threw all other favorites into the shade, and counterbalanced, by his close attention, the servility of Dangeau, who was not the favorite, but the toady of the king.

M.de Saint-Aignan began to think what was to be done in the present position of affairs.