No sooner was the dinner over than he rose and expressed his
intention of delivering his letters of introduction in person to
the English ambassador and to the Admiral de Coligny, whom, as his
father's old friend and the hero of his boyhood, he was most
anxious to see. The Chevalier demurred to this. Were it not
better to take measures at once for making himself presentable, and
Narcisse had already supplied him with directions to the
fashionable hair-cutter, &c. It would be taken amiss if he went to
the Admiral before going to present himself to the King.
'And I cannot see my cousins till I go to court?' asked Berenger.
'Most emphatically No. Have I not told you that the one is in the
suite of the young Queen, the other in that of the Queen-mother? I
will myself present you, if only you will give me the honour of
your guidance.'
'With all thanks, Monsieur,' said Berenger; 'my grandfather's
desire was that I should lose no time in going to his friend Sir
Francis Walsingham, and I had best submit myself to his judgment as
to my appearance at court.'
On this point Berenger was resolute, though the Chevalier recurred
to the danger of any proceeding that might be unacceptable at
court. Berenger, harassed and impatient, repeated that he did not
care about the court, and wished merely to fulfil his purpose and
return, at which his kinsman shook his head and shrugged his
shoulders, and muttered to himself, 'Ah, what does he know! He
will regret it when too late; but I have done my best.'
Berenger paid little attention to this, but calling Landry Osbert,
and a couple of his men, he bade them take their swords and
bucklers, and escort him in his walk through Paris. He set off
with a sense of escape, but before he had made many steps, he was
obliged to turn and warn Humfrey and Jack that they were not to
walk swaggering along the streets, with hand on sword, as if every
Frenchman they saw was the natural foe of their master.
Very tall were the houses, very close and extremely filthy the
streets, very miserable the beggars; and yet here and there was to
be seen the open front of a most brilliant shop, and the
thoroughfares were crowded with richly-dressed gallants. Even the
wider streets gave little space for the career of the gay horsemen
who rode along them, still less for the great, cumbrous, though
gaily-decked coaches, in which ladies appeared glittering with
jewels and fan in hand, with tiny white dogs on their knees.