a screw loose, of which the head had worked up and caught another part of the machinery. With a tortoise shell pick in one hand, and holding the wheel with the other, he began to fix the screw, with his head in the box. Thus absorbed he never heard the usher at the door, cry out: "The king!"
Louis was some time glancing about before he spied the prince's legs as he stood half eclipsed before the clock.
"What the deuse are you doing there?" he asked, as he tapped his son on the shoulder.
The amateur clockmaker drew himself out with the proper precautions for so noble a timepiece.
"Oh, your majesty, I was just killing time while you were not present."
"By murdering my clock! Pretty amusement!"
"Oh, no, only setting it to rights. A screw was loose and——"
"Never mind mechanics! What do you want of me? I am eager to be off to Marly."
He started for the door, always trying to avoid awkward situations.
"Is it money you are after? I will send you some."
"Nay, I have savings out of my last quarter's money."
"What a miser, and yet a spendthrift was his tutor! I believe he has all the virtues missing in me."
"Sire, is not the bride near at hand yet?"
"Your bride? I should say fifty leagues off. Are you in a hurry."
The prince royal blushed.
"I am not eager for the motive you think."
"No? So much the worse. Hang it all! You are sixteen and the princess very pretty. You are warranted in being impatient."
"Cannot the ceremonies be curtailed, for at this rate she will be an age coming. I don't think the traveling arrangements are well made."
"The mischief! thirty thousand horses placed along the route, with men and carts and coaches—how can you believe there is bad management when I have made all these arrangements?"
"Sire, in spite of these, I am bound to say that I think, as in the case of your clock, there is a screw loose. The progress has been right royally arranged, but did your majesty make it fully understood that all the horses, men and vehicles were to be employed by the dauphiness?"
A vague suspicion annoyed the monarch, who looked hard at his heir; this suggestion agreed with another idea fretting him.
"Certainly," he replied. "Of course you are satisfied, then? The bride will arrive on time, and she is properly attended to. You are rich with your savings, and you can wind up my clock and set it going again. I have a good mind to appoint you Clockmaker Extraordinary to the Royal Household, do you hear?" and, laughing, he was going to snatch the opportunity to slip away, when, as he opened the door, he faced a man on the sill.
Louis drew back a step.
"Choiseul!" he exclaimed. "I had forgotten she was to send him to me. Never mind, he shall pay for my son irritating me. So you have come, my lord? You heard I wanted you?"
"Yes, sire," replied the prime minister, coldly. "I was dressing to come, any way."
"Good; I have serious matters to discuss," said the sovereign, frowning to intimidate the minister, who was, unfortunately, the hardest man to browbeat in the kingdom.
"Very serious matters I have to discuss, too," he replied, with a glance for the dauphin, who was skulking behind the clock.
"Oho!" thought the king; "my son is my foe, too. I am in a triangle with woman, minister and son, and cannot escape."
"I come to say that the Viscount Jean——"
"Was nearly murdered in an ambush?"
"Nay, that he was wounded in the forearm in a duel. I know it perfectly."
"So do I, and I will tell you the true story."
"We listen," responded Choiseul. "For the prince is concerned in the affray, so far as it was on account of the dauphiness."
"The dauphiness and Jean Dubarry in some way connected?" questioned the king. "This is getting curious. Pray explain, my lord, and conceal nothing. Was it the princess who gave the swordthrust to Dubarry?"
"Not her highness, but one of the officers of her escort," replied Choiseul, as calm as ever.
"One whom you know?"
"No, sire; but your majesty ought to know him, if your majesty remembers all his old servants; for his father fought for you at Fontenoy, Philipsburg and Mahon—he is a Taverney Redcastle."
The dauphin mutely repeated the title to engrave it on his mind.
"Certainly, I know the Redcastles," returned Louis. "Why did he fight against Jean, whom I like—unless because I like him? Absurd jealousy, outbreaks of discontent, and partial sedition!"
"Does the defender of the royal princess deserve this reproach?" said the duke.
"I must say," said the prince, rising erect and folding his arms, "I am grateful to the young gentleman who risked his life for a lady who will shortly be my wife."
"What did he risk his life for?" queried the king.
"Because the Chevalier Jean in a hurry wanted to take the horses set aside by your majesty for the royal bride."
The king bit his lips and changed color, for the new way of presenting the case was again a menacing phantom.
"Yes, Chevalier Dubarry was putting the insult on the royal house of taking the reserved royal horses, when up came the Chevalier Redcastle, sent onward by her highness, and after much civil remonstrance——"
"Oh!" protested the king. "Civil—a military man?"
"It was so," interposed the dauphin. "I have been fully informed. Dubarry whipped out his sword——"
"Was he the first to draw?" demanded the king.
The prince blushed and looked to Choiseul for support.
"The fact is, the two crossed swords," the latter hastened to say, "one having insulted the lady, the other defending her and your majesty's property."
"But who was the aggressor, for Jean is mild as a lamb," said the monarch, glad that things were getting equalized.
"The officer must have been malapert."
"Impertinent to a man who was dragging away the horses reserved for your majesty's destined daughter?" exclaimed Choiseul. "Is this possible?"
"Hasty, anyway," said the king, as the dauphin stood pale without a word.
"A zealous servitor can never do wrong," remarked the duke, receding a step.
"Come, now, how did you get the news?" asked the king of his son, without losing sight of the minister, who was troubled
