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38 LOUISE DB LA VALLIERE. "I did not call it a country-seat, Monsieur le Baron," re- plied Planchet, somewhat humiliated, '^ut a country box." "Ah ! ah ! I understand. You are modest." "No, Monsieur le Baron; I speak the plain truth. I have rooms for a couple of friends, that's all." "But in that case, whereabouts do your friends walk?" "In the first place, they can walk about the king's forest, which is very beautiful." "Yes, I know the forest is very fine," said Porthos; "nearly as beautiful as my forest at Berry." Planchet opened his eyes very wide. "Have you a forest of the same kind as the forest at Fontainebleau, Monsieur le Baron?" he stammered out. "Yes; I have two, indeed, but the one at Berry is my favorite." "Why so?" asked Planchet. "Because I don't know where it ends; and, also, because it is full of poachers." "How can the poachers make the forest so agreeable to you?" "Because they hunt my game, and I hunt them — ^which, in these peaceful times, is for me a picture of war on a small scale." They had reached this turn of the conversation when Planchet, looking up, perceived the house at the commence- ment of Fontainebleau, the outline of which stood out strongly upon the dark face of the heavens; while, rising above the compact and irregularly formed mass of build- ings, the pointed roofs of the chateau were clearly visible, the slates of which glistened beneath the light of the moon, like the scales of an immense fish. "Gentlemen," said Plan- chet, "I have the honor to inform you that we have arrived at Fontainebleau." CHAPTER V. planchet's country house. The cavaliers looked up, and saw that what Planchet had announced to them was true. Ten minutes afterward they were in the street called the Rue de Lyon, on the opposite side of the inn of the sign of the Beau Paon. A high hedge of bushy elders, hawthorn, and wild hops formed an im- penetrable fence, behind which rose a white house, with a