Other ladies annoyed with her, and show it by walking past and waggling their fingers in her face, which appears to depress Louise considerably.  Then they go out, after the Cavaliers, or the refreshments.  Meanwhile Louis the Fourteenth has entered at the back and overheard all. He knows what the shake and shrugs meant, and smiles and nods knowingly to himself.  “Oh, I am an irresistible Monarch, I am!” he seems to be saying.  “I’ll follow this up.”  So he struts down with a fixed smile on his face, like the impudent young dog he is, and pats his chest passionately at her. Louise startled.  “Don’t go away,” says Louis in pantomime.  “I say, there’s an arbour in that shrubbery,—­let’s go and sit in it—­do!” Louise undecided; tries to excuse herself.  “Earwiggy? not a bit of it!” Louis assures her (he wouldn’t be so confident about it if he had seen his Gardeners at work); “come along!” Louise still timid; suggests spiders. Louis vows that no spider shall harm her while he lives to protect her, and draws her gently towards the shrubbery; he does this several times, but on each occasion her dread of insects returns, and she recoils shrinking.  The King puts his arms round her to give her courage, and at this instant, Raoul de Bragelonne returns, sees the back of someone embracing the maiden who was betrothed to him in childhood, draws his sword—­and recognises his Sovereign.  “Whew!” his expression says plainly enough.  “Now I have put my foot in it nicely!” He takes off his hat and apologises profusely; but Louis is indignant.  What’s the use of being a Roi Soleil if you can’t ask a lady of your Court to sit in an arbour without being interrupted like this?  He swells visibly, and intimates that he will pay Raoul out for this in various highly unpleasant ways. Louise kneels to him for pardon. Louis subsides gradually, but still shows the whites of his eyes; finally he tells Raoul to be off. Raoul is submissive—­only wants to know where he’s to go to. Louis points to Heaven, evidently regal politeness forbids him to indicate any other place. Raoul goes off perplexed, and no wonder.  Then, as the Argument explains, “a trumpet-call is heard,” and Louise “bewildered,” perhaps because it is the signal to go and dress for dinner, escapes to the palace; and Louis, feeling that the arbour is only a question of time, follows.  Then Musketeers come off duty and get up an assault-at-arms, until their careful captain, afraid that they will hurt themselves with those nasty swords, orders them to stop, and the First Tableau is over.

[Illustration:  “He swells visibly.”]