The  Queen  condescended  to  laugh  at  the  quarrels  of  these
two  foolish  women,  and  complimented  the  Chevalier  de
Grammont  on  his  present  *  But  how  is  it,'  she  asked,  *  that
you  do  not  even  keep  a  footman,  and  that  one  of  the  common
runners  in  the  street  lights  you  home  with  a  link  ?'

'  Madame,'  he  answered,  *  the  Chevalier  de  Grammont  hates
pomp  :  my  link-boy  is  faithful  and  brave.'  Then  he  told  the
Queen  that  he  saw  she  was  unacquainted  with  the  nation  of
link-boys,  and  related  how  that  he  had,  at  one  time,  had  one
hundred  and  sixty  around  his  chair  at  night,  and  people  had
asked  *  whose  funeral  it  was  ?  As  for  the  parade  of  coaches
and  footmen,'  he  added,  *  I  despise  it.  I  have  sometimes  had
five  or  six  valets-de-chambre,  without  a  single  footman  in  livery
except  my  chaplain.'

*  How !'  cried  the  Queen,  laughing,  '  a  chaplain  in  livery  ?
surely  he  was  not  a  priest'

^  PardaUy  Madame,  a  priest,  and  the  best  dancer  in  the  world
of  the  Biscayan  gig.'


78  A  Chaplain  in  Livery,

*  Chevalier,'  said  the  king,  *  tell  us  the  history  of  your
chaplain  Foussatin.'

Then  De  Grammont  related  how,  when  he  was  with  the  great
Cond^,  after  the  campaign  of  Catalonia,  he  had  seen  among  a
company  of  Catalans,  a  priest  in  a  little  black  jacket,  skipping
and  frisking :  how  Cond^  was  charmed,  and  how  they  recog-
nized in  him  a  Frenchman,  and  how  he  offered  himself  to  De
Grammont  for  his  chaplain.  De  Grammont  had  not  much
need,  he  said,  for  a  chaplain  in  his  house,  but  he  took  the
priest,  who  had  afterwards  the  honour  of  dancing  before  Anne
of  Austria,  in  Paris.
