Stanley John Weyman (1855-1928) was an English novelist most famous for his historical romances set in the turmoil of 16th- and 17th-century France.

In this story, when a position is granted to a member of the household of the King's beloved, which M. de Perrot had coveted for his own son, a round of intrigue begins. M. de Perrot enlists the narrator, M. de Rosny, to arrange for the king to stop at his house in Poissy for a glass of wine the next day after hunting.

This turns out to be a ruse, to engineer an apparently chance encounter between the monarch and de Perrot's very beautiful and charming niece. But M. de Perrot's son overhears the plot and has other ideas.... A series of events follows that nearly changes the course of history....