"What! the spy Lucas?"
"Himself. And when I left the spot by way of the window in some haste, I was not expecting this honour, Sire."
"Nor do I think you deserve it, ventre-saint-gris!" the king cried.
"Though you come hatless and coat-less to-day, you have been a long time on the road, M. de Mar."
"Aye, Sire."
"You might as well have stayed away as come at this hour. Marry, all"s over! Go hang yourself, my breathless follower! We have fought all our great battles, and you were not there!"
Scarlet under the lash, M. etienne, kneeling, bent his eyes on the ground. He was silent, but as the king spoke not, he felt it inc.u.mbent to stammer something:
"That is my life"s misfortune, Sire."
"Misfortune, sirrah? Misfortune you call it? Let me hear you say fault."
"I dare not, Sire," M. etienne murmured. "It was of course your Majesty"s fault. We cannot serve heretics, we St. Quentins."
"Ventre-saint-gris! You think well of yourself, young Mar."
"I must, Sire, when your Majesty invites me to dinner."
The king burst into laughter, and his temper, which I believe was all a play, vanished to the winds.
"Pardieu! you"re a glib fellow, Mar. But I didn"t invite you to dinner for your own sake, little as you can imagine it. So you would have joined my flag four years ago, had I not been a stinking heretic?"
"Aye, Sire, I needs must have. Therefore am I everlastingly beholden to your Majesty for remaining so long a Huguenot."
"How now, c.o.c.kerel?"
M. etienne faltered a moment. He was not burdened by shyness, but before the king"s sharp glance he underwent a cold terror lest he had been too free with his tongue. However, there was naught to do but go on.
"Sire, had I fought under your banner like a man, at Dieppe and Arques and Ivry, M. de Mayenne had never dreamed of marrying his ward to me. I had never known her."
"The loveliest demoiselle I ever saw!" the king cried. "I shall marry her to one of my staunchest supporters."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MEETING.]
The smile was washed from M. etienne"s lips. He turned as white as linen. In one moment his youth seemed to go from him. The king, unnoting, picked a parchment off the table.
"To one of my bravest captains. Here"s his commission, my lad."
M. etienne stared up from the writing into the king"s laughing face.
"I, Sire? I?"
"You, Mar, you. You are my staunch supporter, perhaps?"
"Your horse-boy, an you ask it, Sire!"
He pressed his lips to the king"s hand, great, helpless tears dripping down upon it.
"If I ever desert you, I am a dog, Sire! But the fighting is not all done. I will capture you a flag yet."
"Perhaps. I much fear me there"s life in Mayenne still."
M. etienne, not venturing to rise, yet lifted beseeching eyes to the king"s.
"What! you want to get away from me, ventre-saint-gris!"
My lord, who wanted precisely that, had no choice but to protest that nothing was farther from his thoughts.
"Stuff!" the king exclaimed. "You"re in a sweat to be gone, you unmannerly churl! You, a raw, untried boy, are invited to dine with the king, and your one itch is to escape the tedium!"
"Sire--"
"Peace! You are guilty, sirrah. Take your punishment!"
He darted across the room, and throwing open an inner door, called gently, "Mademoiselle!"
"Yes, Sire," she answered, coming to the threshold.
The peasant la.s.s was gone forever. The great lady, regal in satins, stood before us. She bent on the king a little, eager, questioning glance; then she caught sight of her lover. Faith, had the sun gone out, the room would have been brilliant with the light of her face.
M. etienne sprang up and toward her. And she, pushing by the king as if he had been the door-post, went to him. They stood before each other, neither touching nor speaking, but only looking one at the other like two blind folk by a heavenly miracle restored to sight.
"How now, children? Am I not a model monarch? Do you swear by me forever? Do you vouch me the very pattern of a king?"
Answer he got none. They heard nothing, knew nothing, but each other.
The slighted king chuckled and, beckoning me, withdrew to his cabinet.
So here an end. For if Henry of France leave them, you and I may not stay.