"And the king, of course, believed," he said. "Oh, credulous king!" he added scornfully. "Was ever a monarch so easily befooled? A judge of men? No; a ruler who trusts rather to fortune and blind destiny.
Unlike Charles, he looks not through men, but at them."
"Think no more of it," she broke in, hastily, seeing the effect of her words.
"Nay, good Jacqueline," quickly retorted the jester; "the truth, I pray you. Believe me, I shall mend the sooner for it. What said the duke--as he calls himself?"
"Why, he shook his head ruefully," answered the girl, not noticing his reservation. ""Your Majesty," he said, "for the memory of bygone quibbles I sought him, but found him not--alack!--on the stool of repentance.""
About the fool"s mouth quivered the grim suggestion of a half-smile.
"He is the best jester of us all," he muttered. "And then?" fastening his eyes upon hers.
""No sooner, Sire," went on the duke, "had I entered the cell than he rushed upon me, and, it grieves me, I used the wit-snapper roughly."
So"--folding her hands before her and gazing at the _plaisant_--"I e"en came to see if you were killed."
"You came," he said. "Yes; but how?"
"What matters it?" she answered. "Perhaps it was magic, and the cell-doors flew open at my touch."
"I can almost believe it," he returned.
And his glance fell thoughtfully from her to the couch. Before the a.s.sault he had lain at night upon the straw on the floor, and this unhoped-for immunity from the dampness of the stones or the scampering of occasional rats suggested another starting point for mental inquiry.
She smiled, reading the interrogation on his face.
"One of the turnkeys furnished the bed," she remarked, shrewdly. "Do you like it?"
"It is a better couch than I have been accustomed to," he replied, in no wise misled by her response, and surmising that her solicitation had procured him this luxury. "Nevertheless, the night has seemed strangely long."
"It has been long," she returned, moving toward the window. "A week and more."
Surprise, incredulity, were now written upon his features. That such an interval should have elapsed since the evening of the free baron"s visit appeared incredible. He could not see her countenance as she spoke; only her figure; the upper portion bright, the lower fading into the deep shadows beneath the aperture in the wall.
"You tell me I have lain here a week?" he asked finally, recalling obscure memories of faintly-seen faces and voices heard as from afar.
"And more," she repeated.
For some moments he remained silent, pa.s.sing from introspection to a current of thought of which she could know nothing; the means he had taken to thwart the ambitious projects of the king"s guest.
"Has Caillette returned?" he continued, with ill-disguised eagerness.
"Caillette?" she answered, lifting her brows at the abruptness of the inquiry. "Has he been away? I had not noticed. I do not know."
"Then is he still absent," said the jester, decisively. "Had he come back, you would have heard."
Quickly she looked at him. Caillette!--Spain!--these were the words he had often uttered in his delirium. Although he seemed much better and the hot flush had left his cheeks, his fantasy evidently remained.
"A week and over!" resumed the fool, more to himself than to his companion. "But he still may return before the duke is wedded."
"And if he did return?" she asked, wishing to humor him.
"Then the duke is not like to marry the princess," he burst out.
"Not like--to marry!" she replied, suddenly, and moved toward him. Her clear eyes were full upon him; closely she studied his worn features.
"Not like--but he has married her!"
The jester strove to spring to his feet, but his legs seemed as relaxed as his brain was dazed.
"Has married!--impossible!" he exclaimed fiercely.
"They were wedded two days since," she went on quietly, possibly regretting that surprise, or she knew not what, had made her speak.
"Wedded two days since!"
He repeated it to himself, striving to realize what it meant. Did it mean anything? He remembered how mockingly the jestress" face had shone before him in the past; how derisive was her irony. From Fools"
hall to the pavilion of the tournament had she flouted him.
"Wedded two days since!"
"You must have your drollery," he said, unsteadily, at length.
She did not reply, and he continued to question her with his eyes.
Quite still she remained, save for an almost imperceptible movement of breathing. Against the dull beams from the aperture above, her hair darkly framed her face, pale, dim with half-lights, illusory. When he again spoke his voice sounded new to his own ears.
"How could the princess have been married? Even if I have lain here as long as you say, the day for the wedding was set for at least a week from now."
"But changed!" she responded, unexpectedly.
"Changed!" he cried, sitting on the edge of the couch, and regarding her as though he doubted he had heard aright. "Why should it have been changed?"
"Because the duke became a most impatient suitor," she answered.
"Daily he grew more eager. Finally, to attain his end, he importuned the countess. She laughed, but good-naturedly acceded to his request, and, in turn importuned the king--who generously yielded. It has been a rare laughing matter at court--that the duke, who appeared the least pa.s.sionate adorer, should really have been such a restless one."
"Dolt that I have been!" exclaimed the jester, with more anger, it seemed to the girl, than jealousy. "He knew about Caillette, but professed to be ignorant that the emperor was in Spain. And I believed his words; thought I was holding something from him; let myself imagine he could not penetrate my designs. While all the time he was intriguing with the king"s favorite and felt the sense of his own security. What a cat"s paw he made of me! And so he--they are gone, Jacqueline?"
"Yes," she returned, surprised at his language, and, for the first time, wondering if the duke"s wooing admitted of other complications than she had suspected. "They are on their way to the duke"s kingdom."
"His kingdom!" said the fool, with derision. "But go on. Tell me about it, Jacqueline. Their parting with the court? How they set out on their journey. All, Jacqueline; all!"
"They were married in the Chapelle de la Trinite," responded the girl, hesitating. Then with an odd side look, she went on rapidly: "The bridal party made an imposing cavalcade: the princess in her litter, behind a number of maids on horseback. At the castle gates several pages, dressed as Cupids, sent silver arrows after the bridal train.
"Hymen; Io Hymen!" cried the throng. "G.o.dspeed!" exclaimed Queen Marguerite, and threw a parchment, tied with a golden ribbon, into the princess" litter; an epithalamium, in verse, written in her own fair hand. "_Esto perpetua_!" murmured the red cardinal. Besides the groom"s own men, the king sent a strong escort to the border, and thus it was a numerous company that rode from the castle, with colors flying and the princess" handkerchief fluttering from her litter a last farewell."
"A last farewell!" repeated the fool. "A splendent picture, Jacqueline. They all shouted _Te Deum_, and none stood there to warn her."
"To warn!" retorted the jestress. "Not a maid but envied her that spectacle; the magnificence and splendor!"
"But not what will follow," he said, and, lying back on his couch, closed his eyes.
Rapidly the scene pa.s.sed before him; the false duke at the head of the cavalcade, elate, triumphant; the princess in her litter, brilliant, dazzling; the laughter, the hurried adieus; tears and smiles; the smart sayings of the jesters, a bride their legitimate prey, her blushes the delight of the facetious n.o.bles; the complacency of the pleasure-loving king--all floated before his eyes like the figment of a dream. How mocking the pomp and glitter! For the princess, what an awakening was to ensue! The free baron must have known the emperor was in Spain, and had met the fool"s stratagem with a final masterly manoeuver. The bout was over; the first great bout; but in the next--would there be a next?
Jacqueline"s words now implied a doubt.