"Those arms, embroidered on your dress--what do they mean?" said the king shortly.
"The arms of my master"s master, your Majesty!" was the over-confident answer.
"Who is your master?"
"The Duke of Friedwald, Sire, the betrothed of the Princess Louise."
"And your purpose here?"
"My master sent me to the princess. "I"ll miss thee, rogue," said he.
""Tis proof of love to send thee, my merry companion of the wine cup!
But go! Nature hath formed thee to conjure sadness from a lady"s face." So I set out upon my perilous journey, and, favored by fortune, am but safely arrived. I was e"en now about to repair to the princess, whom I trust, in my humble way, to amuse."
"And thou shalt!" said the king, significantly.
"Oh, your Majesty!" with a.s.sumed modesty.
"That is," added Francis, "if it will amuse her to see you hanged!"
"And if it did not amuse her, Sire?" spoke up the new-comer, without a tremor in his voice.
"What then?" asked the king.
"It would be a breach of hospitality to hang me, the servant of the duke who is servant of Charles V!" he replied boldly.
Francis started. Like a menace shone the arms of the great emperor.
Vividly he recalled his own humiliation, his long captivity, and mistrusted the power of his subtile, amiable friend-enemy. Friendship?
Sweeter was hatred. But the promptings of wisdom had suggested the policy of peace; the reins of expediency drove him, autocrat or slave, to the doctrines of loving brotherhood. He turned his gloomy eyes upon the glowing countenance of Triboulet.
"What say you, fool?"
"Your Majesty," answered the eager dwarf, "could hang him without breach of hospitality."
"How do you make that good, Triboulet?" asked the monarch.
"The duke has given him to the princess. The princess is a subject of your Majesty. The king of France has jurisdiction over the princess"
fool and surely can proceed in so small a matter as hanging him."
Francis bent a malignant look upon the young man. Behind the dwarf stood the jestress, now an earnest spectator of the scene.
"This new-comer"s stay with us promises to be brief, Caillette," she whispered.
"Hark, you witch! He answers," returned the poet.
"What can he say?" she retorted, shrugging her shoulders. "He is already condemned."
"Are you pleased, mistress? Just because the poor fellow stared at you overmuch."
"Oh," she said, insensibly, "it was written he should hang himself.
Now we"ll hear how ably Audacity parleys with Fate."
"It would be no breach of hospitality, Sire, to hang the princess"
fool," spoke the condemned man with no sign of waning confidence, "yet it would seem to depreciate the duke"s gift. Your Majesty should hang the one and spare the other. "Tis a matter of logic," he went on quickly, "to point out where the duke"s gift ends and the princess"
fool begins. A gift is a gift until it is received. The princess has not yet received the duke"s gift. Therefore, your Majesty can not hang me, as the princess" fool; nor would your Majesty desire to hang me as the duke"s gift."
Imperceptibly the monarch"s mien relaxed, for next to a contest with blades he liked the quick play of words.
"Answer him, Triboulet," he said.
"Your Majesty--your Majesty--" stammered the dwarf, and paused in despair, his wits failing him at the critical juncture.
"Enough!" commanded the king, sternly. A sound of suppressed merriment even as he spoke startled the gathering. "Who laughed?" he cried suddenly. "Was it you, mistress?" fastening his eyes upon the young woman.
Her head fell lower and lower like some dark flower on a slender stem.
From out of the veil of her mazy hair came a voice, soft with seeming humility.
"It might have been Jocko, Sire," she said. "He sometimes laughs like that."
The king looked from the woman to the bird; then from the bird to the woman, a gleam of recollection in his glance.
"Humph!" he muttered. "Is this where you serve your mistress? Look to it you serve not yourself ill!"
An instant her eyes flashed upward.
"My mistress is at prayers," she answered, and looked down again as quickly.
"And you meanwhile prefer the drollery of these madcaps to the attentions of our courtiers?" said Francis, more gently. "Certes are you gipsy-born!"
Her hands clasped tighter, but she answered not, and he turned more sternly to the new king of the motley. "As for you," he continued, "for the present the duke"s gift is spared. But let the princess" fool look to himself. Remember, a guarded tongue insures a ripe old age, and even a throne in Fools" hall is fraught with hazard. Here! some of you, take this"--indicating the sleeping Rabelais--"and throw it into the horse-pond. Yet see that he does not drown--your heads upon it!
"Tis to him France looks for learning."
He paused; glanced back at the kneeling girl. "You, Mistress Who-Seeks-to-Hide-Her-Face, teach that parrot not to laugh!" he added grimly.
The tapestry waved. Mute the motley throng stared where the king had stood. A light hand touched the arm of the duke"s fool, and, turning, he beheld the young woman; her eyes were alight with new fire.
"In G.o.d"s name," she exclaimed, pa.s.sionately, "let us leave. You have done mischief enough. Follow me."
"Where"er you will," he responded gallantly.
CHAPTER III
A GIFT FOR THE DUKE
The sun and the breeze contended with the mist, intrenched in the stronghold of the valley. From the east the red orb began its attack; out of the west rode the swift-moving zephyrs, and, vanquished, the wavering vapor stole off into thin air, or hung in isolated wreaths above the foliage on the hillside. Soon the conquering light brightly illumined a medieval castle commanding the surrounding country; the victorious breeze whispered loudly at its gloomy cas.e.m.e.nts. A great Norman structure, somber, austere, it was, however brightened with many modern features that threatened gradually to sap much of its ancient majesty.