Under the Rose.
by Frederic Stewart Isham.
CHAPTER I
A NEST OF NINNIES
"A song, sweet Jacqueline!"
"No, no--"
"Jacqueline!--Jacqueline!--"
"No more, I say--"
A jingle of tinkling bells mingled with the squeak of a viola; the guffaws of a rompish company blended with the tuneless chanting of discordant minstrels, and the gray parrot in its golden cage, suspended from one of the oaken beams of the ceiling, shook its feathers for the twentieth time and screamed vindictively at the roguish band.
Jingle, jingle, went the merry bells; squeak, squeak, the tightened strings beneath the persistent sc.r.a.ping of the rosined bow. On his throne in Fools" hall, Triboulet, the king"s hunchback, leaned complacently back, his eyes bent upon a tapestry but newly hung in that room, the meeting place of jesters, buffoons and versifiers.
"We appeal to Triboulet--"
"Triboulet!"
A girl"s silvery laugh rang out.
"Triboulet!"
Again the derisive musical tones.
Upon his chair of state, the dwarf did not answer; professed not to hear. By the uncertain glimmer of torches and the flickering glow of the fire he was engaged in tracing a resemblance to himself in the central figure of the composition wrought in threads of silk--Momus, fool by patent to Jove, thrust from Olympus and greeting the earth-born with a great grin.
"An excellent likeness!" muttered Triboulet. "A very pretty likeness!"
he continued, swelling with pride.
And truly it was said that sprightly ladies, working between love and pleasure times, drew from the court fool for their conception of the mythological buffoon, reproducing Triboulet"s great head; his mouth, proportionately large; his protruding eyes; his bowed back, short, twisted legs and long, muscular arms; and his nose far larger than that of Francis, who otherwise had the largest nose in the kingdom.
But how could they depict the meanness of soul that dwelt in that extraordinary sh.e.l.l? The blithesome tapestry-makers, albeit adepts in form, grace and harmony, could not touch the subjectiveness of existence. Thus it was a double pleasure for Triboulet to see, limned in well-chosen hues, his form, the crookedness of which he was as proud as any courtier of his symmetry and beauty, the while his dark, vain soul lay concealed behind the mask of merry deformity and laughing monstrosity.
"Would your Majesty like to command me?"
The mocking feminine voice recalled Triboulet from his pleasing contemplation.
"No, no!" he answered, sullenly, and condescended to turn his glance upon the a.s.semblage.
Over a goodly gathering of jesters, buffoons, poets, and even philosophers, he lorded it, holding his head as high as his hump would permit and conscious of his own place in the esteem of the king. Not long ago the monarch had laughed and applauded when Triboulet had twisted his features into a horrid grimace, and since then the dwarf"s little heart had expanded with such arrogance, it seemed to him he was almost Francis himself as he sat there on Francis" sometime throne; and these Sir Jollys were his subjects all--Marot, Caillette, Brusquet, Villot, and the lesser lights, jesters of barons, cardinals and even bishops! Rabelais, too, that poor, dissolute devil of a writer, learned as Homer, brutish as Homer"s swine--all subjects of his, the king of jesters, save one; one whom he eyed with certain fear and wonder; fear, because she was a woman--and Triboulet esteemed all the s.e.x but "highly perfected devils"--and wonder, at finding her different from, and more perplexing than even the rest of her kind!
"Jacqueline!--"
now she was perched on one corner of the table, and her face had a witch-like loveliness, as though borrowing its pallor and beauty from the moon, source of all magic and necromancy. Her eyes shone with such l.u.s.ter that, seeking their hue, they held the observer"s gaze in mocking languor, and cheated the inquisitive c.o.xcomb of his quest, the while the disdainful lips curved laughingly and so bewildered him, he forgot the customary phrases and stood staring like a nonny. Her footstep fell so light, she was so agile and quick, the superst.i.tious dwarf swore she was but a creature of the night and held surrept.i.tious meetings with all the familiar spirits of demonology. As she never denied the uncanny imputation, but only displayed her small white teeth maliciously, by way of answer, Triboulet felt a.s.sured he was right and crossed himself religiously whenever she gazed too fixedly at him.
A most _gracieuse folle_, her dress was in keeping with her character, yellow being the predominating color. To the fanciful adornment of the gown her lithe figure lent itself readily, while her rebellious curls were well adapted to that badge of her servitude, the jaunty cap that crowned their waving abundance.
In especial disdain, from her position upon the corner of the table, her glance wandered down the board and rested on Rabelais, the gourmand, before whom were an empty trencher and tankard. The priest-doctor-writer-scamp who affected the company of jesters and liked not a little the hospitality of Fools" hall, which adjoined the pastry branch of the castle kitchen and was not far removed from the wine b.u.t.ts, had just unrolled a bundle of ma.n.u.script, all daubed with trencher grease and tankard drippings, and was about to read aloud the strange adventures of one Pantagruel, when, overcome by indulgence, his head fell forward on the table, almost in the wooden platter, and the papers fluttered to the floor.
"Put him out!" commanded Triboulet from his high place.
But she of the jaunty cap sprang from the table.
"How wise are your Majesty"s decrees!" she said mockingly with her glance upon the dwarf. He shifted uneasily in the throne. "You should have put him out before! But now"--turning contemptuously to the poor figure of the great man--"he"s harmless. His silence is golden; his speech was dross."
"And yet," answered Marot, thoughtfully, "the king esteems him; the king who is at once scholar, poet, wit, soldier--"
"Soldier!" she exclaimed, quickly. "When he can not conquer Italy and regain his heritage!"
"Can not?" ventured Triboulet, mindful of the dignity of his royal master. "Why not?"
"Because the women would conquer him!"
"Nay; the king prefers the blue eyes of France," spoke up the cardinal"s fool, he of the viola.
"Then do you set our queen of fools, our fair Jacqueline, out of his Majesty"s good graces," interposed one of the lesser jesters, a mere baron"s hireling, who long had burned with secret admiration for the maid of the coquettish cap.
"I am _such_ a fool as to want the good graces of no man--or monarch!"
she replied boldly, without glancing at the speaker.
"An he were in love, you would be two fools!" laughed Caillette, the court poet.
"In love, "tis only the man is the fool or--the fooled!" she returned pointedly, and Caillette, despite his self-possession, flushed painfully. Since Diane de Poitiers had wedded her ancient lord, the poet had become grave, studious, almost sad.
"And is your mistress, the king"s ward, fooling with her betrothed?" he asked quickly, conscious of knowing winks and nudges.
"The Princess Louise and the Duke of Friedwald are to wed for reasons of state," said the young woman, gravely. "There"ll be no fools."
"Ah, a loveless match!"
"But not a landless one!" retorted she of the cap without the bells.
"Besides, it cements the friendship of Francis and Charles V! What more would you? But I"ll tell you a secret."
At that the company flocked around her, as though there was something enticing in her tone; the vague promise of an interesting bit of gossip or the indefinite suggestion of a court scandal.
"A secret!" said the cardinal"s fool, rubbing his hands together. His master often rewarded him for particularly choice morsels of loose t.i.ttle-tattle.
"Oh, nothing very wicked!" she answered, waving them back with her small hand. ""Tis only that they play at make-believe in love, the princess and her betrothed! But after all, it is far more sensible than real love-making, where if the pleasure be more acute, the pangs are therefore the greater. She addresses to him the tenderest counterfeit verses; he returns them in kind. She even simulated such an illusory sadness that the duke has sent his own jester, who has but just arrived at court, to amuse her (ahem!) dullness, until he himself could come!"
At this the cardinal"s buffoon looked disappointed, for his master liked more highly-flavored hearsay, while Triboulet frowned and brought down his heavy fist upon the arm of the throne.
"A new jester forsooth!" he exclaimed.