"Here am I caught to stay, Jacqueline!" he said. "The horse is dead.
But you--you must still go on."
With clasped hands she stood looking down at him. She scarcely knew what he was saying; her mind seemed in a stupor; with apathetic eyes she gazed down the road. But the accident had happened in a little hollow, so that the outlook in either direction along the highway was restricted.
"My emperor is both chivalrous and n.o.ble," continued the _plaisant_, quickly. "Go to him. You must not wait here longer. I did not tell you, but I think the free baron will have no difficulty in crossing.
You have no time to lose. Go; and--good-by!"
"But--he had a long way to ride--even if he could cross," she said slowly, pa.s.sing her hand over her brow.
"Jacqueline!" he cried out, impatiently.
She made no motion to leave, and, reading in her face her determination, angered by his own helplessness, he strove violently to release himself, until wrenching his foot in his frantic efforts, he sank back with a groan. At that sound of pain, wrung from him in spite of his fort.i.tude, all her seeming apathy vanished. With a low cry, she dropped on her knees in the road and swiftly took his head in her arms.
It was he, not the young girl, who spoke first. He forgot all peril--hers and his. He only knew her warm, young arms were about him; that her heart was throbbing wildly.
"Jacqueline!" he cried, pa.s.sionately. "Jacqueline!" And threw an arm about her, drawing her closer, closer.
Did she hear him? She did not reply. Nor did she release him. She did not even look down. But he felt her bosom rising and falling faster than its wont.
"Jacqueline," he repeated, "are you listening?"
She stirred slightly; the pallor left her face. In her gaze shone a light difficult to divine--pity, tenderness, a warmer pa.s.sion? Where had he seen it before? In the cell when he lay injured; in his waking dreams? It seemed the sudden dawn of the full beauty of her eyes; a half-remembered impression which now became real. Yet even as she looked down his face changed; his eager glance grew dark; he listened intently.
The sound of horses" hoofs beat upon the air.
"Jacqueline!--go!--there is yet time!"
Abruptly she arose. He held out his hand for a last quick pressure; a G.o.d-speed to this stanch maid-comrade of the motley.
"G.o.d keep you, mistress!"
Standing in the road, gazing up the hollow, she neither saw his hand nor caught his words of farewell. An expression of bewilderment had overspread her features; quickly she glanced in the opposite direction.
"See! see!" she exclaimed, excitedly.
But he was past response; overcome by pain, in a last desperate attempt to regain his feet, he had lost consciousness. As he fell back, above the hill in the direction she was looking, appeared the black plumes of a band of hors.e.m.e.n.
"No; they are not--"
Her glance rested on the jester, lying there motionless, and hastening to his side, she lifted his head and placed it in her lap. So the troopers of the Emperor Charles--a small squad of outriders--found her sitting in the road, her hair disordered about her, her face the whiter against that black shroud.
CHAPTER XXV
IN THE TENT OF THE EMPEROR
On an eminence commanding the surrounding country an unwonted spectacle that same day had presented itself to the astonished gaze of the workers in a neighboring vineyard. Gleaming with crimson and gold, a number of tents had appeared as by magic on the mount, the temporary encampment of a rich and numerous cavalcade. But it was not the splendent aspect of this unexpected bivouac itself so much as the colors and designs of the flags and banners floating above which aroused the wonderment of the tillers of the soil. Here gleamed no salamander, with its legend, "In fire am I nourished; in fire I die,"
but the less magniloquent and more dreaded coat of arms of the emperor, the royal rival and one-time jailer of the proud French monarch.
The sunlight, reflected from the golden ta.s.sels and ornamentation of the tents, threw a flaming menace over the valley, and the peasants in subdued tones talked of the sudden coming of the dreaded foeman. _Mere de Dieu_! what did it portend! _Ventre Saint Gris_! were they going to storm the fortresses of the king? Was an army following this formidable retinue of n.o.bles, soldiers and servants?
Above, on the mount, as the sun climbed toward the meridian, was seated in one of the largest of the tents a man of resolute and stern mien who gazed reflectively toward the fertile plain outstretching in the distance. His grizzled hair told of the after-prime of life; he was simply, even plainly, dressed, although his garments were of fine material, and from his neck hung a heavy chain of gold. His doublet lacked the prolonged and grotesque peak, and was less puffed, slashed and banded than the coat worn by those gallants of the day who looked to Italy for the latest extravagances of fashion. His hat, lying carelessly on the table at his elbow, was devoid of aigrette, jewels or plume; a head-covering for the campaign rather than the court. Within reach of his hand stood a heavy golden goblet of ma.s.sive German workmanship, the solid character of which contrasted with the drinking vessels after Cellini"s patterns affected by Francis. This he raised to his lips, drank deeply, replaced the goblet on the table, and said as much to himself as to those around him:
"A fair land, this of our brother! Small wonder he likes to play the host, even to his enemies. We may conquer him on the ensanguined field, but he conquers us--or Henry of England!--on a field of cloth of gold!"
"But for your Majesty to put yourself in the king"s power?" ventured a courtier, who wore a begemmed torsade and a cloak of Genoa velvet.
The monarch leaned back in his great chair and his face grew harsh. As he sat there musing, his virility and iron figure gave him rather the appearance of the soldier than the emperor. This impression his surroundings further emphasized, for the walls of the tent were covered, not with the gorgeous-colored Gobelins of the pleasure-loving French, but with severe and stately tapestries from his native Flanders, depicting in somber shades various scenes of martial triumph.
When he raised his head he cast a look of ominous displeasure upon the last speaker.
"Had he not once the English king beneath his roof?" answered the monarch. "At Amboise, where we visited Francis some years ago, was there any restraint put upon us?"
A grim smile crossed his features at the recollection of the gorgeous _fetes_ in his honor on that other occasion. Perhaps, too, he thought of the excitements held out by those servitors of the king, the frail and fair ladies of the court, for he added:
"_Saints et saintes_! "twas a palace of pleasure, not a dungeon, he prepared for us. But enough of this! It is time we rode on. Let the cavalcade, with the tents, follow behind."
"Think you, your Majesty, if the princess be not yet married to the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, she is like to espouse the true duke?" asked the courtier, as a soldier left the tent to carry out the orders of the emperor.
Charles arose abruptly. "Of a surety! He must have loved her greatly, else--"
The clattering of hoofs, drawing nearer, interrupted the emperor"s ruminations, and, wheeling sharply, he gazed without. A band of hors.e.m.e.n appeared on the mount.
"The outriders!" he said in surprise. "Why have they returned?"
"They are bearing some one on a litter," answered the attendant n.o.ble, "and--_cap de Dieu_--there is a woman with them!"
As the troops approached, the emperor strode forward. Out in the sunlight his face appeared older, more careworn, but although it cost him an effort to walk, his step was unfaltering. A moment he surveyed the men with peremptory glance, and then, casting one look at their burden, uttered an exclamation. His surprise, however, was of short duration. At once his features resumed their customary rigor.
"What does this mean?" he asked, shortly, addressing the leader of the soldiers. "Is he badly hurt?"
"That I can not say, your Majesty," replied the man. "A horse fell upon his leg, which is badly bruised, and there may be other injuries."
"Where did you find him?" continued the emperor, still regarding the pale face of the _plaisant_.
"Not far from here, your Majesty. The woman was sitting in the road, holding his head."
Charles" glance swiftly sought the jestress and then returned.
"They were being pursued, for shortly after we came a squad of men appeared from the opposite direction. When they saw us they fled. The woman insisted upon being brought here, when she learned of your Majesty"s presence."
"Take the injured man into the next tent and see he has every care. As for the woman, I will speak with her alone."
"Your Majesty"s orders to break camp--" began the courtier.
"We have changed our mind and will remain here for the present." And the emperor, without further words, turned and reentered his pavilion.