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The King's Esquires: The Jewel of France, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 4. The Doctor's Eyes |
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_ CHAPTER FOUR. THE DOCTOR'S EYES For some moments the trio remained kneeling and staring up at the King in absolute wonderment; for in a few brief words he had swept away, as by the touch of a magician's wand, the gathering feeling of jealous annoyance which was forming in each breast. Leoni was the first to find the use of his tongue; but it was in a hesitating way quite foreign to his usual speech that he faltered out: "You go, Sire?" "Yes, I said so," said the King sharply. "But it is impossible, Sire. You could not stoop to do such a thing as this." "Then what's the use of being a king," cried Francis, "if one cannot do what one likes?" Leoni slowly rose to his feet and shrugged his shoulders. "That is a question I cannot answer, Sire. It forms part of the scheme of life. I have lived fifty years in the world, thirty of which have been spent in thinking and in study of my fellows. I never met one man yet who could do exactly as he liked." "Well, if you come to that," said the King, "I don't think that I ever did; but I mean to do this all the same." "But how could you, Sire? If the King of England chose to play you false he might throw you into prison." "What!" cried Francis hotly. "And hold you to ransom, Sire." "Ah! I didn't think of that; but if he did it would give young Denis a chance to come and rescue me. You would, wouldn't you, boy?" "Yes, Sire, or die in the attempt." "Don't you be so fond of talking about dying," cried the King. "Who wants to die? Here, with all France at my feet, one wants to live and enjoy oneself. But let's see, Leoni; that wouldn't do at all. What's to be done?" "Your Majesty will have to stay at Fontainebleau and let your servant do this duty, as he has said." "No!" shouted the King. "I told you I would go myself." "With a powerful following, Sire," cried Saint Simon, giving Leoni a triumphant look. "Let me choose and lead your bodyguard." Denis frowned and set his teeth hard in his annoyance at being passed in the race by his companion; but he brightened directly on hearing the King's next impatient words: "Hang your bodyguard! Leoni is right." "Yes, Sire," said that individual, just loud enough for the young man to hear. "This must be done with guile." Denis's eyes flashed. "Pardon, Sire," he cried eagerly. "You might go in disguise." And the next moment the boy's heart swelled within his breast, for the King slapped him heartily on the shoulder. "Good!" he cried. "That's it! Do you hear, Leoni? That's the idea: I'll go in disguise." "Sire! It is impossible!" cried the doctor. "Quite," said the King, laughing; "but I like doing impossible things. Let me see, what's the proper way to go to work? I have it! As a learned doctor like you. H'm, no. They'd want me to cure somebody, and I should be killing him perhaps. Here, Saint Simon, how should I disguise myself?" "Well, Sire, if I were going to undertake the task I should dress myself like a--like a--like a--" "Minstrel, Sire," cried Denis excitedly, "like the English King Alfred." "Or Richard Coeur de Lion," shouted Saint Simon, striving not to be beaten in the race. "Here, hallo!" cried the King, "that won't do! I do know better than that. It was Richard's minstrel who went in disguise." "Yes, Sire," cried Denis eagerly, while Leoni, with his eyelids nearly closed, glanced from one to the other with a look of contempt. "That will not do," said the King gruffly. "There is no instrument that I could play; but I must go as something." "Is your Majesty seriously determined to go in disguise?" said the doctor. "Yes, old Wisdom. Now then, what do you propose?" "I can only think of one way, Sire, and that is that I should go as what I am--a doctor--a part, I believe, that I could worthily play." "Of course," said the King. "There is not a better doctor in the world." Leoni's eyes flashed, as he bowed his head gravely. "But you are not going," said the King decisively. "No, Sire, unless your Majesty thought it wise that I should go, and take you as my servant." "What!" shouted the King. "In disguise, of course, Sire." "That I won't!" cried the King. "Either in disguise or out of it. Bah! Pish! The idea is absurd. Go as your servant! Are you growing into your dotage, man?" The two young men exchanged glances, brothers once again in combination against their rival for the King's favour, who seemed to be coming to the front and leaving them behind. "Pardon me, Sire," said the doctor humbly. "I proposed that, as it seemed an easy way to achieve your ends." "I would sooner give up the project, Master Leoni," said the King haughtily. "Propose something else." The doctor spread his hands apart in the most self-abasing way, but the King was not appeased. "Picture me, the eldest son of Holy Church, His Most Christian Majesty, masquerading as the servant of a leech! Have a care, Master Leoni. You have a way of handling a lancet and letting your patients' blood. Recollect that kings have a way too of treating patients so that they never bleed again." "I am your Majesty's humble slave," said Leoni, in low, deprecating tones; but Denis noticed that there was no humility in the half veiled eyes as they were lowered to the ground; "You are forgiven," said the King. "But have a care. By the Faith! It brought the blood hotly to my eyes! Now then, speak again. In what habit shall I go?" There was silence in the chamber, broken the next moment by the impatient trampling of the monarch's feet as he paced up and down, while for a time nobody ventured to speak. And then in his excitement lest he should be supplanted, it was Denis who sprang into the gap. "I have a plan, Sire," he cried. "Go as a powerful French noble, travelling to see the Courts of Europe, and--and--" "Yes, go on, boy. That notion likes me well." "Your Majesty might take me as your esquire, or page," added the boy, trembling lest he should have brought his master's wrath down burning upon his head. "Hah!" shouted the King, and for a moment the boy's heart sank, for the King's hand came down upon his shoulder in a painful grip; but the next moment the sinking heart rose with a bound, his eyes flashed with excitement, and for the life of him he could not keep from darting triumphant glances at his fellow-courtiers. "There, Master Leoni! There, Saint Simon! Who dares tell me we haven't got a young Solomon of wisdom in our Court? Hear him! That's the very idea I had in my own breast, only I couldn't think it then. Yes, Denis, that's the plan, and we will go at once." "But your Majesty will want other followers," cried Saint Simon excitedly. "I could--" "Select a score of quarrelsome, fiery young blades like yourself, to pick quarrels with the English courtiers and spoil our plans? No, sir; that will never do." "Oh!" groaned the young man, so despairingly that the King laughed merrily. "Well, you're not a bad fellow, Saint Simon, and I might get into some trouble and want the help of your sword as well as my own. Denis, boy, shall we take him with us?" The lad flushed deeply at the "shall we?" It was his moment of triumph. He was called upon to say yes or no, and he turned his eyes, which flashed with pride, upon his elder companion, who gazed at him imploringly, and generosity prevailed. "Oh yes, Sire," he cried. "He will be a splendid follower to have with us at such a time." "Then he shall come," cried the King; and Saint Simon sprang forward to kiss his sovereign's hand, while as he rose he turned his eyes upon Denis, and the boy react in them, as it were, the extinction of rivalry, for they seemed to say, I shall never forget this. "Then that's about all," cried the King, with a sigh of mingled relief and content. "Sire, may your servant speak?" said Leoni humbly. "Yes. What is it?" was the impatient reply. "You are going into a strange country to encounter many perils." "Pooh! Adventures." "And adventures," said Leoni--"and may meet with injuries, suffer in your health. Would it not be wise to have the leech in your train?" "My faith, no!" cried the monarch. "I know you of old, my plotting, scheming friend. You would be having me ill, stretched upon a pallet, within a week, and then it is the doctor who becomes the King. I think we three can manage without your help; but I won't be forgetful of old services, and I'll trust you in this. There is no such scribe about the Court as you, so you shall keep a chronicle of everything that happens here while the cat's away, and read the record of the sporting of my mice to me on my return. I can trust you to see twice as much as any other man about the Court, in your double-sighted way." "Double-sighted suggests duplicity, Sire," said the doctor. "No, no; I don't mean that," cried the King, "and you know it. If I thought that you were guilty of duplicity, Leoni, do you think that I should trust you as I do? There," he continued impatiently, "don't look at me like that, man. It worries me." "It is my misfortune, Sire, not my intention." "Of course. I know; I know. But you look sometimes as if you were keeping me in conversation with one eye, while the other was seeking how to take me at a disadvantage." "That's what people about the Court say, Sire," said the doctor, with a grim smile. "Yes, I know," replied the King. "I have heard Saint Simon say so. I shouldn't have thought of it myself. But it is quite right, all the same." "In appearance, Sire; but it is not true." The King laughed. "My dear doctor, yes, of course; I know that. Do you know what I lay and thought once when I was ill?" "No, Sire; but something wise, no doubt." "Bah! None of your subtle flattery. No one knows better than I do, Leoni, that I am not a clever man. What I lay and thought was that you had studied your two crafts so well that one eye was the window from which the clever doctor's brain looked out, the other that of the calm, quiet, thoughtful statesman. I should long to have two such eyes as yours, Leoni, only that there are the ladies, you know. I don't think that they would approve, eh, doctor? What is your experience?" "That your Majesty is quite right," replied the other, with his cynical smile. "I have never been a ladies' man." _ |
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