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The King's Esquires: The Jewel of France, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 26. So Does Denis |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY SIX. SO DOES DENIS It was the very next day that Denis, after his attendance upon Francis, who had gone to join Henry, was alone in the King's apartments, standing in the deep recess of a casement window, which he had flung open, and was leaning out gazing at the landscape stretching far and wide before him, and giving him a silvery glimpse here and there of the bright glittering river. He was so lost in admiration of the scene that he did not hear the door open, and was only made conscious of some one being in the room behind him by hearing a low muttering voice say: "A blind search! A blind search! What shall I do next to bring it to an end?" Denis made a sharp movement, catching the sleeve of his doublet against the copper fastening which held open the casement; and as he turned a nervous hand suddenly seized him by the shoulder in a painful grasp, for it was as if fingers of steel were pressing into his flesh. "You, Master Leoni!" he cried, as the clutch was relaxed as quickly as it came. "Yes, my boy," said the doctor; and the lad shivered slightly as the fierce fire in one of Leoni's eyes died into a pleasant smile, though the cold fixed stare in the other remained the same as of old. "I thought I was alone." "Well, boy; do you like your life here in the castle?" "Oh yes," cried Denis; "but when are we to have, Carrbroke and I, another fencing lesson?" "At any time when the King does not require my services," said Leoni, smiling. "Why, you will soon be a better swordsman than I." "Oh, sir!" cried Denis deprecatingly. "Well, say as good, my dear boy, when you know all that I can teach you." "And you will teach me all, sir?" "Of course, of course," said the doctor, laying his hand caressingly on the boy's shoulder. "You are a pupil of whom I feel proud. But tell me," he continued, as he passed his hand softly along the muscles of the lad's arm, "what about the stiffness and pain?" "All gone, sir. That salve you applied seemed to make it pass entirely away." "That is good," said the doctor, nodding his head. "But tell me, boy, was I speaking aloud when I came into the room?" "Not aloud, sir, but just so that I could hear what you said." "Ah, a bad habit! And what did I say?" "It was something about a blind search." "Ah, yes; and you guessed at once what I meant?" "Why, yes, sir. I immediately thought that you meant the--" With a quick movement, accompanied by a smile, Leoni's long, thin, brown fingers were laid upon Denis's lips. "Hist, boy! We are in King Henry's palace, where walls may have ears. Speak it not. We understand one another, and know what in our master's service we have come to seek. Denis, you are a boy in years, but I find you in many things a man at heart, and there should be no half confidences between us two. I like you, my boy, and always have, stern and cold and severe as I may have seemed. My face may have been hard, but there are moments when my heart is soft. Denis, my son, we are working for the King and for France, and so far I am at fault. I thought my task would be so easy that, once here, that which we seek would be within my grasp; and so far it seems beyond me, while the golden hours glide swiftly away, and before many days have passed our visit with all its risks must have an end. I shiver sometimes, boy, as I stand close by and listen to our master's careless, light-hearted speech. Again and again he has been within an ace of betraying who he is, and at any moment some of the sharper-witted of the courtiers by whom we are surrounded may grasp the truth, and then, Denis, as Francis has said, we are in the lion's den and the risk is great." "Yes, sir; I see all that," said Denis, in a low earnest whisper. "Then you have no idea where the jewel of France is kept?" "Not the slightest, boy, and I want you to use your eyes and ears to help me all you can. There is that young English esquire. You are great friends; perhaps he might know. I don't like asking you to play the spy and betray your friend, but the English are our natural enemies. We are here upon a sacred mission, and we must quiet our consciences with the recollection that what we seek was torn by conquest from the Valois diadem." "Yes, I know, sir," whispered Denis eagerly, influenced as he was by the masterful spirit and words of his tutor. "Then try, boy; try your best to help me, while we have time. You promise me this?" "Of course, sir. But what," cried Denis, with his eyes flashing, "if I already know?" "Boy!" cried Leoni excitedly; and he caught his young companion by the shoulders, but checked himself, instantly drew back, walked slowly across the room to the door, opened it and looked out, and then came back and signed to Denis to close the window, while he softly moved here and there; and the boy noticed how, as if to examine the beauty of the silken hangings, he touched them again and again, as if to make sure that no listener was concealed behind. Leoni ended by joining his young companions in the deep embrasure of the window, taking him by the arm, and pressing him towards the diamond panes of the casement as if to draw his attention to something out beyond the terrace and the steep slope below. "Now," he said, in a quick whisper, "speak beneath your breath. You know where?" "In the tall, square-turreted cabinet three parts of the way down the long corridor by the King's private apartments." "Ah, I have not been there, and dared not raise suspicion by asking permission to go. Are you sure?" "Carrbroke has as good as told me it was there. He spoke of a charm with fateful powers of its own, and that the King held gems as sacred relics." "Ah!" ejaculated Leoni softly. "Boy, you make me begin to live." "Shall I tell you something more, sir?" "There can be nothing more that I wish to hear," whispered Leoni. "Boy, you have filled an empty void. But speak; tell me what more you have to say." "The King has a secret passage whose door is in the arras two chambers down the long corridor farther on." "Young Carrbroke told you so?" "Yes." "Bah! But it would be a secret way known only to himself, of no avail to us. It could not be found. Once the relic is in our hands, a silken rope and some window must be our way." "But I know the secret of the passage, sir, how to open the door, and where the passage leads." "Where, boy, where?" cried Leoni excitedly. "Down to the grounds, and then by a long winding alley through the private gardens to the riverside." "Hist!" whispered Leoni. "No more, boy, for your words have seemed to burn. Ah, it is strange! The workings too of fate. What I have striven for in vain has come to you without seeking, without thought. It is fate, boy, fate. The spirit of our great nation is working on our behalf, and has made you the chosen instrument of our success. We must, we shall succeed, and through you. Now silence; not another word but these. I say silence, Denis. It is for our master's sake and for _la France_." _ |
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