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The King's Esquires: The Jewel of France, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 48. Leoni's Secret |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT. LEONI'S SECRET The festive days were few before Francis, now the honoured guest of Henry, left Windsor on his return to Fontainebleau, for he was still weak and suffering from his wound; but it was a pleasant time, especially to the King's esquires, after a little cloud had cleared away and the sun of two young lives once more was shining bright and clear. It was towards the evening of the day succeeding the events of the last chapter, when Denis caught sight from one of the windows of the King's gallery of Carrbroke walking in the gardens below, looking moody and strange, while all at once, as if conscious that he was being watched, he glanced up at the window and caught sight of Denis looking out ready to wave his hand. The English lad frowned, turned his back, and began walking away, while, stung to the heart by his reception, the blood flushed in the French lad's face, and drawing back from the window he ran along the gallery, to descend into the court, reach the garden, and make his way to that portion of the pleasaunce where he had seen his English friend. It was some time before he could find him, but at last he came suddenly upon him in a secluded portion nearly surrounded by a grey stone wall covered with growing plants. "Ah, there you are at last!" cried Denis. Carrbroke turned upon him angrily and clapped his hand to his sword. "You have come to fight?" he cried. "Well, it is death here to draw. Come out into the park, and I'll show you how I act towards a thief." "A thief!" flashed out Denis, imitating his companion's action. "This is cowardly from you. But no, I will not quarrel. You do not know." "Not know! Do I not know that in my confidence and belief in our French guest, whom my father had honoured, I foolishly trusted you with the secret of the King's private way--and for what? To help you and your friends to steal." "No," said Denis gravely; "you don't know that, for it is not true. I did tell Leoni--" "Ugh!" ejaculated Carrbroke. "That man's horrid eyes!" "Yes," said Denis, with a peculiar smile; "that man's horrid eyes-- thoughtlessly, I suppose, of the secret way, when I believed my duty called; perhaps you would have done the same. But I had nothing to do with the taking of the gem. Pah! I hated it all through, but as the King's esquire I had to fulfil my duty to my master. Believe me, I did not help to take the jewel. I felt that I would rather have died. Will you not believe me, Carrbroke?" And he held out his hand. "I feel I cannot," cried Carrbroke. "Does it take a king to forgive?" said Denis, with a smile. "To say those words, I forgive you, when there is nothing to forgive?" "Oh," cried Carrbroke hoarsely, and he looked sharply round to see if they were observed, before snatching and tightly grasping Denis's extended hands. A few minutes later the two lads were walking together arms on shoulders, in full sunshine of their young nature, that light seeming to be at the zenith, while the ruddy orange sun itself finishing its daily rounds was slowly sinking in the west. "Hah!" cried Denis. "I am glad we are friends again. I know it looked black against me, and--" "Oh, don't!" said Carrbroke. "I thought we'd agreed that all that was buried, never to be dug up again. But look here, we must have it now; there is one thing I want to know." "What?" said Denis, with a peculiar mirthful look in his eyes. "It is very horrible," continued Carrbroke. "I did not mean to ask you, but I feel I must. Of course your Leoni believed he was doing right for the sake of France, and to serve his master, but I never understood where he managed to hide the ruby. Do you know?" "I did not know till yesterday." "Ah, did he tell you then?--But no, I will not ask you to break his confidence." "It is not to break his confidence, for he did not tell me," replied Denis. "I learned it from Saint Simon, for he saw it on the boat." "Saw the ruby in the boat?" cried Carrbroke. "Why, how did it get there?" Denis was silent for a moment or two, and then whispered something, with a peculiar smile upon his lips as he placed them near his companion's ear. "What!" cried Carrbroke, starting back and staring in wonderment at his companion. "He hid it there? Then that accounts for his peculiar fixed look." "Yes. He was fencing when a young man, and his adversary's rapier point completely destroyed his left eye." "Ah!" whispered Carrbroke, beneath his breath. "I see. Then the eye is false--made, you say, of gold, enamelled to look exactly like the other, a little hollow globe." "Yes; an _etui_, we may call it now, but never meant to conceal that gem." "Horrid!" cried Carrbroke. "Yes," said Denis quietly; "but believe it if you can." "Oh," cried Carrbroke, "I believe; but if he had liked it could never have been found." ------------------- A week later the parting of the two lads was like that of brothers, and it was full of promises of what they would do when they met again. [THE END] _ |
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