The King's Esquires Part 21

"Then--"

"With your permission, sir; you are a King, and those who are chosen by Heaven to reign cannot a.s.sume the guise of other men."

"But my disguise, Leoni--my disguise!"

"Has been admirable, sir."

"Then trust me for the future," was the reply.

And as the door closed and a puff of air caused the lights on the table to dance, the King leaned back in his chair and just then caught his own reflection in a tall gla.s.s at the further end of the chamber.

"Ah," he mused, "Leoni doubts of my address. Let him be quite a.s.sured.

And this Henry who has ambitions on my land of France! Shortly I shall meet him, and my strength will be greater than his since I shall know who he is, and he--he will be ignorant as to who I am.

"Never in France Shall England reign!"

he hummed.

"To-morrow I shall meet him, and then that stone--for Leoni must be right--that jewel will be mine, and the last link which binds us to the old invasion will be snapped."

The King rose and took a turn up and down the apartment.

"I must speak again with Leoni," he said. "Where has he gone?" And he lifted a _portiere_ and walked out of the apartment, entering a long corridor where a coloured lamp hung from the ceiling. "Our host is well lodged," he continued musingly, as he pa.s.sed on, stopping at a door through which a stream of light issued forth.

The King pushed the door, which swung back noiselessly on its hinges, and gazed inside, to see Leoni sitting at a table, studiously intent upon some work--lost in the depths. He called softly:

"Leoni!"

The doctor did not turn his head.

"Leoni!" said the King once more, raising his voice; and the man of learning leaped to his feet and came towards his master.

"My lord!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.

The King stepped into the room, and the door closed behind him.

"Busily engaged, Master Leoni?" he said bluffly.

The doctor bowed.

"In your service, sir," he replied humbly.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

THE GLITTERING STONE.

"You are satisfied, I trust, doctor, with our programme?" said the King, in a slightly ironical tone, as he pa.s.sed to the window, humming an old hunting song as he tapped the panes, while Leoni remained standing near the table at which he had been busily engaged writing.

"Sir--" he began.

"Sit down, Master Leoni; sit down. You can respect my disguise better, and also more thoroughly please me. I was saying, you are satisfied?"

"Everything, sir, that you order is the best. Of that I am convinced; and yet, sir, I am anxious about the Majesty of France. I am common clay, sir. I am nothing; I can die; whereas you--"

"No, no, Leoni; not here, not here. We have left that in France. Do you not understand? Just at present we are travelling companions, and I look to you and to your great learning for a.s.sistance, just as I received it in the forest that night; and then it was timely indeed."

"You are too indulgent, my lord, to any poor attainments that your servant may possess. Such as they are, they will always be at my lord's service," replied Leoni, and he slowly resumed his seat in the high-backed chair, in obedience to a commanding gesture from the King.

Francis laughed lightly.

"The best swordsman," he said, "in all my fair kingdom of France--cut, parry, and point; the greatest savant; and, by my sword, the best of patrists.--No, no, Leoni, old friend, I am not too indulgent," and he gave his follower a keen glance. "But as to the route; is it good to start to-morrow?"

Leoni bowed.

"Yes, sir, it is good," he said, and he blew some few grains of sand off the paper at which he had been engaged.

"Ah!" said the King. "'Tis well."

"And then, sir--"

"Then--I do not understand."

Leoni leaned forward, and with his elbows on the table joined the tips of his fingers, and then clasped his hands and, with the weird strange look in his eyes, said:

"What does my lord propose to do?"

"To do? Why, to go to the Court of our quick-tempered brother Henry at this palace of his at Windsor."

"Ah!" said Leoni.

"You are doubtful?"

"I think, sir, that there may be difficulties in the way." And the speaker glanced at the doc.u.ment before him.

"Difficulties for me! You are mad."

"No, sir, only cautious. When you are in France, at Fontainebleau, at Compiegne, in Paris, no matter where, does his Majesty the King receive any errant English n.o.bleman who may be abroad to study the world? I think not. Your minister would inquire into the traveller's papers, and ask whence he came, and why."

The King turned thoughtful in a moment, and the haughty look died away on his lips.

"By Saint Louis, I never thought of that! Leoni, you are wiser than I."

Leoni gazed intently at the King, who winced; and Francis ended by putting his hand before his own eyes, as if the peculiar fixed stare annoyed him.

"I was arguing by a.n.a.logy, sir. Is it likely that this English monarch will act differently from the first King in Christendom? I think not.

Henry apes your Majesty. It is you, Sire, who lead, and whom other kings follow. Go in your proper person, and there is not a door in all this land, or in any other, which can be thrown open wide enough to admit you; but--"