You are the wisest man I know, and I am afraid that you possess a very
ungrateful master. Forward, gentlemen, and let's get there, for I am
beginning to grow boar-like and to long to stretch my sore and weary
limbs in a good bed, if I can, or merely on a heap of straw. Here,
Leoni, I suppose you have not brought any of that healing salve with
which you have treated me more than once when I came to misfortune in
the hunt?"
"By rights, sir, I am a _chirurgien_, or leech," said Leoni gravely.
"On my travels a few simples and my little case are things I never leave
behind."
These were almost the last words spoken during the ten-mile ride, the
latter part being intensely silent, until Leoni drew rein upon the slope
of a wooded hill and pointed across a little valley, where a silver
streamlet flashed before their eyes, to the gables of a long low English
manor-house whose diamond-shaped casements glittered like the facets of
so many gems in a setting of ivy, full in the light of the unclouded
moon.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
THE NEXT MORNING.
"Yes! Hallo! What is it?"
Denis started up upon his left elbow, gazing in a confused way at a
glistening oaken door.
He was in a well-furnished room with tall narrow window through which
the sun shone brightly, lighting up the furniture, and streaming across
the bed in which he lay; but for some moments it did not light up his
intellect, which was still oppressed with the impressions of a confused
dream, half real, half imaginary, of chasing horses, being ridden down,
fighting for life, and then galloping on and on all through the night,
while as he stared at the door he was conscious of a heavy, dull, aching
pain extending from his right hand right up his shoulder, and giving him
sharp twinges every time he breathed.
"Some one called," he thought to himself, and as the idea passed through
his brain a pleasant-sounding voice said in English:
"Breakfast directly. May I come in?" Then the door was thrown open,
and a handsome, frank-looking English youth of about his own age came
quickly forward into the sunshine, to stand gazing at the guest from the
foot of the bed.
"I hope you slept well?" he said eagerly.
Denis looked at him admiringly, for there was something about the lad's
face which attracted him.
"Oh yes," he said--"Oh no. It has been all a troubled dream. I got
hurt yesterday, and my arm throbs horribly."
"Ah!" cried the new-comer. "I am very sorry. You are wounded?"
"No; I was in a bit of a fight with a man on horseback."
"You were? I wish I had been there!" cried the new-comer eagerly.
"Well? did you beat him?"
"I think so. He ran away. But I had my arm nearly wrenched out of the
socket."
"That's bad. You have had it seen to by a doctor, of course?"
"Oh no. It will get well. But who are you?"
"Oh, I'm Sir John Carrbroke's son Edward; but he always calls me Ned. I
was so tired last night and slept so soundly that I didn't hear you and
your friends come. Father woke me a little while ago and told me to
come and see you and welcome you to the Pines. Glad to see you. You've
just come from France, haven't you? But I needn't ask," continued the
boy, smiling. "Anyone would know you were French."
Denis flushed a little.
"Of course I can't talk English like you," he said pettishly. "But you
said something about breakfast."
"Yes. It will be all waiting by the time you are dressed."
"Then would you mind going--and--"
"Oh yes, of course; I'll go. Only I wanted to see our new visitor,
and--but you said your arm was all wrenched."
"Yes. I have only a misty notion about how I managed to undress."
"Of course. It must have been very hard. Here, I'll stop and help
you."
Denis protested, but the frank outspoken lad would not hear a word.
"Nonsense," he said. "I shall help you. I know how. I am a sort of
gentleman in waiting at the Court."
"Indeed!" cried Denis, looking at him wonderingly.
"Oh yes. I haven't been there long. My father used to be just the same
with the late King, and that made him able to get me there. It's only
the other day that I left the great school--a year ago, though; and
now," he added, laughing, "I am going to be somebody big--King Harry's
esquire--the youngest one there. I say, isn't it a nuisance to be only
a boy?"
"Oh no," said Denis, laughing, and quite taken by the friendly chatter
of his new acquaintance. "One wants to grow up, of course; but I don't
know that I ever felt like that."
"Perhaps not," said his companion, busily helping him with his garments;
"but then you see you're not at Court where there are a lot of fellows
who have been there for a bit, ready to look down upon you just because
you're new, and glare at you and seem ready to pick a quarrel and to
fight if ever the King gives you a friendly nod or a smile.--No, no:
I'll tie those points. Don't hurt your arm--but wait a bit.--I am young
and inexperienced yet, and they're too much for me, but I am hard at
it."
He ceased speaking, but stood with his mouth pursed up, frowning, as he
tied the points in question.
"I see you are," said Denis, "playing servant to me; and it's very good
of you, for my arm does feel very bad."
"Good! Nonsense!" cried the lad merrily. "You'd do the same for me if
I were visiting at your father's house, and crippled."
"That couldn't be," said Denis sadly. "I have no father's house--he's
dead."
"Oh, I am sorry!"
"He was a soldier, and died fighting for the King."
"Hah!" said the other softly. "That's very pitiful; but," he added,
with more animation, "it is very grand as well.--No, no, no: be quiet!
I'm here, and what's the good of making your arm worse? You're a
visitor; and you wouldn't like me to go away and send one of our
fellows. I shall be a knight some day, I hope; and it's a knight's duty
to fight, of course, but he ought to be able to help a wounded man. Now
you're a wounded man and I'm going to help you, wash you and all, and I
say, you want it too. You look as if you had been down in the dust.
And what's this? Why, there's clay matted in the back of your neck!"
"Well," said Denis, smiling, "I am such a cripple I can't help myself,
and so I must submit."
"Of course you must. I'll feed you too, if you like, by-and-by."
"But what did you mean," said Denis, to change the conversation, as he
smilingly yielded himself to the busy helpful hands of his new friend.
"What did I mean? Why, to help you."
"No, no; I meant about those fellows riding roughshod over you and
wanting to pick quarrels."
"Oh, I see. I meant, I'm waiting my time. Can you fence--use a sword
well?"
"Not very, but I'm practising hard."
"Are you? So am I. We've got a French _maitre d'armes_ at Court, and
he's helping me and teaching me all he knows. He's splendid! He likes
me because I work so hand, and pats me on the back, and calls me `grand
garcon' and dear pupil. Ah, he's a wonder. Only he makes me feel so
stupid. He's like one of those magician fellows when you cross swords
with him. Yes, it's just like magic; for when he likes he can make his
long thin blade twist and twine about yours as if it were a snake and
all alive; and before you know where you are it tightens round, and then
_twit, twang_, yours is snatched out of your hand and gone flying across
the room, making you feel as helpless as a child. Ah, you don't know
what it is to feel like that. I say, hold still. How am I to wipe you?
That's better."
"But I do know what it is to feel like that," cried Denis, as soon as he
could get his face free from the white linen cloth his new friend was
handling with great dexterity.
"You do?" cried the latter. "What, have you got a _maitre d'armes_ over
where you came from?"
"Yes, and he's here in this house now. You should have seen him in a
desperate fight we had last night against about a score--"
"Of the road outlaws coming through the forest?"
"Yes, and they attacked us."
"And you got away."
Denis nodded.
"My word! You were lucky!"
"It was through my fencing master," said Denis warmly, as his dressing
was hurried on. "He can do all you say when he's teaching; and when he
fights as he did last night--"
"Oh, I do wish that I had been there!"
"--his point seems everywhere at once."
"That's the sort of man I love," cried the English lad excitedly, and he
gave his visitor so hearty a slap on the shoulder that Denis changed
colour and reeled.
"Oh, what have I done!" cried the lad, catching him in his arms and
hurriedly lowering him into a settee, before fetching him water in a
silver cup and holding it to his lips.--"Feel better now?" he said.
"Oh yes, it's nothing. Don't laugh at me, please. I turned faint like
a great silly girl. You touched the tenderest place, where my arm was
hurt, and--"
"Denis, boy! May I come in?"
"Yes, yes," said the lad faintly. "Come in. Carrbroke, this is Master
Leoni, the gentleman who handles his sword so well."
"I am glad to know you, sir," said the youth, drawing himself up and
welcoming with courtly grace the slight, keen-looking, elderly man whose
strange, penetrating eyes seemed to be searching him through and
through. "I am so sorry that I was asleep when you came last night. I
was helping my father's visitor just now, and I am afraid I have hurt
him a great deal. His shoulder is hurt, and he tells me that it has not
been treated by a leech."
"Hurt?" cried Leoni, speaking quickly. "I did not know of this. Why
did you not tell me last night?"
"Oh, I didn't think," said Denis. "I had enough to do to sit my horse
and manage to get here; and," added the lad lightly, "I thought that it
would be better."
"Ah," said Master Leoni quietly, "let me see." And he looked at the boy
fixedly with that curious hard stare of the left eye which Denis never
could explain.
"Oh no; I'm nearly dressed now, and breakfast is waiting."
"How did this happen?" said Leoni, paying no heed to the lad's words.
"Sit still, boy, and tell me everything at once."
Denis gave a hurried narrative of his encounter, and his listeners
eagerly grasped every word.
"I see," said Leoni gravely. "Your blade must have passed through the
ruffian, and been held long enough by the muscles for you to receive a
horrible wrench. There, set your teeth, and if I hurt you try and bear
it. I will be as gentle as I can."
A rapid examination followed, and then the carefully educated fingers
ceased their task, and Leoni spoke again as he drew a white kerchief
from his pouch and gently wiped his patient's moistened brow.
"There is nothing wrong," he said, "but a bad strain at the tendons, and
of course the slightest touch gives great suffering. I will return
directly. I am only going to my room for something that will lull that
pain, and nature will do the rest."
He nodded gravely to both the lads, and passed quickly from the room,
while as the door closed the young Englishman said eagerly:
"I like him. He seems to know a deal. But you said that he was a
_maitre d'armes_."
"He's everything," said Denis with a faint laugh--"_chirurgien_,
statesman--oh, I can't tell you all. Oh, how he hurt me, though! If
you hadn't been here I believe I should have shrieked."
"Not you," cried the other. "I was watching, and I saw how you set your
teeth. Why, if he had pulled your arm off you wouldn't have said a
word. I say, I wish you were English."
"Why?" said Denis wonderingly.
"Oh, I don't know," said the other rather confusedly, "only I seem to
like a fellow who can act like that."
"Then because I am French you feel as if you couldn't like me?"
"That I don't!" replied the lad bluffly. "Because I do like you, and
I'm glad you've come. I say, can you shake hands?"
"Like the English?" said Denis. "Of course."
"Oh, I did not mean that," said the other. "Of course I know that you
fellows embrace; but I meant about your arm. Can you shake hands
without its hurting? Because we always do it with our right."
"Try," said Denis, smiling, as, passing his left hand under his wrist,
he softly raised the injured limb, and the next moment the two lads
seemed to seal the beginning of a long friendship in a warm, firm
pressure, which had not ended when they became conscious that the door
had softly opened and Master Leoni was standing there, a
dark, peculiar-looking, living picture in an oaken frame, an
inscrutable-looking smile upon his lips and his eyes half closed.
The blood flushed to the cheeks of both the lads, as the young
Englishman tightened his grip and stood firm, while without appearing to
have noticed the lads' action, Leoni came forward, and they saw that he
had a little silver _flacon_ in his hand.
"Feel faint now, Denis?" he said.
"Oh no," was the reply. "That passed away at once. Is that what you
have been to fetch?"
"Yes," said Leoni, smiling, "and you need not think that I am going to
give you drops in water such as will make you shudder. I am only going
to moisten this linen pad and lay it beneath your waistcoat. I believe
it will quite dull the pain. There," he said, a few minutes later,
after carefully securing the moistened linen so that it should not slip,
and fastening the lad's doublet to his throat, "it feels better now,
does it not?"
"Better?" said Denis with a low hiss, and speaking through his teeth.
"Why, it's as if a red-hot point was boring through my shoulder."
"Yes," said Leoni, smiling; "and that's a good sign. In another minute
you will not feel the same. Come, Master Carrbroke, let us both finish
dressing our patient and get him to his breakfast."
"Oh, I couldn't have believed it," cried Denis, five minutes later.
"Master Carrbroke--"
"Ned," said the young man correctively. "Ned always to my friends."
"Ned, then," said Denis warmly; "once more, this is Master Leoni, and
you ought to make him one, for you never before met such a man as he."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
A FEW BARS' REST.
A short time later, the dull aching pain seemed to have passed
completely out of the injured shoulder, and after a few words evincing
his gratitude, which Leoni received with a rather cynical smile, they
passed together, led by their new young friend, into the long low
dining-hall of the house, where the King, in company with Saint Simon,
both apparently none the worse for the previous night's experience, was
impatiently waiting, and conversing with his host, a tall grey-bearded
man of sixty, whose aspect told at once that he was father to the youth
who ushered in the injured lad.
"Let me introduce my son, my lord," said Sir John. "Ned, my boy, this
is Comte de la Seine, a French nobleman about to visit your royal
master's Court. My lord, my fighting days have long been over, and I
only serve my King now with my counsel; but he has honoured me by
accepting the service of my only son for his father's sake, and has made
him, young as he is, one of the King's esquires."
"And a brave one too, I'll warrant," said Francis, holding out his hand,
quite forgetful of his new character as a travelling nobleman, for his
host's heir to kiss.
He winced slightly, his face twitched, and an ejaculation nearly passed
his lips, while the sinister look on Master Leoni's countenance deepened
as he half closed his eyes, at heart enjoying the scene; for the youth
advanced with the frank, manly courtesy of a young Englishman, and
instead of bending over and kissing, courtier-like, the extended hand,
he took it and shook it with a hearty grip.
"I am glad to know my father's guest, my lord," he said. "It was not
from want of respect that I was not here before. I have been with your
esquire.--He was badly hurt yesterday, father; he mustn't go on. You
must keep him here for days, till we have set him right."
"Gladly, my boy," cried Sir John, "if his lordship will honour my poor
home with his presence."
"Oh no, no," said the King shortly. "Why, Denis, boy, you are not so
bad as that. Here, Master Leoni, what have you to say?"
"That he must rest two or three days at least, sir. His arm is badly
wrenched, and he is not fit to sit a horse."
"But he sat one bravely enough last night," cried the King.--"But, Sir
John, are all your roads like this? If the people we passed last night
could have had their way you would have no guests to throw themselves
upon your kindness, for we should have been lying somewhere in the
forest to feed the English crows. But there, we have kept you waiting
long enough," and he made a gesture towards the well-spread board.
Sir John raised his eyebrows slightly, for his visitor's imperious,
authoritative way impressed him unfavourably. But no suspicion of his
status occurred to him then, and directly after he was busily employed
doing the honours of his table, the good things spread thereon soon
having a mollifying influence upon his guest, whose autocratic ways
became less prominent under the influence of a most enjoyable meal.
Thoroughly softened then by his meal as far as temper was concerned, the
King now began to find out that he was exceedingly stiff, and questioned
Saint Simon a good deal about his sensations, to learn that he too was
in the same condition.
"Ah, well," he said, "riding will soon take that off. Here, let's go
and have a look at the horses."
Sir John accompanied his guest into the great stable-yard, followed by
Saint Simon and the two young esquires.
The chargers had been carefully tended by Sir John's men, who did not
fail to point out that they were not taking their corn happily; and it
was perfectly evident to everyone that their hard day's work, following
so closely upon much riding down to the port and the stormy crossing,
had made them in a very unsatisfactory condition.
"Humph!" grunted the King. "They don't look as I should like."
"Splendid beasts," said Sir John; "but they want eight and forty hours'
rest. You will not think of continuing your journey to-day?"
"Indeed but I shall," said the King,--"er--that is--how do you think
they look, Saint Simon?"
"Bough," said the young man laconically.
The King grunted and frowned.
"I fear you think that you will not be welcome, my lord," said Sir John,
"and I beg that you will dismiss all such thoughts. Make up your mind,
pray, to stay for the next eight and forty hours. I beg you will. Then
we shall see how the poor beasts are. Besides, we have to think of our
young friend."
The result was that the King consented to stop for the aforesaid
forty-eight hours, at the end of which time, feeling himself very
comfortable and enjoying his host's company, he needed very little
pressure to prolong his stay, especially as Leoni announced that, though
Denis was mending fast, riding might have a bad effect and delay his
recovery.
The King's Esquires--by George Manville Fenn
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
THE DOCTOR IS BUSY.
But the King could not conceal his anxiety to be once more in the saddle
_en route_ for Windsor; and although Sir John Carrbroke urged him to
remain so far as the dictates of hospitality required, yet he forbore
when he saw the impatience of his guest to be once more on his way, and
at dinner the night before the departure he spoke only of the journey to
be undertaken on the following day.
"You will find the roads safe enough from here onward, sir," he said
courteously, and the King bowed gravely.
"I trust so," he said; "I trust so. England had been represented to me
as a land where everyone was safe."
Sir John leaned forward.
"I doubt not," he said, "that when you represent to his Majesty the
peril you encountered the south will be cleared of that roving band."
The King laughed.
"Well, we did something towards ridding the country of the robbers, eh,
Leoni? I--" He stopped speaking, for at that minute there was the sound
of a horse cantering into the courtyard, and a minute later Sir John's
own serving-man entered the apartment.
"It is a message, Sir John," he said, "for my young master." And he
handed a document to Ned Carrbroke, who hastily unfastened it and read.
"Lord Hurst orders me to return at once," he said to his father.
"Ah," said Sir John. "You see, sir," he exclaimed with a smile, looking
at the King, "how important an individual the boy there is becoming.
But," he went on, "you were expecting this summons, my lad, and now as
it happens you will be able to act as additional escort to our guest--
that is, if he will permit."
"Permit!" cried the King. "I shall be glad to have our young friend's
company--glad indeed." And as he spoke Sir John gazed musingly at the
sparkling ring which his guest wore, one which flashed in the light of
the candles as Francis made a gesture with his hand.
A few minutes later Ned Carrbroke glanced at his father, and then rose
from his chair, making a sign to Denis as he did so.
"Come," he said quietly, as the two lads moved to the door and passed
out. "It was in my mind before, and now it has happened just as I would
have wished. I shall come with you."
"Yes," answered Denis. "I am glad."
"I shall be able to show you much," the other went on. "You have never
seen a Court; I shall be able to introduce you to that of our King."
"Well," said Denis hesitatingly, "I have been to Fontainebleau."
"Fontainebleau? Where's that?"
"The Court of the King of France."
"Ah! You have seen King Francis?"
"Yes."
"What is he like?"
"Brave, handsome, noble!"
"So is my King too. You will have to stop with me in England and serve
King Henry."
While Denis accompanied his new-found friend the talk went on in the big
wainscotted dining-room, and the King, who was leaning back in his
chair, had finished a long story of the chase, when his host half rose.
"If you will excuse me, my lord, for a few minutes," he said, "I have to
give an order as to your departure to-morrow?"
Francis made an inclination of assent.
"When you visit France," he said, "I trust, sir, that I shall be able to
make you some return for your kindness to me and to my followers here."
And then a minute later, left alone with his two companions, the King
yawned. "Gentlemen," he exclaimed, "do not let me detain you." And
Leoni and Saint Simon rose, the doctor hesitating a moment at the door.
"You do not, sir," he began, "see any disadvantage in--"
"In what?" said the King sharply.
"Why, sir, in our taking this English stripling along with us on the
morrow?"
"By my sword, no!" said the King. "Why should I?"
"He is keen and clever."
"And what of that?"
"Simply this, sir: he might divine the truth. A word, a look--"
"Leoni, have I not acted my part well till now?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then--"
"With your permission, sir; you are a King, and those who are chosen by
Heaven to reign cannot assume 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 glass at the further end of the chamber.
"Ah," he mused, "Leoni doubts of my address. Let him be quite assured.
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 passed 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 ejaculated.
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 passed 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?"