A Ladder of Swords Part 16

Presently the jingling of bells mingled with the song, then a figure in motley burst upon him. It was the Queen's fool.

"Brother, well met--most happily met!" he cried.

"And why well met, fool?" asked Leicester.

"Prithee, my work grows heavy, brother. I seek another fool for the yoke. Here are my bells for you. I will keep my cap. And so we will work together, fool: you for the morning, I for the afternoon, and the devil take the night-time! So G.o.d be with you, Obligato!"

With a laugh he leaped into the undergrowth and left Leicester standing with the bells in his hand.

XVI

Angele had come to know, as others in like case have ever done, how wretched indeed is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors. She had saved the Queen's life upon May Day, and on the evening of that day the Queen had sent for her, had made such high and tender acknowledgment of her debt as would seem to justify for her perpetual honor. And what Elizabeth said she meant; but in a life set in forests of complications and opposing interests the political overlapped the personal in her nature. Thus it was that she had kept the princes of the world dangling, advancing towards marriage with them, retreating suddenly, setting off one house against the other, allying herself to one European power to-day, with another to-morrow, her own person and her crown the p.a.w.n with which she played. It was not a beautiful thing in a woman, but it was what a woman could do; and, denied other powers given to men--as to her father--she resorted to astute but doubtful devices to advance her diplomacy. Over all was self-infatuation, the bane of princes, the curse of greatness, the source of wide injustice. It was not to be expected, as Leicester had said, that Elizabeth, save for the whim of the moment, would turn aside to confer benefit upon Angele or to keep her in mind, unless constrained to do so for some political reason.

The girl had charmed the Queen, had, by saving her life, made England her long debtor; but Leicester had judged rightly in believing that the Queen might find the debt irksome; that her grat.i.tude would be corroded by other destructive emotions. It was true that Angele had saved her life, but Michel had charmed her eye. He had proved himself a more gallant fighter than any in her kingdom; and had done it, as he had said, in her honor. So, as her admiration for Michel grew, her debt to Angele became burdensome; and, despite her will, there stole into her mind the old petulance and smothered anger against beauty and love and marriage. She could ill bear that one near her person should not be content to flourish in the light and warmth of her own favor, setting aside all other small affections. So it was that she had sent Angele to her father and kept De la Foret in the palace.

Perplexed, troubled by new developments, the birth of a son to Mary Queen of Scots, the demand of her Parliament that she should marry, the pressure of foreign policy which compelled her to open up again negotiations for marriage with the Duke of Anjou--all these combined to detach her from the interest she had suddenly felt in Angele. But, by instinct, she knew also that Leicester, through jealousy, had increased the complication; and, fretful under the long influence he had had upon her, she steadily lessened intercourse with him. The duel he fought with Lempriere on May Day came to her ears through the Duke's Daughter, and she seized upon it with sharp petulance. First she ostentatiously gave housing and care to Lempriere, and went to visit him; then, having refused Leicester audience, wrote to him.

"What is this I hear," she scrawled upon the paper--"that you have forced a quarrel with the Lord of Rozel, and have well ny ta'en his life! Is swording, then, your dearest vice that you must urge it on a harmless gentleman, and my visitor? Do you think you hold a charter of freedom for your selfwill? Have a care, Leicester, or, by G.o.d! you shall know another sword surer than your own."

The rage of Leicester on receiving this knew no bounds; for though he had received from Elizabeth stormy letters before, none had had in it the cold irony of this missive. The cause of it? Desperation seized him. With a mad disloyalty he read in every word of Elizabeth's letter, Michel de la Foret, refugee. With madder fury he determined to strike for the immediate ruin of De la Foret, and Angele with him--for had she not thrice repulsed him as though he had been some village captain? After the meeting in the maze he had kept his promise of visiting her "prison." By every art, and without avail, he had through patient days sought to gain an influence over her; for he saw that if he could but show the Queen that the girl was open to his advances, accepted his protection, her ruin would be certain--in anger Elizabeth would take revenge upon both refugees. But however much he succeeded with Monsieur Aubert, he failed wholly with Angele.

She repulsed him still with the most certain courtesy, with the greatest outward composure; but she had to make her fight alone, for the Queen forbade intercourse with Michel, and she must have despaired but for the messages sent now and then by the Duke's Daughter.

Through M. Aubert, to whom Leicester was diligently courteous, and whom he sought daily, discussing piously the question of religion so dear to the old man's heart, he strove to foster in Angele's mind the suspicion he had ventured at their meeting in the maze, that the Queen, through personal interest in Michel, was saving his life to keep him in her household. So well did he work on the old man's feelings that when he offered his own protection to M. Aubert and Angele, whatever the issue with De la Foret might be, he was met with an almost tearful response of grat.i.tude. It was the moment to convey a deep distrust of De la Foret into the mind of the old refugee, and it was subtly done.

Were it not better to leave the court, where only danger surrounded them, and find safety on Leicester's own estate, where no man living could molest them? Were it not well to leave Michel de la Foret to his fate, whatever it would be? Thrice within a week the Queen had sent for De la Foret--what reason was there for that, unless the Queen had a secret personal interest in him? Did M. Aubert think it was only a rare touch of humor which had turned De la Foret into a preacher, and set his fate upon a sermon to be preached before the court? He himself had long held high office, had been near to her Majesty, and he could speak with more knowledge than he might use--it grieved him that Mademoiselle Aubert should be placed in so painful a position.

Sometimes as the two talked Angele would join them; and then there was a sudden silence, which made her flush with embarra.s.sment, anxiety, or anger. In vain did she a.s.sume a cold composure, in vain school herself to treat Leicester with a precise courtesy; in vain her heart protested the goodness of De la Foret and high uprightness of the Queen; the persistent suggestions of the dark earl worked upon her mind in spite of all. Why had the Queen forbidden her to meet Michel, or write to him, or to receive letters from him? Why had the Queen, who had spoken such grat.i.tude, deserted her. And now even the Duke's Daughter wrote to her no more, sent her no more messages. She felt herself a prisoner, and that the Queen had forgotten her debt.

She took to wandering to that part of the palace grounds where she could see the windows of the tower her lover inhabited. Her old habit of cheerful talk deserted her, and she brooded. It was long before she heard of the duel between the seigneur and Lord Leicester--the Duke's Daughter had kept this from her, lest she should be unduly troubled--and when, in anxiety, she went to the house where Lempriere had been quartered, he had gone, none could tell her whither. Buonespoir was now in close confinement, by secret orders of Leicester, and not allowed to walk abroad, and thus, with no friend save her father, now so much under the influence of the earl, she was bitterly solitary. Bravely she fought the growing care and suspicion in her heart; but she was being tried beyond her strength. Her father had urged her to make personal appeal to the Queen; and at times, despite her better judgment, she was on the verge of doing so. Yet what could she say? She could not go to the Queen of England and cry out, like a silly milkmaid, "You have taken my lover--give him back to me!" What proof had she that the Queen wanted her lover? And if she spoke, the impertinence of the suggestion might send back to the fierce Medici that same lover, to lose his head.

Leicester, who now was playing the game as though it were a hazard for states and kingdoms, read the increasing trouble in her face; and waited confidently for the moment when in desperation she would lose her self-control and go to the Queen.

But he did not reckon with the depth of the girl's nature and her true sense of life. Her brain told her that what she was tempted to do she should not; that her only way was to wait; to trust that the Queen of England was as much true woman as queen, and as much queen as true woman; and that the one was held in high equipoise by the other. Besides, Trinity Day would bring the end of it all, and that was not far off. She steeled her will to wait till then, no matter how dark the sky might be.

As time went on, Leicester became impatient. He had not been able to induce M. Aubert to compel Angele to accept a quiet refuge at Kenilworth; he saw that this plan would not work, and he deployed his mind upon another. If he could but get Angele to seek De la Foret in his apartment in the palace, and then bring the matter to Elizabeth's knowledge, with sure proof, De la Foret's doom would be sealed. At great expense, however; for, in order to make the scheme effective, Angele should visit De la Foret at night. This would mean the ruin of the girl as well. Still that could be set right; because, once De la Foret was sent to the Medici, the girl's character could be cleared; and, if not, so much the surer would she come at last to his protection. What he had professed in cold deliberation had become in some sense a fact. She had roused in him an eager pa.s.sion. He might even dare, when De la Foret was gone, to confess his own action in the matter to the Queen, once she was again within his influence.

She had forgiven him more than that in the past, when he had made his own mad devotion to herself excuse for his rashness or misconduct.

He waited opportunity, he arranged all details carefully, he secured the pa.s.sive agents of his purpose; and when the right day came he acted.

About ten o'clock one night, a half-hour before the closing of the palace gates, when no one could go in or go out save by permit of the Lord Chamberlain, a footman from a surgeon of the palace came to Angele, bearing a note which read:

"_Your friend is very ill, and asks for you. Come hither alone; and now, if you would come at all._"

Her father was confined to bed with some ailment of the hour, and asleep--it were no good to awaken him. Her mind was at once made up.

There was no time to ask permission of the Queen. She knew the surgeon's messengers by sight; this one was in the usual livery, and his master's name was duly signed. In haste she made herself ready, and went forth into the night with the messenger, her heart beating hard, a pitiful anxiety shaking her. Her steps were fleet between the lodge and the palace. They were challenged nowhere, and the surgeon's servant, entering a side-door of the palace, led her hastily through gloomy halls and pa.s.sages, where they met no one, though once in a dark corridor some one brushed against her. She wondered why there were no servants to show the way, why the footman carried no torch nor candle, but haste and urgency seemed due excuse, and she thought only of Michel, and that she would soon see him--dying, dead perhaps before she could touch his hand! At last they emerged into a lighter and larger hall-way, where her guide suddenly paused, and said to Angele, motioning towards a door:

"Enter. He is there."

For a moment she stood still, scarce able to breathe, her heart hurt her so. It seemed to her as if life itself was arrested. As the servant, without further words, turned and left her, she knocked, opened the door without awaiting a reply, and, stepping into semidarkness, said, softly:

"Michel! Michel!"

XVII

At Angele's entrance a form slowly raised itself on a couch, and a voice, not Michel's, said: "Mademoiselle--by our Lady, 'tis she!"

It was the voice of the Seigneur of Rozel, and Angele started back, amazed.

"You, monsieur--you!" she gasped. "It was you that sent for me?"

"Send? Not I--I have not lost my manners yet. Rozel at court is no greater fool than Lempriere in Jersey."

Angele wrung her hands. "I thought it De la Foret who was ill. The surgeon said to come quickly."

Lempriere braced himself against the wall, for he was weak and his fever still high. "Ill?--not he! As sound in body and soul as any man in England. That is a friend, that De la Foret lover of yours, or I'm no butler to the Queen. He gets leave and brings me here, and coaxes me back to life again--with not a wink of sleep for him these five days past till now."

Angele had drawn nearer, and now stood beside the couch, trembling and fearful, for it came to her mind that she had been made the victim of some foul device. The letter had read: "_Your friend is ill._" True, the seigneur was her friend, but he had not sent for her.

"Where is De la Foret?" she asked, quickly.

"Yonder, asleep," said the seigneur, pointing to a curtain which divided the room from one adjoining.

Angele ran quickly towards the door, then stopped short. No, she would not waken him. She would go back at once. She would leave the palace by the way she came. Without a word she turned and went towards the door opening into the hallway. With her hand upon the latch she stopped short again, for she realized that she did not know her way through the pa.s.sages and corridors, and that she must make herself known to the servants of the palace to obtain guidance and exit. As she stood helpless and confused, the seigneur called, hoa.r.s.ely, "De la Foret! De la Foret!"

Before Angele could decide upon her course the curtain of the other room was thrust aside and De la Foret entered. He was scarce awake, and he yawned contentedly. He did not see Angele, but turned towards Lempriere. For once the seigneur had a burst of inspiration. He saw that Angele was in the shadow, and that De la Foret had not observed her. He determined that the lovers should meet alone.

"Your arm, De la Foret," he grunted. "I'll get me to the bed in yonder room--'tis easier than this couch."

"Two hours ago you could not bear the bed, and must get you to the couch--and now! Seigneur, do you know the weight you are?" he added, laughing, as he stooped, and, helping Lempriere gently to his feet, raised him slowly in his arms and went heavily with him to the bedroom. Angele watched him with a strange thrill of timid admiration and delight. Surely it could not be that Michel--her Michel--could be bought from his allegiance by any influence on earth. There was the same old simple laugh on his lips as, with chaffing words, he carried the huge seigneur to the other room. Her heart acquitted him then and there of all blame, past or to come.

"Michel!" she said aloud, involuntarily--the call of her spirit which spoke on her lips against her will.

De la Foret had helped Lempriere to the bed again as he heard his name called, and he stood suddenly still, looking straight before him into s.p.a.ce. Angele's voice seemed ghostly and unreal.

"Michel!" he heard again, and he came forward into the room where she was. Yet once again she said the word scarcely above a whisper, for the look of rapt wonder and apprehension in his manner overcame her.

Now he turned towards her, where she stood in the shadow by the door. He saw her, but even yet he did not stir, for she seemed to him still an apparition.

With a little cry she came forward to him. "Michel--help me!" she murmured, and stretched out her hands.

With a cry of joy he took her in his arms, and pressed her to his heart. Then a realization of danger came to him.