Temporal Power: A Study in Supremacy Part 23

Thus persuaded, Rene Ronsard could only bow a respectful a.s.sent, and obey the request, which from Royalty was tantamount to a command.

Signing to the other members of the party, who had stood till now at a little distance, the Queen bade them all accompany her.

"The King will stay here till we return," she said, "And Sir Roger will stay with him!"

With these words, and a flashing glance at De Launay, she stepped across the lawn, followed by her ladies-in-waiting, with Sir Walter Langton and the other gentlemen; and in another moment the brilliant little group had disappeared behind the trailing roses and clematis, which hung in profusion from the oaken projections of the wide verandah round Ronsard's picturesque dwelling. Standing still for a moment, with Sir Roger a pace behind him, the King watched them enter the house--then quickly turning round on his heel, faced his equerry with a broad smile.

"Now, De Launay," he said, "let us find Von Glauben!"

Sir Roger started with surprise, and not a little apprehension.

"Von Glauben, Sir?"

"Yes--Von Glauben! He is here! I saw his face two minutes ago, peering through those trees!" And he pointed down a shadowy path, dark with the intertwisted gloom of untrained pine-boughs. "I am not dreaming, nor am I accustomed to imagine spectres! I am on the track of a mystery, Roger!

There is a beautiful girl here named Gloria. The beautiful girl is married--possibly to a jealous husband, for she is apparently hidden away from all likely admirers, including myself! Now suppose Von Glauben is that husband!"

He broke off and laughed. Sir Roger de Launay laughed with him; the idea was too irresistibly droll. But the King was bent on mischief, and determined to lose no time in compa.s.sing it.

"Come along!" he said. "If this tangled path holds a secret, it shall be discovered before we are many minutes older! I am confident I saw Von Glauben; and what he can be doing here pa.s.ses my comprehension!

Follow me, Roger! If our worthy Professor has a wife, and his wife is beautiful, we will pardon him for keeping her existence a secret from us so long!"

He laughed again; and turning into the path he had previously indicated, began walking down it rapidly, Sir Roger following closely, and revolving in his own perplexed mind the scene of the morning, when Von Glauben had expressed such a strong desire to get away to The Islands, and had admitted that there was "a lady in the case."

"Really, it is most extraordinary!" he thought. "The King no sooner decides to break through conventional forms, than all things seem loosened from their moorings! A week ago, we were all apparently fixed in our orbits of exact routine and work--the King most fixed of all--but now, who can say what may happen next!"

At that moment the monarch turned round.

"This path seems interminable, Roger," he said; "It gets darker, closer and narrower. It thickens, in fact, like, the mystery we are probing!"

Sir Roger glanced about him. A straight band of trees hemmed them in on either side, and the daylight filtered through their stems pallidly, while, as the King had said, there seemed to be no end to the path they were following. They walked on swiftly, however, exchanging no further word, when suddenly an unexpected sound came sweeping up through the heavy branches. It was the rush and roar of the sea,--a surging, natural psalmody that filled the air, and quivered through the trees with the measured beat of an almost human chorus.

"This must be another way to the sh.o.r.e," said the King, coming to a standstill; "And there must be rocks or caverns near. Hark how the waves thunder and reverberate through some deep hollow!"

Sir Roger listened, and heard the boom of water rolling in and rolling out again, with the regularity and rhythm of an organ swell, but he caught an echo of something else besides, which piqued his curiosity and provoked him to a touch of unusual excitement,--it was the sweet and apparently quickly suppressed sound of a woman's laughter. He glanced at his Royal master, and saw at once that he, too, had sharp ears for that silvery cadence of mirth, for his eyes flashed into a smile.

"On, Roger," he said softly; "We are close on the heels of the problem!"

But they had only pressed forward a few steps when they were again brought to a sudden pause. A voice, whose gruffly mellow accents were familiar to both of them, was speaking within evidently close range, and the King, with a warning look, motioned De Launay back a pace or two, himself withdrawing a little into the shadow of the trees.

"Ach! Do not sing, my princess!" said the voice; "For if you open your rosy mouth of music, all the birds of the air, and all the little fishes of the sea will come to listen! And, who knows! Someone more dangerous than either a bird or a fish may listen also!"

The King grasped De Launay by the arm.

"Was I not right?" he whispered. "There is no mistaking Von Glauben's accent!"

Sir Roger looked, as he felt, utterly bewildered. In his own mind he felt it very difficult to a.s.sociate the Professor with a love affair.

Yet things certainly seemed pointing to some entanglement of the sort.

Suddenly the King held up an admonitory finger.

"Listen!" he said.

Another voice spoke, rich and clear, and sweet as honey.

"Why should I not sing?" and there was a thrill of merriment in the delicious accents. "You are so afraid of everything to-day! Why? Why should I stay here with nothing to do? Because you tell me the King is visiting The Islands. What does that matter? What do I care for the King? He is nothing to me!"

"You would be something, perhaps, to him if he saw you," replied the guttural voice of Von Glauben. "It is safer to be out of his way.

You are a very wilful princess this afternoon! You must remember your husband is jealous!"

The King started.

"Her husband! What the devil does Von Glauben know about her husband!"

De Launay was dumb. A nameless fear and dismay began to possess him.

"My husband!" And the sweet voice laughed out again. "It would be strange indeed for a poor sailor to be jealous of a king!"

"If the poor sailor had a beautiful wife he worshipped, and the King should admire the wife, he might have cause to be jealous!" replied Von Glauben; "And with some ladies, a poor sailor would stand no chance against a king! Why are you so rebellious, my princess, to-day? Have I not brought a letter from your beloved which plainly asks you to keep out of the sight of the King? Have I not been an hour with you here, reading the most beautiful poetry of Heine?"

"That is why I want to sing," said the sweet voice, with a touch of wilfulness in its tone. "Listen! I will give you a reading of Heine in music!" And suddenly, rich and clear as a bell, a golden cadence of notes rang out with the words:

"Ah, Hast thou forgotten, That I possessed thy heart?"

The King sprang lightly out of his hiding-place, and with De Launay moved on slowly and cautiously through the trees.

"Ach, mein Gott!" they heard Von Glauben exclaim--"That is a bird-call which will float on wings to the ears of the King!"

A soft laugh rippled on the air.

"Dear friend and master, why are you so afraid?" asked the caressing woman's voice again;--"We are quite hidden away from the Royal visitors,--and though you have been peeping at the King through the trees, and though you know he is actually in our garden, he will never find his way here! This is quite a secret little study and schoolroom, where you have taught me so much!--yes--so much!--and I am very grateful! And whenever you come to see me you teach me something more--you are always good and kind!--and I would not anger you for the world! But what is the good of knowing and feeling beautiful things, if I may not express them?"

"You do express them,--in yourself,--in your own existence and appearance!" said the Professor gruffly; "but that is a physiological accident which I do not expect you to understand!"

There was a moment's silence. Then came a slight movement, as of quick feet clambering among loose pebbles, and the voice rang out again.

"There! Now I am in my rocky throne! Do you remember--Ah, no!--you know nothing about it,--but I will tell you the story! It was here, in this very place, that my husband first saw me!"

"Ach so!" murmured Von Glauben. "It is an excellent place to make a first appearance! Eve herself could not have chosen more picturesque surroundings to make a conquest of Adam!"

Apparently his mild sarcasm fell on unheeding ears.

"He was walking slowly all alone on the sh.o.r.e," went on the voice, dropping into a more plaintive and tender tone; "The sun had sunk, and one little star was sparkling in the sky. He looked up at the star--and--"

"Then he saw a woman's eye," interpolated Von Glauben; "Which is always more attractive to weak man than an impossible-to-visit planet! What does Shakespeare say of women's eyes?

'Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return.

What if her eyes were there, they in her head?

The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, As daylight doth a lamp; her eye in heaven Would through the airy regions stream so bright, That birds would sing and think it were not night!'"

"Ach! That is so!"