Part 37 (1/2)
”Pray, sir, what is it?”
”To serve and guard the lady who goes also.”
After a moment of seeming surprise, he broke into a sneering laugh.
”You go to guard her?” he said.
”Her and her honour,” I answered steadily. ”And I do not desire to resign that task into your hands, my lord.”
”What will you do? How will you serve her?” he asked.
A sudden suspicion of him seized me. His manner had changed to a forced urbanity; when he was civil he was treacherous.
”That's my secret, my lord,” I answered. ”I have preparations to make. I pray you, give me leave.” I opened the door and held it for him.
His rage mastered him; he grew red and the veins swelled on his forehead.
”By heaven, you shan't go,” he cried, and clapped his hand to his sword.
”Who says that Mr Dale shall not go?”
A man stood in the doorway, plainly attired, wearing boots, and a cloak that half-hid his face. Yet I knew him, and Carford knew him. Carford shrank back, I bowed, and we both bared our heads. M. de Perrencourt advanced into the room, fixing his eyes on Carford.
”My lord,” he said, ”when I decline a gentleman's services I am not to be forced into accepting them, and when I say a gentleman shall go with me he goes. Have you a quarrel with me on that account?”
Carford found no words in which to answer him, but his eyes told that he would have given the world to draw his sword against M. de Perrencourt, or, indeed, against the pair of us. A gesture of the newcomer's arm motioned him to the door. But he had one sentence more to hear before he was suffered to slink away.
”Kings, my lord,” said M. de Perrencourt, ”may be compelled to set spies about the persons of others. They do not need them about their own.”
Carford turned suddenly white, and his teeth set. I thought that he would fly at the man who rebuked him so scornfully; but such an outbreak meant death; he controlled himself. He pa.s.sed out, and Louis, with a careless laugh, seated himself on my bed. I stood respectfully opposite to him.
”Make your preparations,” said he. ”In half an hour's time we depart.”
I obeyed him, setting about the task of filling my saddle-bags with my few possessions. He watched me in silence for awhile. At last he spoke.
”I have chosen you to go with me,” he said, ”because although you know a thing, you don't speak of it, and although you see a thing, you can appear blind.”
I remembered that Madame thought my blindness deficient, but I received the compliment in silence.
”These great qualities,” he pursued, ”make a man's fortune. You shall come with me to Paris.”
”To Paris, sir?”
”Yes. I'll find work for you there, and those who do my work lack neither reward nor honour. Come, sir, am I not as good a King to serve as another?”
”Your Majesty is the greatest Prince in Christendom,” said I. For such indeed all the world held him.
”Yet even the greatest Prince in Christendom fears some things,” said he, smiling.