This eBook was prepared by Les Bowler from the 1922 John Murray edition.
SORORI
SUÂ CAUSSÂ CARAE
PRO ERGA MATREM AMORE
ETIAM CARIORI
HOC FRATER.
CONTENTS
I. CRIMSON FAVOURS
II. HANNIBAL DE SAULX, COMTE DE TAVANNES
III. THE HOUSE NEXT THE GOLDEN MAID
IV. THE EVE OF THE FEAST
V. A ROUGH WOOING
VI. “WHO TOUCHES TAVANNES?”
VII. IN THE AMPHITHEATRE
VIII. TWO HENS AND AN EGG
IX. UNSTABLE
X. MADAME ST. LO
XI. A BARGAIN
XII. IN THE HALL OF THE LOUVRE
XIII. DIPLOMACY
XIV. TOO SHORT A SPOON
XV. THE BROTHER OF ST. MAGLOIRE
XVI. AT CLOSE QUARTERS
XVII. THE DUEL
XVIII. ANDROMEDA, PERSEUS BEING ABSENT
XIX. IN THE ORLÉANNAIS
XX. ON THE CASTLE HILL
XXI. SHE WOULD, AND WOULD NOT
XXII. PLAYING WITH FIRE
XXIII. A MIND, AND NOT A MIND
XXIV. AT THE KING’S INN
XXV. THE COMPANY OF THE BLEEDING HEART
XXVI. TEMPER
XXVII. THE BLACK TOWN
XXVIII. IN THE LITTLE CHAPTER-HOUSE
XXIX. THE ESCAPE
XXX. SACRILEGE!
XXXI. THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS
XXXII. THE ORDEAL BY STEEL
XXXIII. THE AMBUSH
XXXIV. “WHICH WILL YOU, MADAME?”
XXXV. AGAINST THE WALL
XXXVI. HIS KINGDOM
M. de Tavannes smiled. Mademoiselle averted her eyes, and shivered;as if the air, even of that close summer night, entering by the doorat her elbow, chilled her. And then came a welcome interruption.
“Tavannes!”
“Sire!”
Count Hannibal rose slowly. The King had called, and he hadno choice but to obey and go. Yet he hung a last moment over hiscompanion, his hateful breath stirring her hair.
“Our pleasure is cut short too soon, Mademoiselle,” hesaid, in the tone, and with the look, she loathed. “Butfor a few hours only. We shall meet to-morrow. Or, it maybe—earlier.”
She did not answer, and “Tavannes!” the King repeatedwith violence. “Tavannes! Mordieu!” his Majestycontinued, looking round furiously. “Will no one fetch him? Sacré nom, am I King, or a dog of a—”
“I come, sire!” the Count cried hastily. For Charles,King of France, Ninth of the name, was none of the most patient; andscarce another in the Court would have ventured to keep him waitingso long. “I come, sire; I come!” Tavannes repeated,as he moved from Mademoiselle’s side.
He shouldered his way through the circle of courtiers, who barredthe road to the presence, and in part hid her from observation. He pushed past the table at which Charles and the Comte de Rochefoucauldhad been playing primero, and at which the latter still sat, triflingidly with the cards. Three more paces, and he reached the King,who stood in the ruelle with Rambouillet and the Italian Marshal. It was the latter who, a moment before, had summoned his Majesty fromhis game.
Mademoiselle, watching him go, saw so much; so much, and the King’sroving eyes and haggard face, and the four figures, posed apart in thefuller light of the upper half of the Chamber. Then the circleof courtiers came together before her, and she sat back on her stool. A fluttering, long-drawn sigh escaped her. Now, if she could slipout and make her escape! Now—she looked round. Shewas not far from the door; to withdraw seemed easy. But a staring,whispering knot of gentlemen and pages blocked the way; and the girl,ignorant of the etiquette of the Court, and with no more than a week’sexperience of Paris, had not the courage to rise and pass alone throughthe group.
She had come to the Louvre this Saturday evening under the wing ofMadame d’Yverne, her fiancé’s