CHAPTER XXIII
THE DWARF MAKES AN EARLY CALL
From one of the watch-towers of the town rang the clear note of atrumpet, a tribute of melody, occasioned by the awakening in the east.As the last clarion tones reechoed over the sleeping village, a crimsonrim appeared above the horizon and soon the entire wheel of the chariotof the sun-god rolled up out of the illimitable abyss and began itsdaily race across the sky. The stolid bugler yawned, tucked histrumpet under his arm, and, having perfunctorily performed the dutiesof his office, tramped downward with more alacrity than he had toiledupward.
About the same time the sleepy guard at the town gate was relieved byan equally drowsy-appearing trooper; here and there windows were flungopen, and around the well in the small public square the maids began tocongregate. In the tap-room of the tavern the landlord moved about,setting to rights the tables and chairs, or sprinkling fresh sand onthe floor. The place had a stale, close odor, as though not long sincevacated by an inabstinent company, a supposition further borne out bythe disorder of the furniture, and the evidence the gathering had notbeen over-nice about spilling the contents of their toss-pots. Thehost had but opened the front door, permitting the fresh, invigoratingair from without to enter, when the duke's _plaisant_, his cloak overhis arm, descended the stairs, and, addressing the landlord, asked whenhe and his companion could be provided with breakfast.
"Breakfast!" grumbled the proprietor. "The maids are hardly up and thefires must yet be started. It will be an hour or more before you canbe served."
The jester appeared somewhat dissatisfied, but contented himself withrequesting the other to set about the meal at once.
"You ride forth early," answered the man, in an aggrieved tone.
The _plaisant_ made no reply as he strode to the door and looked out;noted sundry signs of awakening life down the narrow street, and thenreturned to the tap-room.
"You had a noisy company here last night, landlord?" he vouchsafed,glancing around the room and recalling the laughter and shouts he hadheard below until a late hour.
"Noisy company!" retorted the innkeeper. "A goodly company that ateand drank freely. Distinguished company that paid freely. The king'sown guards who are acting as escort to Robert, the Duke of Friedwald,and his bride, the princess. Noisy company, forsooth."
The young man started. "The king's guards!" he said. "What are theydoing here?"
The other vigorously rubbed the top of a table with a damp cloth."Acting as escort to the duke, as I told you," he replied.
"The duke is here, also?"
"Yes; at the chateau. The princess had become weary of travel;besides, had sprained her ankle, I heard, and would have it thecavalcade should tarry a few days. They e'en stopped at my door," hewent on ostentatiously, "and called for a glass of wine for theprincess. 'Tis true she took it with a frown, but the hardships ofjourneying do not agree with grand folks."
These last words the jester, absorbed in thought, did not hear. Withhis back to the man, he stood gazing through the high window,apparently across the street. But between the two houses on the otherside of the thoroughfare was a considerable open space, and throughthis, far away, on the mount, could be seen the chateau. The sunlightshone bright on turret and spire; its walls were white and glistening;its outlines, graceful and airy as a fabric of imagination.
"And yet it was a handsome cavalcade," continued the proprietor, hispredilection for pomp overcoming his churlishness. "The princess on asteed with velvet housings, set with precious stones. Her ladiesattired in eastern silks. Behind the men of arms; Francis' troops inrich armor; the duke's soldiers more simply arrayed. At the head ofthe procession rode--"
"Have the horses brought out at once."
Thus brusquely interrupted, the innkeeper stared blankly at his guest,who had left the window and now stood in the center of the roomconfronting him. "And the breakfast?" asked the man.
"I have changed my mind and do not want it," was the curt response.
The host shrugged his shoulders disagreeably, as the plaisant turnedand ascended the stairs. "Unprofitable travelers," muttered thelandlord, following with his gaze the retreating figure.
Hastily making his way to the room of the young girl, the jesterknocked on the door.
"Are you awake, Jacqueline?"
"Yes," answered a voice within.
"We must ride forth as soon as possible. The duke is at the chateau."
"At the chateau!" she exclaimed in surprise. Then after a pause: "AndTriboulet saw us. He will tell that you are here. I will come down atonce. Wait," she added, as an afterthought seized her.
He heard her step to the window. "I think the gates of the chateau areopen," she said. "I am not sure; it is so far."
"Do you see any one on the road leading down?"
"No," came the answer.
"Nor could I. But perhaps they have already passed."
Again the jester returned to the tap-room, where he found the landlordpolishing the pewter tankards.
"The horses?" said the fool sharply.
"The stable boy will bring them to the door," was the response, and theinnkeeper held a pot in the air and leisurely surveyed the shiningsurface.
"The reckoning?"
Deliberately the man replaced the receptacle on the table, and,pressing his thumbs together, began slowly to calculate: "Bottle ofwine, ten sous; capon, twenty sous; two rooms--" when the jester tookfrom his coat the purse the young girl had given him, and, selecting acoin, threw it on the board. At the sight of the purse and its goldencontents the countenance of the proprietor mollified; his priceforthwith varied with his changed estimate of his guest's condition."Two rooms, fifty sous; fodder, forty sous"--he went on. "That wouldmake--"
"Keep the coin," said the _plaisant_, "and have the stable boy makehaste."
With new alacrity, the innkeeper thrust the pistole into a leathernpouch he carried at his girdle. A guest who paid so well could affordto be eccentric, and if he and the young lady chose to travel withoutbreakfast, it was obviously not for the purpose of economy. Therefore,exclaiming something about "a lazy rascal that needed stirring up," thenow interested landlord was about to go to the barn himself, when, witha loud clattering, a party of horsemen rode up to the tavern; the doorburst open and Triboulet, followed by a tall, rugged-looking man and aparty of troopers, entered the hall.
Swiftly the jester glanced around him; the room had no other door thanthat before which the troopers were crowded; he was fairly caught in atrap. Remorsefully his thoughts flew to the young girl and the trustshe had imposed in him. How had he rewarded that confidence? By atemerity which made this treachery on the part of the hunchbackpossible. Even now before him stood Triboulet, bowing ironically.
"I trust you are well?" jeered the dwarf, and with a light, dancingstep began to survey the other from side to side. "And the lady--isshe also well this morning? How pleased you both were to see meyesterday!" assuming an insolent, albeit watchful, pose. "So youbelieved I had run away from the duke? As if he could get on withoutme. What would be a honeymoon without Triboulet! The maids of honorwould die of ennui. One day they trick me out with true-lovers' knots!the next, give me a Cupid's head for a wand. Leave the duke!" herepeated, bombastically. "Triboulet could not be so unkind."
"Enough of this buffoonery!" said a decisive voice, and the dwarf drewback, not without a grimace, to make room for a person of soldierlymien, who now pushed his way to the front. Over his doublet thisgentleman wore a somewhat frayed, but embroidered, cloak; his broad hatwas fringed with gold that had lost its luster; his countenance, deeplyburned, seemed that of an old campaigner. He regarded the foolcourteously, yet haughtily.
"Your sword, sir!" he commanded, in the tone of one accustomed to beingobeyed.
"To whom should I give it?" asked the duke's jester.
"To the Vicomte de Gruise, commandant of the town. I have a writ foryour arrest as a heretic."
"Who ha
s lodged this information against me?"
"Triboulet. That is, he procured the duke's signature to the writ."
"And you think the duke a party to this farce, my Lord?" said the fool,with assumed composure. "It has not occurred to you that before theday is over all the village will be laughing at the spectacle of theircommandant--pardon me--being led by the nose by a jester?"
The officer's sun-burned face became yet redder; he frowned, thenglanced suspiciously at Triboulet, whose reputation was France-wide.
"This man was the duke's fool," screamed the dwarf, "and was imprisonedby order of the king. His companion who is here with him was formerlyjestress to the princess. She is a sorceress and bewitched themonarch. Then her fancy seized upon the heretic, and, by her dark art,she opened the door of the cell for him. Together they fled; she fromthe court, he from prison."
The commandant looked curiously from the hunchback to the accused. Ifthis were acting, the dwarf was indeed a master of the art.
"Besides, his haste to leave the village," eagerly went on Triboulet."Why was he dressed at this hour? Ask the landlord if he did not seemunduly hurried?"
At this appeal the innkeeper, who had been an interested spectator, nowbecame a not unwilling witness.
"It is true he seemed hurried," he answered. "When he first came downhe ordered breakfast. I happened to mention the duke was at thechateau, whereupon he lost his appetite with suspicious suddenness,called for his horses, and was for riding off with all haste."
From the commandant's expression this testimony apparently removed anydoubts he may have entertained. Above the heads of the troopers massedin the doorway the duke's _plaisant_ saw Jacqueline, standing on thestairs, with wide-open, dark eyes fastened upon him. Involuntarily helifted his hand to his heart; across the brief space glance melted intoglance.
Persecuted Calvin maid--had not her fate been untoward enough withoutthis new disaster? Had not the king wrought sufficient ill to her andhers in the past? Would she be sent back to the court; the monarch?For himself he had no thought, but for her, who was nobler even thanher birthright. He had been thrice a fool who had not heededportentous warnings--the sight of Triboulet, the clamor of thetroopers--and had failed to flee during the night. As he realized thepenalty of his negligence would fall so heavily upon her, a cry of rageburst from the fool's lips and he sprang toward his aggressors. Theyoung girl became yet whiter; a moment she clung to the baluster; thenstarted to descend the stairs. A dozen swords flashed before her eyes.
She drew in her breath sharply, when as if by some magic, the angerfaded from the face of the duke's fool; the hand he had raised to hisbreast fell to his side; his blade remained sheathed.
"Your pardon, my Lord," he said to the commandant. "I have nointention of resisting the authority of the law, but if you will grantme a few moments' private audience in this room, I promise to convinceyou the Duke of Friedwald never signed that writ."
"Let him convince the council that examines heretics," laughedTriboulet. "I'll warrant they'll make short work of his arguments."
"I will give you my sword, sir," went on the jester. "Afterward, ifyou are satisfied, you shall return it to me. If you are not, on myword as a man of honor, I will go with you without more ado."
"A Calvinist, a jester, a man of honor!" cried the dwarf.
But narrowly the vicomte regarded the speaker. "_Pardieu_!" heexclaimed gruffly. "Keep your sword! I promise you I can look to myown safety." And in spite of Triboulet's remonstrance, he waved backthe troopers and closed the door upon the _plaisant_ and himself.
Outside the dwarf stormed and stamped. "The jester is desperate. Itis the noble count who is a nonny. Open, fool-soldiers!"
This command not being obeyed by the men who guarded the entrance, thedwarf began to abuse them. A considerable interval elapsed; thehunchback, who dared not go into the room himself, compromised bykneeling before the keyhole; at the foot of the stairs stood the girl,her strained gaze fastened upon the door.
"They must be near the window," muttered Triboulet in a disappointedtone, rising. "What can they be about? Surely will he try to kill thecommandant."
But even as he spoke the door was suddenly thrown open and the vicomteappeared on the threshold.
"Clear the hall!" he commanded sharply to the surprised soldiers. "IfI mistake not," he went on, addressing the duke's jester, "your horsesare at the door."
"You are going to let them go?" burst forth Triboulet.
"I trust you and this fair lady"--turning to the wondering girl, whonow stood expectantly at the side of the foreign fool--"will not harborthis incident against our hospitality," went on the vicomte, withoutheeding the dwarf.
"The king will hang you!" exclaimed Triboulet, his face black withdisappointment and rage, as he witnessed the _plaisant_ and thejestress leave the tavern together. "Let them go and you must answerto the king. One is a heretic who threw down a cross; the other Icharge with being a sorceress."
A terrible arraignment in those days, yet the vicomte was apparentlydeaf. Hat in hand, he waved them adieu; the steeds sprang forward,past the soldiers, and down the street.
"After them!" cried the dwarf to the troopers, "Dolts! Joltheads!"
Whereupon one of the men, angered at this baiting, reaching out withhis iron boot, caught the dwarf such a sharp blow he staggered andfell, striking his head so violently he lay motionless on the walk. Atthe same time, far above, a body of troopers might have been seenissuing from the gates of the chateau and leisurely wending their waydownward.