An Enemy to the King

A free download from http://www.dertz.in


An Enemy to the King

Project Gutenberg's An Enemy To The King, by Robert Neilson
Stephens Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to
check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or
redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: An Enemy To The King
Author: Robert Neilson Stephens
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9965] [Yes, we are more than

one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 5,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ENEMY
TO THE KING ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG Distributed
Proofreaders

AN ENEMY TO THE KING
From the recently discovered memoirs of the Sieur de la Tournoire
By Robert Neilson Stephens
Author of "The Continental Dragoon," "The Road to Paris," "Philip
Winwood," etc.
1897

CONTENTS.
I. TWO ENCOUNTERS BY NIGHT II. LOVE-MAKING AT SHORT
ACQUAINTANCE III. THE STRANGE REQUEST OF MLLE.
D'ARENCY IV. HOW LA TOURNOIRE WAS ENLIGHTENED IN
THE DARK V. HOW LA TOURNOIRE ESCAPED FROM PARIS VI.
HOW HE FLED SOUTHWARD VII. HOW HE ANNOYED
MONSIEUR DE LA CHATRE VIII. A SWEET LADY IN DISTRESS

IX. THE FOUR RASCALS X. A DISAPPEARANCE XI. HOW THE
HERO GAVE HIS WORD AND KEPT IT XII. AT THE CHÂTEAU
OF MAURY XIII. HOW DE BERQUIN INVITED DEATH XIV.
"GOD GRANT I DO NOT FIND YOU FALSE" XV. TO
CLOCHONNE, AFTER MADEMOISELLE! XVI. BEHIND THE
CURTAINS XVII. SWORD AND DAGGER XVIII. THE RIDE
TOWARDS GUIENNE

AN ENEMY TO THE KING
CHAPTER I.
TWO ENCOUNTERS BY NIGHT
Hitherto I have written with the sword, after the fashion of greater men,
and requiring no secretary. I now take up the quill to set forth, correctly,
certain incidents which, having been noised about, stand in danger of
being inaccurately reported by some imitator of Brantome and De
l'Estoile. If all the world is to know of this matter, let it know thereof
rightly.
It was early in January, in the year 1578, that I first set out for Paris.
My mother had died when I was twelve years old, and my father had
followed her a year later. It was his last wish that I, his only child,
should remain at the château, in Anjou, continuing my studies until the
end of my twenty-first year. He had chosen that I should learn manners
as best I could at home, not as page in some great household or as
gentleman in the retinue of some high personage. "A De Launay shall
have no master but God and the King," he said. Reverently I had
fulfilled his injunctions, holding my young impulses in leash. I passed
the time in sword practice with our old steward, Michel, who had
followed my father in the wars under Coligny, in hunting in our little
patch of woods, reading the Latin authors in the flowery garden of the
château, or in my favorite chamber,--that one at the top of the new
tower which had been built in the reign of Henri II. to replace the
original black tower from which the earliest De Launay of note got the

title of Sieur de la Tournoire. All this while I was holding in curb my
impatient desires. So almost resistless are the forces that impel the
young heart, that there must have been a hard struggle within me had I
had to wait even a month longer for the birthday which finally set me
free to go what ways I chose. I rose early on that cold but sunlit January
day, mad with eagerness to be off and away into the great world that at
last lay open to me. Poor old Michel was sad that I had decided to go
alone. But the only servant whom I would have taken with me was the
only one to whom I would entrust the house of my fathers in my
absence,--old Michel himself. I thought the others too rustic. My few
tenants would have made