The Kings Esquires | Page 9

do at all. What's to be done?"
"Your Majesty will have to stay at Fontainebleau and let your servant do this duty, as he has said."
"No!" shouted the King. "I told you I would go myself."
"With a powerful following, Sire," cried Saint Simon, giving Leoni a triumphant look. "Let me choose and lead your bodyguard."
Denis frowned and set his teeth hard in his annoyance at being passed in the race by his companion; but he brightened directly on hearing the King's next impatient words:
"Hang your bodyguard! Leoni is right."
"Yes, Sire," said that individual, just loud enough for the young man to hear.
"This must be done with guile."
Denis's eyes flashed.
"Pardon, Sire," he cried eagerly. "You might go in disguise." And the next moment the boy's heart swelled within his breast, for the King slapped him heartily on the shoulder.
"Good!" he cried. "That's it! Do you hear, Leoni? That's the idea: I'll go in disguise."
"Sire! It is impossible!" cried the doctor.
"Quite," said the King, laughing; "but I like doing impossible things. Let me see, what's the proper way to go to work? I have it! As a learned doctor like you. H'm, no. They'd want me to cure somebody, and I should be killing him perhaps. Here, Saint Simon, how should I disguise myself?"
"Well, Sire, if I were going to undertake the task I should dress myself like a--like a--like a--"
"Minstrel, Sire," cried Denis excitedly, "like the English King Alfred."
"Or Richard Coeur de Lion," shouted Saint Simon, striving not to be beaten in the race.
"Here, hallo!" cried the King, "that won't do! I do know better than that. It was Richard's minstrel who went in disguise."
"Yes, Sire," cried Denis eagerly, while Leoni, with his eyelids nearly closed, glanced from one to the other with a look of contempt.
"That will not do," said the King gruffly. "There is no instrument that I could play; but I must go as something."
"Is your Majesty seriously determined to go in disguise?" said the doctor.
"Yes, old Wisdom. Now then, what do you propose?"
"I can only think of one way, Sire, and that is that I should go as what I am--a doctor--a part, I believe, that I could worthily play."
"Of course," said the King. "There is not a better doctor in the world."
Leoni's eyes flashed, as he bowed his head gravely.
"But you are not going," said the King decisively.
"No, Sire, unless your Majesty thought it wise that I should go, and take you as my servant."
"What!" shouted the King.
"In disguise, of course, Sire."
"That I won't!" cried the King. "Either in disguise or out of it. Bah! Pish! The idea is absurd. Go as your servant! Are you growing into your dotage, man?"
The two young men exchanged glances, brothers once again in combination against their rival for the King's favour, who seemed to be coming to the front and leaving them behind.
"Pardon me, Sire," said the doctor humbly. "I proposed that, as it seemed an easy way to achieve your ends."
"I would sooner give up the project, Master Leoni," said the King haughtily. "Propose something else."
The doctor spread his hands apart in the most self-abasing way, but the King was not appeased.
"Picture me, the eldest son of Holy Church, His Most Christian Majesty, masquerading as the servant of a leech! Have a care, Master Leoni. You have a way of handling a lancet and letting your patients' blood. Recollect that kings have a way too of treating patients so that they never bleed again."
"I am your Majesty's humble slave," said Leoni, in low, deprecating tones; but Denis noticed that there was no humility in the half veiled eyes as they were lowered to the ground; "You are forgiven," said the King. "But have a care. By the Faith! It brought the blood hotly to my eyes! Now then, speak again. In what habit shall I go?"
There was silence in the chamber, broken the next moment by the impatient trampling of the monarch's feet as he paced up and down, while for a time nobody ventured to speak. And then in his excitement lest he should be supplanted, it was Denis who sprang into the gap.
"I have a plan, Sire," he cried. "Go as a powerful French noble, travelling to see the Courts of Europe, and--and--"
"Yes, go on, boy. That notion likes me well."
"Your Majesty might take me as your esquire, or page," added the boy, trembling lest he should have brought his master's wrath down burning upon his head.
"Hah!" shouted the King, and for a moment the boy's heart sank, for the King's hand came down upon his shoulder in a painful grip; but the next moment the sinking heart rose with a bound, his eyes flashed with excitement, and for the life of him he could not keep from darting triumphant glances at his fellow-courtiers. "There, Master Leoni!