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Updated: July 22, 2025
"Why, from half-way between Deal and the devil," said I. "For I have left Monmouth on one side and M. de Perrencourt on the other, and am come safe through." "A witty Simon! But why in Dover again?" "For want of a friend, mistress. Am I come to one?" "With all my heart, Simon. What would you?" "Means to go to London." "Now Heaven is kind! I go there myself in a few hours. You stare.
On the moment's impulse I bowed assent; Madame nodded merrily and waved a kiss with her dainty hand; no word passed, but I felt that I, being a gentleman, could tell no man alive what I suspected, aye, what I knew, concerning M. de Perrencourt. Thus lightly are pledges given when ladies ask them. The Duke of Monmouth started back with a sudden angry motion.
It was, no doubt, high folly to love Mistress Gwyn, but scarcely high treason. Besides, had not I repented and forsworn her? Ah, but the second member of the prophecy? I glanced eagerly at M. de Perrencourt, eagerly at the paper before the King. There were lines on the paper, but I could not read them, and M. de Perrencourt's face was fully as baffling.
I thought now that I could guess what M. de Perrencourt had said in that whispered conference. Buckingham had the discretion to recognise when the game went against him. He rose at once with a bow, declaring that he hastened to obey the King's command, and would bring the fellow in, dead or alive. Monmouth had less self-control.
Then he turned round and began looking at the sea again. But a man should be consistent in his disguises, and from M. de Perrencourt, gentleman-in-waiting, the behaviour was mighty uncivil. Yet my revenge must be indirect. "Is it true, sir," I asked, coming close to him, "that the King of France is yonder at Calais? So it's said." "I believe it to be true," answered M. de Perrencourt.
Your word on it?" A slow smile broke across his face. "No, I'll not betray you," said he. "You speak French well, sir." "So M. de Fontelles, whom I met at Canterbury, told me. Do you chance to know him, sir?" M. de Perrencourt did not start now; I should have been disappointed if he had. "Very well," he answered. "If you're his friend, you're mine." He held out his hand.
"My pleasure is," pursued the King, "that you attach yourself to my friend M. de Perrencourt here, and accompany him and hold yourself at his disposal until further commands from me reach you." M. de Perrencourt stepped forward and addressed me. "In two hours' time, sir," said he, "I beg you to be ready to accompany me.
"Simon," she whispered in eagerness mingled with alarm, "Simon, what are you saying? Silence for your life!" "My life, madame, is rooted too deep for a syllable to tear it up. I said only 'as though he had been a king. Tell me why M. Colbert wears the King's Star. Was it because somebody saw a gentleman wearing the King's Star embrace and kiss M. de Perrencourt the night that he arrived?"
I was straining all my attention to listen, yet my eyes fixed themselves on Phineas, whose head was thrown back defiantly. Suddenly a voice came from behind my chair. "That man must be pursued," said M. de Perrencourt. "Who knows that there may not be accomplices in this devilish plot? This man has planned to poison the King; the servant was his confederate.
"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.
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