United States or Northern Mariana Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I went to the door and, opening it a trifle, bade the page who waited send La Trape. He passed on the message to a crowd of sleepy attendants, and quickly, but not before I had gone back to the King's bedside, La Trape entered. Having my eyes turned the other way, I did not at once remark anything.
My mind had not failed already to conceive a natural suspicion. "Only one, your Grace. The rest were servants." "And that one?" "A man in the yard fancied that he recognised M. de la Varenne." "Ah!" I said no more. My agitation was indeed such that, before giving reins to it, I bade La Trape withdraw.
At Constant's?" He muttered, "No, my lord," and looked confused. This roused my curiosity. "Where, then?" I said sharply. "Of a man who was at the gate yesterday." "Oh!" I said. "Selling tennis balls?" "Yes, my lord." "Some rogue of a marker," I exclaimed, "from whom you bought filched goods! Who was it, man?" "I don't know his name," La Trape answered. "He was a Spaniard." "Well?"
Henry answered; for La Trape had fallen to the floor. "Such as he has now!" he repeated, his eyes flaming, his face pale. "Oh, my friend, this is too much. Those who do these things are devils, not men. Where is Du Laurens? Where is the doctor? He will perish before our eyes." "Patience, sire," I said. "He will come." "But in the meantime the man dies."
The King was the first to break the silence. "You have hope?" he said. "You can save him?" "Pardon, sire, a moment," the physician answered, rising from his knees. "Where is the cat?" Someone brought it, and M. Du Laurens, after looking at it, said curtly, "It has been poisoned." La Trape uttered a groan of despair. "At what hour did it take the milk?" the physician asked.
We still had ample time to reach Fontainebleau by nightfall, but before proceeding it was absolutely necessary that our horses should have rest. Dismounting, therefore, I bade La Trape see the sorrel well baited.
On receiving this confirmation of my suspicion, my vanity as well as my love of justice led me to act with the promptitude which I have exhibited in greater emergencies. I rated La Trape for his carelessness in permitting this deception to be practised; and the main body of my attendants being now in sight, I ordered him to take two Swiss and arrest both brothers without delay.
But at one thing we can easily arrive. You tasted all of these, man?" La Trape said he had. "You drank a quantity, a substantial quantity of each according to the orders given to you? I persisted. "Yes, your excellency." But I caught a guilty look in his eyes, and in a gust of rage I cried out that he lied. "The truth!" I thundered, in a terrible voice.
Acquitting himself of the commission I had given him with his usual adroitness, he quickly returned with the news that a traveller of rank had passed through three days before, having sent in advance to order relays there and at Essonnes. La Trape reported that the gentleman had remained in his coach, and that none of the inn servants had seen his face. "And he had companions?" I said.
"Have you found, as yet, who was good enough to supply it?" he asked. "No, sire," I answered. "But I will see La Trape, and as soon as I have learned anything, your majesty shall know it." "I suppose he is not far off now," he suggested. "Send for him. Ten to one he will have made inquiries, and it will amuse us."
Word Of The Day