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At this very moment it pleased heaven that Katherine, sitting on the terrace and smiling at the adoration in Noel le Jolys' eyes, seemed to find the air she sought and began to sing. The tune was quaint and plaintive, tender as an ancient lullaby, the words were the words of the tortured poet, and as he heard them a new hope seemed to come into his heart.
Villon took the paper and looked straightly into the young man's eyes. "Have we ever met before?" he asked. Noel le Jolys made a deprecatory gesture. "Alas! no," he said. "Your lordship has swept into court like an unheralded comet. You shall tell us tales of Provence to please our ladies." Still gravely looking at him, Villon questioned him again.
In another moment the woman and the man came into the open space, now bright and shining with the risen sun. The woman was Katherine de Vaucelles; the man was Noel le Jolys. As Katherine entered the silent square, she paused for a moment a few paces from the church, and turning, looked at her silent follower.
The gleam of the war-worn weapon recalled him to himself and he took it from the hands of the doomed man with a grave courtesy which meant something more than the official fulfillment of a formal duty. Noel le Jolys was a soldier and his eyes paid homage to a brave man. Villon turned to Tristan. "Master Tristan, perform your office upon this self-doomed felon."
Olivier in obedience to an order of the king's, gave a signal and the girl's body was swiftly wrapped in a soldier's cloak and laid gently upon a pair of crossed halberds. As this was being done, Noel le Jolys came panting back with a red sword in his hand. "Thibaut d'Aussigny is dead, sire," he said; "my hand was the hand that finished him."
"Why do you follow me?" she asked, and Noel le Jolys, who had dogged her footsteps from the palace, answered her briskly: "You should not walk unguarded. Therefore I shadow you." Katherine scorned him. "You may well play the shadow, for you cast no shadow of your own. The streets are very idle the streets are very quiet. I would sooner have my loneliness than your company.
"Woman, we cannot hear you," he said. "By God's law you have given him life once and by my law you may not give him life again." "Sire, I beseech you," Mother Villon entreated; but the king's pity was not to be purchased so. "Take her away and use her gently," he said. Noel le Jolys stooped to obey the king's command, but the old woman, rising to her feet, repulsed him fiercely.
Katherine came on to the terrace with Noel le Jolys. She had a lute in her hand and she touched its chords lightly, seeking to make an air for words as she idled the time with her wooer. Louis saw her, though Villon did not, for he was huddled in a heap on the marble seat with his head in his hands trying to control his whirling thoughts. A new demon of mischief entered the king's heart.
"I would be more gentle than merry with you. Will you wear this ring for my sake? Fancy that it comes from Master François Villon, who will always think kindly of your wild eyes." "Let me see your face," she requested, but Villon denied her. He signed to Noel le Jolys, where he stood apart, and the young soldier came hurriedly to him. "Captain," he said, "give this lady honourable conduct."
"Noel le Jolys is a man many women might love, but I love no man; I only hate Thibaut d'Aussigny. Do you understand?" "I begin to understand," Villon answered, sadly. The girl came nearer to Villon. Her face was very pale in the dim light, and a fleeting image of the moon in clouds teased his fancy. Her lips were as red, he thought, as the ruby of a bishop's ring, and her eyes out-starred Venus.
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