Part 40 (1/2)
”Here, your Majesty,” answered Wogan, without an instant's hesitation,-”here, in this hall. There, in the rooms above.”
He had seized the truth in the same second when he recognised his King, and the King's first words had left him in no doubt. He knew now why he had never found Harry Whittington in any corner of Bologna. Harry Whittington had been riding to Spain.
The Chevalier laughed harshly.
”Sir, I suspect honour which needs such barriers to protect it. You are here, in this house, at this hour, with a sentinel to forbid intrusion at the garden door. Explain me this honourably.”
”I had the honour to escort a visitor to her Highness, and I wait until the visit is at an end.”
”What? Can you not better that excuse?” said the Chevalier. ”A visitor! We will make acquaintance, Mr. Wogan, with your visitor, unless you have another sentinel to bar my way;” and he put his foot upon the step of the stairs.
”I beg your Majesty to pause,” said Wogan, firmly. ”Your thoughts wrong me, and not only me.”
”Prove me that!”
”I say boldly, 'Here is a servant who loves his Queen!' What then?”
”This! That you should say, 'Here is a man who loves a woman,-loves her so well he gives his friends the slip, and with the woman comes alone to Peri.'”
”Ah. To Peri! So I thought,” began Wogan, and the Chevalier whispered,-
”Silence! You raise your voice too high. You no doubt are anxious in your great respect that there should be some intimation of my coming. But I dispense with ceremony. I will meet this fine visitor of yours at once;” and he ran lightly up the stairs.
Then Wogan did a bold thing. He followed, he sprang past the King, he turned at the stair-top and barred the way.
”Sir, I beg you to listen to me,” he said quietly.
”Beg!” said the Chevalier, leaning back against the wall with his dark eyes blazing from a white face; ”you insist.”
”Your Majesty will yet thank me for my insistence.” He drew a pocket-book out of his coat. ”At Peri in Italy we were attacked by five soldiers sent over the border by the Governor of Trent. Who guided those five soldiers? Your Majesty's confidant and friend, who is now, I thank G.o.d, waiting in the garden. Here is the written confession of the leader of the five. I pray your Majesty to read it.”
Wogan held out the paper. The Chevalier hesitated and took it. Then he read it once and glanced at it again. He pa.s.sed his hand over his forehead.
”Whom shall I trust?” said he, in a voice of weariness.
”What honest errand was taking Whittington to Peri?” asked Wogan, and again the Chevalier read a piece here and there of the confession. Wogan pressed his advantage. ”Whittington is not the only one of Walpole's men who has hoodwinked us the while he filled his pockets. There are others, one, at all events, who did not need to travel to Spain for an ear to poison;” and he leaned forward towards the Chevalier.
”What do you mean?” asked the Chevalier, in a startled voice.
”Why, sir, that the same sort of venomous story breathed to you in Spain has been spoken here in Bologna, only with altered names. I told your Majesty I brought a visitor to this house to-night. I did; there was no need I should, since the marriage is fixed for to-morrow. I brought her all the way from Rome.”
”From Rome?” exclaimed the Chevalier.
”Yes;” and Wogan flung open the door of the library, and drawing himself up announced in his loudest voice, ”The King!”
A loud cry came through the opening. It was not Clementina's voice which uttered it. The Chevalier recognised the cry. He stood for a moment or two looking at Wogan. Then he stepped over the threshold, and Wogan closed the door behind him. But as he closed it he heard Maria Vittoria speak. She said,-
”Your Majesty, a long while ago, when you bade me farewell, I demanded of you a promise, which I have but this moment explained to the Princess, who now deigns to call me friend. Your Majesty has broken the promise. I had no right to demand it. I am very glad.”
Wogan went downstairs. He could leave the three of them shut up in that room to come by a fitting understanding. Besides, there was other work for him below,-work of a simple kind, to which he had now for some weeks looked forward. He crept down the stairs very stealthily. The hall door was still open. He could see dimly the figure of a man standing on the gra.s.s.