Swords From the Desert Read Online Free PDF Page B

did that, and the gabs and rummies of the alley came out to stare. The rogues and the dogs of the town whispered and sniffed as the horses paced under arch and balcony toward the house of John of Burgundy.
    The archers at the gate gave back before the stranger with the bandaged head who cried to them that Renault had been sore wounded.
    "And where is your seigneur?" he demanded.
    They said that His Grace the Duke was walking in the garden.
    "Nay," Hugh retorted, "is not your king here?" And when they pointed to the garden road, he turned that way, holding the unconscious Renault. He guided the two horses between the myrtle hedges, across the wide lawn, with a score of guardsmen walking by him, whispering. He saw the two figures apart, beyond the fountain, and turned that way.
    While the Burgundians and the nobles of the court looked on curiously, he let Renault down into the hands of the soldiers, and, before anyone could speak, he cried to Louis, "Sire, a message from Navarre!"
    The words reached the ear of the king, and before the onlookers recovered from sheer astonishment at hearing a reigning prince addressed by a strange lad from the saddle, Hugh had dismounted and come forward to kneel within a stone's toss of the two lords. And John of Burgundy broke the silence in an amused voice:
    "His Majesty hath not come to the garden to hear messages of state. Go thou, and wait upon the chamberlain in the evening." Carelessly he ran the whip he held through tense fingers-taking swift note how Louis glanced irresolutely about-and he added thoughtfully, "But let us see the letter thou hast, or a token of thy mission."
    And the southerner, who had nothing of the kind to show, laughed. He pointed to the wounded Renault, now outstretched upon the grass.
    "There lieth the token, my lord-your follower who tried twice to slay me upon my way hither."
    The silence that followed was again broken by the Burgundian: "This is mad talk, and out of place. What proof hast thou? Speak!"
    Duke John knew well that he could not now dismiss this man, for too many ears had heard Hugh's charge. But he saw that Hugh had come alone, without companions or witnesses.
    "There is one," responded the southerner instantly, "who can give proof to my lord the King."
    Again his arm went out, to point toward the door where Jeanne stood, spellbound with anxiety, beside her guard. And Jeanne hesitated not a second. Slipping under the arm of the soldier she was across the lawn, her fiddle clutched tightly. She gasped as she came within the ring of those about the pale man in the gray mantle, and she plumped herself down beside Hugh. Her clear voice cut through the rising murmurs:
    "Sire, 'tis truth, every whit. The Gardener scragged him i' the alley and tripped his gear away, and I brought the Arabian sorcerer who fetched him back to life, and I tried to carry his message to you, so they should not waylay him again. Now the Seigneur Dieu must have brought him hither unharmed, and by that token you must hear him."
    All in a breath she cried it out, and laughter echoed her. Some of the listeners shouted angrily, and John of Burgundy with one swift glance at her eager face understood that here was a witness he could not deal with.
    "Away with the rogues," he ordered, "and end this mummery!"
    But before his men could lay hand on the two, the stooped figure in the gray cloak stepped forward. Louis had found his voice at last.
    "Silence!" he cried; and after a moment: "Speak, thou," he bade the southerner.
    Twilight was falling over the gray river, and vespers chimed from the bell towers when Jeanne came back to the door of her lodging, sitting sidewise on the great horse behind Hugh of Bearn. And out of the shadows of the doorway sounded a warning hiss:
    "Eschec!"
    Two shaggy dogs seemed to be crouched there, but the girl recognized Giron and Pied-a-Botte, clutching packs upon their knees. "And what?" she asked.
    The big picklock came to the stirrup. "Flash the drag,