s he would have
uttered remained unspoken. But briefly the monarch surveyed him,
satirically, darkly; then turning, with a gesture, summoned an
attendant. Not until the hands of two soldiers fell upon him did the
fool betray any emotion. Then his face changed, and the stunned look
in his eyes gave way to an expression of such unbridled feeling that
involuntarily the king stepped back and the free baron drew his sword.
But neither had the monarch need for apprehension, nor the princess'
betrothed use for his weapon. Some emotion, deeper than anger,
replaced the savage turmoil of the jester's thoughts, as with a last
fixed look at the princess he mechanically suffered himself to be led
away. Louise's gaze perforce followed him, and when the canvas fell
and he had disappeared she passed a hand across her brow.

"Are you satisfied, my Lord?" said the king to the free baron.

"The knave has received his just deserts, Sire," replied the other,
and, stepping to the princess' side, raised her hand to his lips.

"_Mere de Dieu!_" cried the monarch, passing his arm in a friendly
manner over the free baron's shoulder and addressing Louise. "You will
find Robert of Friedwald worthy of your high trust, cousin."

Without, they were soon whispering it. The attendant, who was the
Count of Cross, breathed what he knew to the Duke of Montmorency, who
told Du Bellays, who related the story to Diane de Poitiers, who
embellished it for Villot, who carried it to Jacqueline.

"Triboulet has his wish," said the poet-fool, half-regretfully. "There
is one jester the less."

"Where have they taken him?" asked the girl, steadily.

"Where--but to the keep!"

"That dungeon of the old castle?"

"Well," he returned significantly, "a fool and his jests--alas!--are
soon parted. Let us make merry, therefore, while we may. For what
would you? Come, mistress--the dance--"

"No! no! no!" she exclaimed, so passionately he gazed at her in
surprise.

CHAPTER XIV

AN EARLY-MORNING VISIT

In a mood of contending thought, the free baron left his apartments the
next morning and traversed the tapestry-hung corridor leading toward
the servants' and soldiers' quarters. He congratulated himself that
the incident of the past night had precipitated a favorable climax in
one source of possible instability, and that the fool who had opposed
him had been summarily removed from the field of action. Confined
within the four walls of the ca