d
overspread her features; quickly she glanced in the opposite direction.

"See! see!" she exclaimed, excitedly.

But he was past response; overcome by pain, in a last desperate attempt
to regain his feet, he had lost consciousness. As he fell back, above
the hill in the direction she was looking, appeared the black plumes of
a band of horsemen.

"No; they are not--"

Her glance rested on the jester, lying there motionless, and hastening
to his side, she lifted his head and placed it in her lap. So the
troopers of the Emperor Charles--a small squad of outriders--found her
sitting in the road, her hair disordered about her, her face the whiter
against that black shroud.

CHAPTER XXV

IN THE TENT OF THE EMPEROR

On an eminence commanding the surrounding country an unwonted spectacle
that same day had presented itself to the astonished gaze of the
workers in a neighboring vineyard. Gleaming with crimson and gold, a
number of tents had appeared as by magic on the mount, the temporary
encampment of a rich and numerous cavalcade. But it was not the
splendent aspect of this unexpected bivouac itself so much as the
colors and designs of the flags and banners floating above which
aroused the wonderment of the tillers of the soil. Here gleamed no
salamander, with its legend, "In fire am I nourished; in fire I die,"
but the less magniloquent and more dreaded coat of arms of the emperor,
the royal rival and one-time jailer of the proud French monarch.

The sunlight, reflected from the golden tassels and ornamentation of
the tents, threw a flaming menace over the valley, and the peasants in
subdued tones talked of the sudden coming of the dreaded foeman. _Mere
de Dieu_! what did it portend! _Ventre Saint Gris_! were they going to
storm the fortresses of the king? Was an army following this
formidable retinue of nobles, soldiers and servants?

Above, on the mount, as the sun climbed toward the meridian, was seated
in one of the largest of the tents a man of resolute and stern mien who
gazed reflectively toward the fertile plain outstretching in the
distance. His grizzled hair told of the after-prime of life; he was
simply, even plainly, dressed, although his garments were of fine
material, and from his neck hung a heavy chain of gold. His doublet
lacked the prolonged and grotesque peak, and was less puffed, slashed
and banded than the coat worn by those gallants of the day who looked
to Italy for the lates