n the royal kitchen the cook was bending over his
fires, while an assistant mixed a beverage of barley-water, yolks of
eggs and senna wine for Charles when he should become aroused. Those
courtiers, already astir, cast many glances in the girl's direction, as
she moved toward the tent of the fool.

But if these gallants were sedulous, she was correspondingly
indifferent. Anxiety or loyalty--that stanchness of heart which braved
even the ironical eyes of the black-robed master of medicine--drove her
again to the ailing jester's tent, and, remembering how she had ridden
into camp--and into the august emperor's favor--these fondlings of
fortune looked significantly from one to the other.

"A jot less fever, solicitous maid," said the leech in answer to the
inquiries of the jestress, and she endured the glance for the news,
although the former sent her away with her face aflame.

"An the leech let her in, he'd soon have to let the patient out," spoke
up a gallant. "Her eyes are a sovereign remedy, where bolus, pills and
all vile potions might fail."

"If this be a sample of Francis' damsels, I care not how long we are in
reaching the Low Countries," answered a second.

To this the first replied in kind, but soon had these gallants matters
of more serious moment to divert them, for it began to be whispered
about that Louis of Hochfels had determined to push forward. The
unwonted activity in the camp ere long gave credence to the rumor; the
troopers commenced looking to their weapons; squires hurried here and
there, while near the tents stood the horses, saddled and bridled,
undergoing the scrutiny of the grooms.

Some time, however, elapsed before the emperor himself appeared.
Nothing in the bead-roll, or devotional offering of the morning, had he
overlooked; the divers dishes that followed had been scrupulously
partaken of, and then only--as a man not to be hurried from the altar
or the table--had he emerged from his tent. His glance mechanically
swept the camp, noting the bustle and stir, the absence of disorder,
and finally rested on the girl. For a moment, from his look, it seemed
he might have forgotten her, and she who had involuntarily turned to
him so solicitously, on a sudden felt chilled, as confronted by a mask.
His voice, when at length he spoke, was hard, dry, matter-of-fact, and
it was Jacqueline whom he addressed.

"You slept well?"

"Yes, Sire," she answered.

"And have already been to the fo