ng, when he met Caillette and received
our communication. Go you to the camp"--to the messenger--"where we
shall presently return." And as the man rode away: "The king begs we
will continue our journey at our leisure," he added, "and announces he
will receive us at the chateau."

"And have I your permission to return to Friedwald, Sire?" asked the
other in a low voice.

"Alone?"

"Nay; I would conduct the constable's daughter there to safety."

"And thus needlessly court Francis' resentment? Not yet."

The young man said no word, but his face hardened.

"Tut!" said the emperor, dryly, although not unkindly. "Where's fealty
now? Fine words; fine words! A slender chit of a maid, forsooth.
Without lands, without dowry; with naught--save herself."

"Is she not enough, Sire?"

"Francis is more easily disarmed in his own castle by his own
hospitality than in the battle-field," observed Charles, without
replying to this question. "In field have we conquered him; in palace
hath he conquered himself, and our friendship. Therefore you and the
maid return in our train to the king's court."

"At your order, Sire."

But the young man's voice was cold, ominous.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FAVORITE IS ALARMED

Thus it befell that both Robert of Friedwald and Jacqueline accompanied
the emperor to the little town, the scene of their late adventures, and
that they who had been fool and joculatrix rode once more through the
street they had ne'er expected to see again. The flags were flying;
cannon boomed; they advanced beneath wreaths of roses, the way paved
with flowers. Standing at the door of his inn, the landlord dropped
his jaw in amazement as his glance fell upon the jestress and her
companion behind the great emperor himself. His surprise, too, was
abruptly voiced by a ragged, wayworn person not far distant in the
crowd, whose fingers had been busy about the pockets of his neighbors;
fingers which had a deft habit of working by themselves, while his eyes
were bent elsewhere and his lips joined in the general acclaim; fingers
which like antennas seemed to have a special intelligence of their own.
Now those long weapons of abstraction and appropriation ceased their
deft work; he became all eyes.

"Good lack! Who may the noble gentleman behind the emperor be?" he
exclaimed. "Surely 'tis the duke's fool."

"And ride with the emperor?" said a burly citizen at his elbow. "'Tis
thou who art the fool."

"