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قراءة كتاب In Kings' Byways
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IN KINGS' BYWAYS
BY
STANLEY J. WEYMAN
AUTHOR OF
"A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE," "THE CASTLE INN," "COUNT HANNIBAL," ETC.
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
91 AND 93 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
1902
Copyright, 1902, by
STANLEY J. WEYMAN
All rights reserved.
BY STANLEY J. WEYMAN
THE HOUSE OF THE WOLF. A Romance. With Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
THE STORY OF FRANCIS CLUDDE. A Romance. With four Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $1.25.
A GENTLEMAN OF FRANCE. Being the Memoirs of Gaston de Bonne, Sieur de Marsac. With Frontispiece and Vignette. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
UNDER THE RED ROBE. With twelve full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
MY LADY ROTHA. A Romance of the Thirty Years' War. With eight Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
FROM THE MEMOIRS OF A MINISTER OF FRANCE. With thirty-six Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth, $1.25.
SHREWSBURY. A Romance. With twenty-four Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
THE RED COCKADE. A Novel. With 48 illustrations by R. Caton Woodville. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
THE CASTLE INN. A Novel. With six full-page Illustrations by Walter Appleton Clarke. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
SOPHIA. A Romance. With twelve full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.
A DAUGHTER OF THE GIRONDEPage 326
CONTENTS
 |
|
| PART I | |
|---|---|
| PAGE | |
| Flore, | 1 |
| Crillon's Stake, | 50 |
| For the Cause, | 86 |
| The King's Stratagem, | 131 |
| The House on the Wall, | 152 |
| Hunt the Owler, | 177 |
| The Two Pages, | 194 |
| PART II | |
| The Diary of a Statesman | |
| Episode of the Fowl in the Pot, | 213 |
| Episode of the Boxwood Fire, | 238 |
| Episode of the Snowball, | 266 |
| PART III | |
| King Terror | |
| A Daughter of the Gironde, | 295 |
| In the Name of the Law, | 329 |
PART I
IN KINGS' BYWAYS
FLORE
(1643)
It was about a month after my marriage—and third clerk to the most noble the Bishop of Beauvais, and even admitted on occasions to write in his presence and prepare his minutes, who should marry if I might not?—it was about a month after my marriage, I say, that the thunderbolt, to which I have referred, fell and shattered my fortunes. I rose one morning—they were firing guns for the victory of Rocroy, I remember, so that it must have been eight weeks or more after the death of the late king, and the glorious rising of the Sun of France—and who as happy as I? A summer morning, Monsieur, and bright, and I had all I wished. The river as it sparkled and rippled against the piers of the Pont Neuf far below, the wet roofs that twinkled under our garret window, were not more brilliant than my lord the Bishop's fortunes: and as is the squirrel so is the tail. Of a certainty, I was happy that morning. I thought of the little hut under the pine wood at Gabas in Béarn, where I was born, and of my father cobbling by the unglazed window, his nightcap on his bald head, and his face plaistered where the sherd had slipped; and I puffed out my cheeks to think that I had climbed so high. High? How high might not a man climb, who had married the daughter of the Queen's under-porter, and had sometimes the ear of my lord, the Queen's minister—my lord of Beauvais in whom all men saw the coming master of France! my lord whose stately presence beamed on a world still chilled by the dead hand of Richelieu!
But that morning, that very morning, I was to learn that who climbs may fall. I went below at the usual hour; at the usual hour Monseigneur left, attended, for the Council; presently all the house was in an uproar. My lord had returned, and called for Prosper. I fancied even then that I caught something ominous in the sound of my name as it passed from lip to lip; and nervously I made all