The Project Gutenberg eBook, House of Torment, by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

Title: House of Torment

A Tale of the Remarkable Adventures of Mr. John Commendone, Gentleman to King Phillip II of Spain at the English Court

Author: Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

Release Date: July 13, 2011 [eBook #36721]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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HOUSE OF TORMENT

A Tale of the Remarkable Adventures of
MR. JOHN COMMENDONE
Gentleman to King Philip II of Spain at the English Court

By C. RANGER-GULL

Author of "The Serf," etc.

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1911

Published September, 1911
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.

DEDICATION TO DAVID WHITELAW

SOUVENIR OF A LONG FRIENDSHIP

My dear David,

Since I first met you, considerably more than a decade ago, in a little studio high up in a great London building, we have both seen much water flow under the bridges of our lives.

We have all sorts of memories, have we not?

Late midnights and famishing morrows, in the gay hard days when we were endeavouring to climb the ladder of our Art; a succession of faces, a welter of experiences. Some of us fell in the struggle; others failed and still haunt the reprobate purlieus of Fleet Street and the Strand! There was one who achieved a high and delicate glory before he died—"Tant va la cruche à l'eau qu'à la fin elle se casse."

There is another who is slowly and surely finding his way to a certainty of fame.

And the rest of us have done something, if not—as yet—all we hoped to do. At any rate, the slopes of the first hills lie beneath us. We are in good courage and resolute for the mountains.

The mist eddies and is spiralled below in the valleys from which we have come, but already we are among the deep sweet billows of the mountain winds, and I think it is because we have both found our "Princess Galvas" that we have got this far upon the way.

We may never stand upon the summit and find that tempest of fire we call the Sun full upon us. But the pleasure of going on is ours still—there will always be that.

Ever your friend,
C. RANGER-GULL.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

IN THE QUEEN'S CLOSET; THE FOUR FACES

Sir Henry Commendone sat upon an oak box clamped with bands of iron and watched his son completing his morning toilette.

"And how like you this life of the Court, John?" he said.

The young man smoothed out the feather of his tall cone-shaped hat. "Truly, father," he answered, "in respect of itself it seems a very good life, but in respect that it is far from the fields and home it is naught. But I like it very well. And I think I am likely to rise high. I am now attached to the King Consort, by the Queen's pleasure. His Highness has spoken frequently with me, and I have my commission duly written out as caballerizo."

"I never could learn Spanish," the elder man replied, wagging his head. "Father Chilches tried to teach me often of an afternoon when you were hawking. What does the word mean in essence?"

"Groom of the body, father—equerry. It is doubtless because I speak Spanish that it hath been given me."

"Very like, Johnnie. But since the Queen, God bless her, has come to the throne, and England is reconciled to Holy Church, thou wert bound to