Clementina. A. E. W. Mason

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СКАЧАТЬ two days after Christmas a courier brought a letter to the castle. He came in the evening, and the letter was carried to Wogan while he was at table. He noticed at once that it was in his King's hand, and he slipped it quickly into his pocket. It may have been something precipitate in his manner, or it may have been merely that all were on the alert to mark his actions, but at once curiosity was aroused. No plain words were said; but here and there heads nodded together and whispered, and while some eyed Wogan suspiciously, a few women whose hearts were tuned to a sympathy with the Princess in her imprisonment, or touched with the notion of a romantic attachment, smiled upon him their encouragement. The Countess of Berg for once was unobservant, however.

      Wogan made his escape from the company as soon as he could, and going up to his apartments read the letter. The moon was at its full, and what with the clear, frosty air, and the snow stretched [pg 43] over the world like a white counterpane, he was able to read the letter by the window without the light of a candle. It was written in the Chevalier's own cipher and hand; it asked anxiously for news and gave some. Wogan had had occasion before to learn that cipher by heart. He stood by the window and spelled the meaning. Then he turned to go down; but at the door his foot slipped upon the polished boards, and he stumbled onto his knee. He picked himself up, and thinking no more of the matter rejoined the company in a room where the Countess of Berg was playing upon a harp.

      "The King," said Wogan, drawing the Prince apart, "leaves Bologna for Rome."

      "So the letter came from him?" asked the Prince, with an eagerness which could not but seem hopeful to his companion.

      "And in his own hand," replied Wogan.

      The Prince shuffled and hesitated as though he was curious to hear particulars. Wogan thought it wise to provoke his curiosity by disregarding it. It seemed that there was wisdom in his reticence, for a little later the Prince took him aside while the Countess of Berg was still playing upon her harp, and said—

      "Single-handed you could do nothing. You would need friends."

      Wogan took a slip of paper from his pocket and gave it to the Prince.

      "On that slip," said he, "I wrote down the [pg 44] names of all the friends whom I could trust, and by the side of the names the places where I could lay my hands upon them. One after the other I erased the names until only three remained."

      The Prince nodded and read out the names.

      "Gaydon, Misset, O'Toole. They are good men?"

      "The flower of Ireland. Those three names have been my comfort these last three weeks."

      "And all the three at Schlestadt. How comes that about?"

      "Your Highness, they are all three officers in Dillon's Irish regiment, and so have that further advantage."

      "Advantage?"

      "Your Highness," said Wogan, "Schlestadt is near to Strasbourg, which again is not far from Innspruck, and being in French territory would be the most convenient place to set off from."

      There was a sound of a door shutting; the Prince started, looked at Wogan, and laughed. He had been upon the verge of yielding; but for that door Wogan felt sure he would have yielded. Now, however, he merely walked away to the Countess of Berg, and sitting beside her asked her to play a particular tune. But he still held the slip of paper in his hand and paid but a scanty heed to the music, now and then looking doubtfully towards Wogan, now and then scanning that long list of names. His lips, too, moved as though he was framing the three selected names, Gaydon, Misset, O'Toole, and [pg 45] "Schlestadt" as a bracket uniting them. Then he suddenly rose up and crossed the room to Wogan.

      "My daughter wrote that a woman must attend her. It is a necessary provision."

      "Your Highness, Misset has a wife, and the wife matches him."

      "They are warned to be ready?"

      "At your Highness's first word that slip of paper travels to Schlestadt. It is unsigned, it imperils no one, it betrays nothing. But it will tell its story none the less surely to those three men, for Gaydon knows my hand."

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