The Honour of Savelli: A Romance. Levett Yeats Sidney
my innocence in the face of the damning evidence against me.
"If there is any shadow of doubt, your excellency," and D'Entrangues advanced to the table, "this will clear it up. Messer Vieri, kindly hand that package to the duke."
The man whom he addressed, who was no other than he whom I had remarked, on entering the justice room as D'Entrangues' companion, stepped forward and placed the packet before Tremouille, who opened it amidst a dead silence.
"Messer Vieri, how did you obtain this?" asked Tremouille.
"The matter is simple, excellency," replied the banker, "but first may I ask if madame the duchess recognises the trinket?"
The circlet was handed to the duchess, who said in a low voice-
"It is mine: it was stolen from me a month ago-on the seventh of March."
"On the eighth of March a packet was delivered to me at my house of business by one Tarbes, calling himself servant to the Cavaliere di Savelli. He did not know the contents of the parcel; but it was sent to me for safe keeping by his master, so he said. I gave him a receipt for it. I myself did not know what the nature of the packet was until to-day; but hearing the charges preferred against the cavaliere, I opened the case and at once recognised madame's circlet, which I have the pleasure to restore."
"How did you come to hear these charges against the Cavaliere di Savelli?" asked Bayard.
"I was informed of them by the knight, Messer d'Entrangues."
"That is to say, M. d'Entrangues must have known that the jewels were pledged to you. Is this not odd?"
It was a straw of hope that floated to me, and I could scarcely breathe. D'Entrangues, however, replied boldly, "I was told of the matter by one Tarbes, a servant to M. di Savelli."
"You forget to add," I burst out, "that he was a creature of yours, whom I employed on your recommendation."
D'Entrangues made no reply, and Bayard said, "M. d'Entrangues appears to have usurped the functions of the provost and played catchpole. Could we not see this Tarbes?"
"Call Tarbes," said the duke.
Braccio came forward and explained that he had been dealt with summarily, under the orders of the lieutenant-general.
"Mine!" said D'Alegres in astonishment.
"Yes, excellency, he was the prisoner whom your excellency ordered me to hang last night."
"A pity," remarked the duke, and Trevulzio, between whom and D'Alegres there was little love, smiled.
"I suppose you have nothing to say to this?" said Tremouille to me.
"I was not in the camp on the seventh."
"Where were you?"
But this question I could not answer for I caught Madame d'Entrangues' eye imploring me to silence. I looked back at the duke, and as I did so felt that Bayard had followed my glance, and that his eyes were resting on madame's face. He glanced down almost as soon as I did and turned to me, and there was a grave encouragement in his look from which I took heart. To me it was a great thing to show I was not at or near the camp on the seventh; and yet if I did so I would ruin a woman's name. It had been a harmless frolic, I swear this, as I know I will come to judgment before a higher tribunal than that of man; and yet had I spoken there would have been but one construction. I hated D'Entrangues, too, and this would have struck at a vital part. For a second I hesitated, and looked up once more at madame. She was pale as death.
I looked at Bayard, and his glance seemed to penetrate my thoughts.
"I cannot say!"
There was a sound of a gasping sigh, and a heavy fall. The peacock fan fluttered slowly down from the gallery to my feet, and lay there with its hundred eyes staring at me.
"This ruins you," exclaimed D'Alegres.
"Think again before you reply," said the duke: "I will give you time."
"I thank your excellency; but I have no further answer."
Tremouille shrugged his shoulders with a disappointed air, and dropped his chin between his clasped hands, his elbows resting on the table, a favourite position of his. Whilst he was thus considering, Bayard was whispering earnestly to Trevulzio, and the old soldier seemed to assent, and his hard face almost softened as he looked at me. They then turned their gaze on D'Entrangues, and Trevulzio, with a shake of his head, noted something briefly on a slip of paper and passed it on to D'Alegres. The lieutenant-general looked surprised; but after a moment nodded assent, and in his turn passed the paper on to the duke, saying "I agree." Tremouille read the paper slowly, and then they consulted together in low tones.
And now, in a few brief words I heard my sentence, and it was carried out at once. Braccio himself hacked off my spurs, my sword was brought in and solemnly broken, and I was warned to leave the camp within an hour, on pain of being hanged as a thief. Such property as I had was declared confiscate, and the men of my condotta were to be enrolled, by force if necessary, under another banner. How I went through it all I do not know. I cannot say how I passed down that great hall with the eyes of all fixed on me, a dishonoured man, an outcast, and a leper. One thing, however, did happen. Whilst the sentence was being carried out, Tremouille sat apparently absorbed in thought. When the provost broke my sword he rose to leave the room, and as he passed D'Entrangues the duke stopped.
"Monsieur," he said, "you have mistaken your vocation. His majesty does not desire his officers to be thief-hunters. For such talents as yours you will doubtless find room elsewhere, and I have to tell you that the king-my master-regrets he has no further need of your services."
CHAPTER III.
MADAME D'ENTRANGUES
When I left the door of the justice room I had to pass through the main court-yard, and run the gauntlet of open scorn and contempt, bestowed upon me by all assembled there. It was a great thing for them, for those whom the French call canaille-we have no such appropriate word in our own tongue-to see a noble dragged in the dust and covered with infamy. And they did not spare me, taunt and jeer passed from mouth to mouth. Some even would have gone so far as to strike at me, had not their officers prevented them.
"Ah, Croque-mort!" exclaimed an arquebusier, "you should hang;" but the man stepped back a half-pace at my look, and, gaining the outer gate, I pressed on, hardly knowing whither my steps led me. I soon found out I was going in the direction of Arezzo itself, and as that was as good as any other place for me at present, I made no alteration in my course; but anxious to get on as fast as possible, quickened my pace almost to a run, until I was tired out, and perforce compelled to go slower.
This happened when I had covered about a mile, and was beginning the ascent leading to the town; and here I heard behind me the clatter of horses' hoofs, and looking back beheld a party riding in my direction. I turned aside, and, concealing myself behind the stem of a locust tree, waited until the riders should pass. This they did in a few moments, and I saw it was Tremouille and his staff returning to the town. By the side of the duchess, who was riding with her husband, was Bayard, mounted on a bay English horse, which he managed with infinite grace and dexterity.
Madame de la Tremouille was in the best of humours, most probably at the recovery of her circlet, for she was laughing gaily as she said something; but they went by too rapidly for me to catch the words. I waited until the troop was lost in the yellow dust which rose behind them, and then, stepping forth from my hiding-place, became aware that I was not alone; but that a body was hanging from a branch of the tree close to where I was standing, and this I had not noticed in my eagerness to escape observation. It needed but a glance to recognise Tarbes, my scoundrel, who had paid so long a price for his treachery; he was swinging there dead enough, overreached and destroyed by the master-villain.
The sight of my dead knave brought up an angry wave of hatred in my heart towards D'Entrangues, and I prayed that I might not die until I was even with him. So great was the uprising of my anger, that at the time I bitterly regretted not having seized the opportunity to wound him, by plainly answering Tremouille's last question. With my rage against D'Entrangues, there came an almost similar feeling towards Madame, and