At last I stemmed his invective.
"Let that be for the present, Mironsac," I laughed. "You are here,
and you can thwart all Chatellerault's designs by witnessing to my
identity before the Keeper of the Seals."
And then of a sudden a doubt closed like a cold hand upon my brain.
I turned to Castelroux.
"Mon Dieu!" I cried. "What if they were to deny me a fresh trial?"
"Deny it you!" he laughed. "They will not be asked to grant you
one."
"There will be no need," added Mironsac. "I have but to tell the
King--"
"But, my friend," I exclaimed impatiently, "I am to die in the
morning!"
"And the King shall be told to-day - now, at once. I will go to
him."
I stared askance a moment; then the thought of the uproar that I
had heard recurring to me, "Has the King arrived already?" I
exclaimed.
"Naturally, monsieur. How else do I come to be here? I am in His
Majesty's train."
At that I grew again impatient. I thought of Roxalanne and of how
she must be suffering, and I bethought me that every moment Mironsac
now remained in my cell was another moment of torture for that poor
child. So I urged him to be gone at once and carry news of my
confinement to His Majesty. He obeyed me, and I was left alone once
more, to pace up and down in my narrow cell, a prey to an excitement
such as I should have thought I had outlived.
At the end of a half-hour Castelroux returned alone.
"Well?" I cried the moment the door opened, and without giving him
so much as time to enter.
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