"Sir, I beg you to listen to me," he said quietly.
"Beg!" said the Chevalier, leaning back against the wall with his dark
eyes blazing from a white face; "you insist."
"Your Majesty will yet thank me for my insistence." He drew a
pocket-book out of his coat. "At Peri in Italy we were attacked by five
soldiers sent over the border by the Governor of Trent. Who guided those
five soldiers? Your Majesty's confidant and friend, who is now, I thank
God, waiting in the garden. Here is the written confession of the leader
of the five. I pray your Majesty to read it."
Wogan held out the paper. The Chevalier hesitated and took it. Then he
read it once and glanced at it again. He passed his hand over his
forehead.
"Whom shall I trust?" said he, in a voice of weariness.
"What honest errand was taking Whittington to Peri?" asked Wogan, and
again the Chevalier read a piece here and there of the confession. Wogan
pressed his advantage. "Whittington is not the only one of Walpole's men
who has hoodwinked us the while he filled his pockets. There are others,
one, at all events, who did not need to travel to Spain for an ear to
poison;" and he leaned forward towards the Chevalier.
"What do you mean?" asked the Chevalier, in a startled voice.
"Why, sir, that the same sort of venomous story breathed to you in Spain
has been spoken here in Bologna, only with altered names. I told your
Majesty I brought a visitor to this house to-night. I did; there was no
need I should, since the marriage is fixed for to-morrow. I brought her
all the way from Rome."
"From Rome?" exclaimed the Chevalier.
"Yes;" and Wogan flung open the door of the library, and drawing himself
up announced in his loudest voice, "The King!"
A loud cry came through the opening. It was not Clementina's voice which
uttered it. The Chevalier recognised the cry. He stood for a moment or
two looking at Wogan. Then he stepped over the threshold, and Wogan
closed the door behind him. But as he closed it he heard Maria Vittoria
speak. She said,-"Your Majesty, a long while ago, when you bade me farewell, I demanded
of you a promise, which I have but this moment explained to the
Princess, who now deigns to call me friend. Your Majesty has broken the
promise. I had no right to demand it. I am very glad."