"No fear!" replied he, dryly. "I knelt in church with brother James but yesterday."

"In sooth, quite true!" said Nell, approvingly, as she leaned back against the door and raised her eyes innocently toward the moon. "I sat in the next pew, Sire, afraid to move for fear I might awake your Majesty."

The King chuckled softly to himself. Nell picked one of the flowers that grew upon the bal.u.s.trade.

"Ah, you come a long-forgotten path to-night," she said abruptly.

The King was alert in an instant. He felt that he had placed himself in a false light. He loved the witch above despite himself.

"I saw thee twa evenings ago, la.s.s," he hastily a.s.serted, in good Scotch accents, somewhat impatiently.

"And is not that a long time, Sire," questioned Nell, "or did Portsmouth make it fly?"

"Portsmouth!" exclaimed Charles. He turned his face away. "Can it be my conscience p.r.i.c.ks me?" he thought. "You know more of her than I, sweet Nell," he then a.s.serted, with open manner.

"Marry, I know her not at all and never saw her," said Nell. "I shall feel better when I do," she thought.

"It were well for England's peace you have not met," laughed Charles.

"Faith and troth," said Nell, "I am happy to know our King has lost his heart."

"Odso! And why?" asked Charles; and he gazed at Nell in his curious uncertain way, as he thought it was never possible to tell quite what she meant or what she next would think or say or do.

"We feared he had not one to lose," she slyly suggested. "It gives us hope."

"To have it in another's hand as you allege?" asked Charles.

"Marry, truly!" answered Nell, decisively. "The d.u.c.h.ess may find it more than she can hold and toss it over."

"How now, wench!" exclaimed the King, with a.s.sumption of wounded dignity. "My heart a ball for women to bat about!"

"Sire, two women often play at rackets even with a king's heart," softly suggested Nell.

"Odsfish," cried the King, with hands and eyes raised in mock supplication. "Heaven help me then."

Again the hunters' horn rang clearly on the night.

"The horn! The horn!" said Nell, with forced indifference. "They call you, Sire."

There was a triumphantly bewitching look in her eyes, however, as she realized the discomfiture of the King. He was annoyed, indeed. His manner plainly betokened his desire to stay and his irritation at the interruption.

"'Tis so!" he said at last, resignedly. "The King is lost."

The horn sounded clearer. The hunters were returning.

"Again--nearer!" exclaimed Charles, fretfully. His mind reverted to his pious brother; and he laughed as he continued: "Poor brother James and his ostriches!"

He could almost touch Nell's finger-tips.

"Farewell, sweet," he said; "I must help them find his Majesty or they will swarm here like bees. Yet I must see my Nell again to-night. You have bewitched me, wench. Sup with me within the hour--at--Ye Blue Boar Inn. Can you find the place?"

There was mischief in Nell's voice as she leaned upon the bal.u.s.trade.

She dropped a flower; he caught it.

"Sire, I can always find a rendezvous," she answered.

"You're the biggest rogue in England," laughed Charles.

"Of a _subject_, perhaps, Sire," replied Nell, pointedly.

"That is treason, sly wench," rejoined the King; but his voice grew tender as he added: "but treason of the tongue and not the heart. Adieu!

Let that seal thy lips, until we meet."

He threw a kiss to the waiting lips upon the balcony.

"Alack-a-day," sighed Nell, sadly, as she caught the kiss. "Some one may break the seal, my liege; who knows?"

"How now?" questioned Charles, jealously.

Nell hugged herself as she saw his fitful mood; for beneath mock jealousy she thought she saw the germ of true jealousy. She laughed wistfully as she explained: "It were better to come up and seal them tighter, Sire."

"Minx!" he chuckled, and tossed another kiss.

The horn again echoed through the woods. He started.

"Now we'll despatch the affairs of England, brother; then we'll sup with pretty Nelly. Poor brother James! Heaven bless him and his ostriches."

He turned and strode quickly through the trees and down the path; but, as he went, ever and anon he called: "Ye Blue Boar Inn, within the hour!"

Each time from the balcony in Nell's sweet voice came back--"Ye Blue Boar Inn, within the hour! I will not fail you, Sire!"

Then she too disappeared. There was again a slamming of doors and much confusion within the house. There were calls and sounds of running feet.

The door below the terrace opened suddenly, and Nell appeared breathless upon the lawn--at her heels the constant Moll. Nell ran some steps down the path, peering vainly through the woods after the departing King. Her bosom rose and fell in agitation.

"Oh, Moll, Moll, Moll!" she exclaimed, fearfully. "He has been at Portsmouth's since high noon. I could see it in his eyes." Her own eyes snapped as she thought of the hated French rival, whom she had not yet seen, but whose relation to the royal household, as she thought, gave her the King's ear almost at will.

She walked nervously back and forth, then turned quickly upon her companion, asking her, who knew nothing, a hundred questions, all in one little breath. "What is she? How looks she? What is her charm, her fascination, the magic of her art? Is she short, tall, fat, lean, joyous or sombre? I must know."

"Oh, Nell, what will you do?" cried Moll in fearful accents as she watched her beautiful mistress standing pa.s.sion-swayed before her like a queen in the moonlight, the little toe of her slipper nervously beating the sward as she general-like marshalled her wits for the battle.

"See her, see her,--from top to toe!" Nell at length exclaimed. "Oh, there will be sport, sweet mouse. France again against England--the stake, a King!"

She glanced in the direction of the house and cried joyously as she saw Strings hobbling toward her.

"Heaven ever gave me a man in waiting," she said, gleefully. "Poor fellow, he limps from youthful, war-met wounds. Comrade, are you still strong enough for service?"

"To the death for you, Mistress Nell!" he faithfully replied.