Stanley John Weyman
Count Hannibal
A Romance of the Court of France
Published by Good Press, 2019
EAN 4064066148386
Table of Contents
CHAPTER II. HANNIBAL DE SAULX, COMTE DE TAVANNES.
CHAPTER III. THE HOUSE NEXT THE GOLDEN MAID.
CHAPTER IV. THE EVE OF THE FEAST.
CHAPTER VI. WHO TOUCHES TAVANNES?
CHAPTER VII. IN THE AMPHITHEATRE.
CHAPTER VIII. TWO HENS AND AN EGG.
CHAPTER XII. IN THE HALL OF THE LOUVRE.
CHAPTER XIV. TOO SHORT A SPOON.
CHAPTER XV. THE BROTHER OF ST. MAGLOIRE.
CHAPTER XVI. AT CLOSE QUARTERS.
CHAPTER XVIII. ANDROMEDA, PERSEUS BEING ABSENT.
CHAPTER XIX. IN THE ORLÉANNAIS.
CHAPTER XX. ON THE CASTLE HILL.
CHAPTER XXI. SHE WOULD, AND WOULD NOT.
CHAPTER XXII. PLAYING WITH FIRE.
CHAPTER XXIII. A MIND, AND NOT A MIND.
CHAPTER XXIV. AT THE KING’S INN.
CHAPTER XXV. THE COMPANY OF THE BLEEDING HEART.
CHAPTER XXVII. THE BLACK TOWN.
CHAPTER XXVIII. IN THE LITTLE CHAPTER-HOUSE.
CHAPTER XXXI. THE FLIGHT FROM ANGERS.
CHAPTER XXXII. THE ORDEAL BY STEEL.
CHAPTER XXXIV. WHICH WILL YOU, MADAME?
CHAPTER XXXV. AGAINST THE WALL.
CHAPTER I. CRIMSON FAVOURS.
M. de Tavannes smiled. Mademoiselle averted her eyes, and shivered; as if the air, even of that close summer night, entering by the door at her elbow, chilled her. And then came a welcome interruption.
“Tavannes!”
“Sire!”
Count Hannibal rose slowly. The King had called, and he had no choice but to obey and go. Yet he hung a last moment over his companion, his hateful breath stirring her hair.
“Our pleasure is cut short too soon, Mademoiselle,” he said, in the tone, and with the look, she loathed. “But for a few hours only. We shall meet to-morrow. Or, it may be—earlier.”
She did not answer, and “Tavannes!” the King repeated with violence. “Tavannes! Mordieu!” his Majesty continued, looking round furiously. “Will no one fetch him? Sacré nom, am I King, or a dog of a—”
“I come, sire!” the Count cried hastily. For Charles, King of France, Ninth of the name, was none of the most patient; and scarce another in the Court would have ventured to keep him waiting so long. “I come, sire; I come!” Tavannes repeated, as he moved from Mademoiselle’s side.
He shouldered his way through the circle of courtiers, who barred the road to the presence, and in part hid her from observation. He pushed past the table at which Charles and the Comte de Rochefoucauld had been playing primero, and at which the latter still sat, trifling idly with the cards. Three more paces, and he reached the King, who stood in the ruelle with Rambouillet and the Italian Marshal. It was the latter who, a moment before, had summoned his Majesty from his game.
Mademoiselle, watching him go, saw so much; so much, and the King’s roving eyes and haggard face, and the four figures, posed apart in the fuller light of the upper half of the Chamber. Then the circle of courtiers