If I Were King

as sodden through and through, as with the lees of wine; it was stained and shamed with the smells of hams and cheeses; it was

a, and Master Robin Turgis, the fat landlord, drowsy with his own wine and dripping from the heat, surveyed them complacently, and wallowed as it were in the rattle and clink of mug and can, the full-throated laughter and the shrill chatter, crisply emphasized by oaths, which assured him of the Fircone's popularity with its intimates. Master Robin's intelli

s how the profound potations might affect the brains and stomachs of his clients. If any officer of the law had questioned him as to his association with a certain mysterious Brotherhood of the Cockleshells whose plunderings and pilferings were the pride of the Court of Miracles and the fear of citizens with strong boxes, he

admired them all, feared them all, and yet he held head against them because his Beaune wine was so adorable, and because he could keep his own counsel. Slender René de Montigny, in a jerkin of rubbed and faded purple velvet, with his malign, Italianate face and his delicate Italianate grace; rotund Guy Tabarie, bluff, red and bald; Casin Cholet, tall and bird-like, with the figure of a stork and the featu

five out of the six women. Gaudy, painted, assertive strumpets with young, fair, shameless faces-worthy Jills of the ill-favoured Jacks who cuddled them-Jehanneton, the fair helm-maker; Denise, Bla

scarlet girdle and pouch about her waist, and a scarlet feather stuck defiantly in her green cap, beneath which her long fair hair tumbled in liberal confusion about her shoulders. She sat on the edge of a table swinging one shapely leg loose and strained upon its fellow while she nursed her lute as if it had been a baby, and carolled as if there were no other work in the world to do than to sing. The men and women who sat and sprawled around the table kept quiet, listening to her and staring at her; sleepy Colin pricked his ears;

f pleasure,

nd featur

lim, and bo

fingers whit

bright, your

lovers' hea

d lips befo

ve flies be

h good advice, Dollies," he shouted, and as he spoke he hugged the nearest girl close to him, and tilting up her chin with his free hand, kissed her noisily. The girl squealed a little at his r

he golden h

e body's l

meanness sli

round and r

withered; que

ur eyes as b

hear these w

ove flutter

was a little silence when the last words floated away into

olours and the lines about her mouth and eyes to have grown older in surrender to inevitable thoughts. She

she answered. "' You will grow old, Idol,' he said,

s me and forget it," he hiccoughed. The girl gave importunacy a little push which sent him staggering back to his seat. "I have no kisses for any Jack of you all but Fran?ois

She glanced wistfully round at her companions: to the faces of the women the influence of the song had lent an unwonted softness, but had brought no

here are other rooms for love-making," and he jerked his thumb towards the roof. "We

it was being softly opened; nobody heeded the man who put his head gently through the opening and looked thoughtfully around him. The new-comer was a grim-visaged fellow, somewhere near the edge of middle age. He was dressed in the sober habit of a simple burgess, and he used the long fold that hung from his cloth cap very dexterously to hide his face. He peered into the obscurity of the room with a disquieting smile that deepened in its unpleasing expression as its owner surveyed the noisy fellowship in the corner, and nodded his head as he seemed to identify its members. Confident that nobody marked him he stealthily entered the room, and holding the door ajar, he motioned to one who still

where the Abbess and her friends were busy, and the second of the pair, drawing a little apart

, I beg of you. Here I am not Louis of France, but a simple sober citizen like yourself. I suppose we must take something for the good of the house?" His henchman promptly replied that such action was indispensable. But Louis still l

Tristan shrugged his shoulders. "Some dregs of devotion, I suppose. Here stands Master Innkeeper." For by this time Robin Turgis was at their elbow, scanning them narrowly with his small, pi

ou behold here two decent cits who have turned a penny, or twain in a bargain, and have a mind to

ave a white wine of Beaune," he said unctuously, as if he were tasting

my shivered at the sum; a

oved: Tristan clinched the business. "Bring it," he said decisively, and as the landlor

your service," lie said, "I wan

Give him a penny for himself," Tristan whispered, and the king, with an unwillingness he was at no pains to conceal, added the demanded drink-money to the other coins, and eyed the departing back of the landlord with well-defined aversion. "You are generous with other people's pennies, friend," he snapped at his companion, but Tristan, paying no heed to his querulousness, filled the two cups with the clear go

rted. "There are a couple of rogues in that covey who would

rgain," he commented, "seeing what wine cost

sked. "A few bullies, bawds and bonarobas boozing together. You can keep the same com

iation of some memory. He leaned fo

re is at my court a

ern

gay one such as yo

f an Eastern King, one Haroun, surnam

lly, but Louis, ignoring

mingling with his people learn much to the advantage of the realm.

how unpopular you are, which I could have told you without this trouble;

he wine and his affability expanded. "You are always a bird of evil omen," he chirped. "Be bright, man; look at

d-" Tristan interrupted him roughly. "Pleased that the Burgundians threaten you outside the walls of Paris; pleased that Thibaut d'Aussigny bullies you inside th

learn what company my lord the Grand Constable keeps." Tristan's shaggy eyebrows arched in surprise as the king continued: "Our good Olivier assures us that our dear Thibaut d'Aussigny has taken it into his head of late t

bears you a grudge since you chose to t

shrugged his shoulders. "She is a proud piece, gossip. When I told her that she took my fancy she flamed into a red rage that chastened me.

swine rooting in the streets of Paris, and that I found a pearl of

tan interrupted. "'Ti

eem to resent t

lory so that I could see every street and alley, every tower and pinnacle, more clearly than in a summer's noon. And then memought that the pearl weighed so heavy u

he sneered. "Leave dreams to weaklings, sire." Louis frowned. "Don't sneer, gossip, but instruct, who are these people?" and the sharp, lean face of

here a warning kick from Louis made him wince and change his words-"if you wished to savour rascality these are your blades. The women are trulls. Yonder she-thing in the man's habit is Huguette du Hamel, a wild wench, whom m

tere censure. "They shall be reproved

reat breaker of commandments. He with the red hair is Guy Tabarie; they are sworn brothers in bawdry and larceny. The ferret-faced knave who is tick

sip," and Louis grinned. "Our

o pleasing to his ears when his words and his purpose were alike

yet with a kind of full and florid sweetness that carried the words clearly

ve left the

e near to s

life that n

malignity

he now will

e left the

he Abbess leaped to her feet, crying out: "It is the voice of Fran?ois!" "It is indeed his own unutterable pipe," agreed René de Montigny, sweeping his winnings into his

Tristan, "whose coming seems s

n all Paris," Tristan

drinker, sworder, dra

r. In the Court of Mir

leshells. Judge