"
"Sire! can you doubt my devotion? you, who are the only man I love!"
"All that is talk," returned the king, looking the other in the eyes.
"You need not have waited till this moment to do me that service. You
are selling me your influence--Pasques-Dieu! to me, Louis XI.! Are you
the master, and am I your servant?"
"Ah, sire," said the old man, "I was waiting to surprise you agreeably
with news of the arrangements I had made for you in Ghent; I was
awaiting confirmation from Oosterlinck through that apprentice. What
has become of that young man?"
"Enough!" said the king; "this is only one more blunder you have
committed. I do not like persons to meddle in my affairs without my
knowledge. Enough! leave me; I wish to reflect upon all this."
Maitre Cornelius found the agility of youth to run downstairs to the
lower rooms where he was certain to find his sister.
"Ah! Jeanne, my dearest soul, a hoard is hidden in this house; I have
put thirteen hundred thousand crowns and all the jewels somewhere. I,
I, I am the robber!"
Jeanne Hoogworst rose from her stool and stood erect as if the seat
she quitted were of red-hot iron.
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