BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT Being an Account of the Strange Wooing pursued by the Sieur Marcel de Saint-Pol, Marquis of Bardelys, and of the things that in the course of it befell him in Languedoc, in the year of the Rebellion BY RAFAEL SABATINI - CONTENTS I. THE WAGER 3 II. THE KINGS WISHES 17 III. RENE DE LESPERON 23 IV. A MAID IN THE MOONLIGHT 32 V. THE VICOMTE DE LAVEDAN 45 VI. IN CONVALESCENCE 57 VII. THE HOSTILITY OF SAINT-USTACHE 71 VIII. THE PORTRAIT 96 IX. A NIGHT ALARM 106 X. THE RISEN DEAD 121 XI. THE KINGS COMMISSIONER 134 XII. THE TRIBUNAL OF TOULOUSE 145 XIII. THE ELEVENTH HOUR 163 XIV. EAVESDROPPING 174 XV. MONSIEUR DE CHATELLERAULT is ANGRY 186 XVI. SWORDS 197 XVII. THE BABBLING OF GANYMEDE 209 XVIII. SAINT-EUSTACHE IS OBSTINATE 222 XIX. THE FLINT AND THE STEEL 236 viii CONTENTS XX. THE BRAVI AT BLAGNAC 255 XXI. Louis THE JUST 270 XXII. WE UNSADDLE 281 BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT CHAPTER I THE WAGER SPEAK of the Devil, whispered La Fosse in my ear, and, moved by the words and by the significance of his glance, I turned in my chair. The doorhad opened, and under the lintel stood the thick-set figure of the Comte de Chatellerault. Before him a lacquey in my escutcheoned livery of red- and-gold was receiving, with back obsequiously bent, his hat and cloak. A sudden hush fell upon the assembly where a moment ago this very man had been the subject ofour talk, and silenced were the wits that but an instant since had been making free with his name and turning the Languedoc courtship from which he was newly returned with theshame ofdefeat into a subject for heartless mockery and jest. Surprise was in the air, for we had heard that Chatellerault was crushed by his ill-fortune in the lists of Cupid, and we had not looked to see him joining so soon a board at which or so at least I boasted mirth presided. And so for a little space the Count stood pausing on my threshold, whilst we craned our necks to contem- plate him as though he had been an object for inquisi-