“Precisely so, sire; and I have also said should any inquiry be made for you, you are not here.”
“Good again; and the fair one is to be here at the hour of midnight. Is it not so?”
“It is, sire.”
“Very well, then, I act the bridegroom, Blood acts the parson, and Simon here acts the clerk. Who is to be the only witnesses of this marriage?”
“By jove, I should like to change places with you, for from the transient glances I have had of the fair girl, she is positively bewitching.”
The king was about to make some reply, but such a gust of wind, accompanied by a heavy dash of rain, at that moment came against the windows of the room in which they sat, that they all three sprang to their feet, with the full expectation that the casement was about to be blown in upon them at that moment.
“What a night!” said the king. “Surely she will not come. What think you, gentlemen, shall we indeed see the fair one to-night?”
“I say, yes,” replied Blood; “I know she will be brought here for a certainty.”
“And so do I,” said Simon, “for what, after all, will not love adventure? And that she is desperately enamoured of your majesty, there cannot be a doubt upon any of our minds.”
“Not the least,” said Blood; “of course not.”