His face was familiar to the men as one of the King’s guests, and it being right away from the royal apartments, they gave way for him to pass, and making a tremendous effort over himself, he descended very slowly and carelessly, the hardest part of all being to stop once or twice as if listening to the music, and then go on humming the air.
He breathed more freely as he passed out into the courtyard and crossed it, fully expecting to encounter a guard at the archway which gave upon the next court.
As he expected, there were a couple of armed men here ready to challenge him; but before they could speak he stopped short to ask whether he would find men in attendance at the stables, adding carelessly in very fair English:
“I want to see how our horses are getting on.”
It was so likely a mission that the principal of the two guards volunteered the information at once that some of the grooms would be sure to be there at that time for a final look round before closing for the night.
“You know your way, sir?” added the man respectfully.
“Oh yes, thank you,” said Denis carelessly; “I know my way.” And he walked on, panting heavily now, in spite of his slow pace. “This is the hardest work of all,” he muttered, “for I want to run—I want to run. But oh, how I do hate it all! They must be stealing the jewel now, for I can call it nothing else but a theft. How glad I am that they have sent me away, and I am not obliged to degrade myself with such a task. But yet I am helping, and seem as bad as they—but no, not as bad. Leoni says it is right, and—yes, it was stolen from us, and it is but to restore it to France—to France.”
“Now for it,” he muttered, as he neared the entrance to the great stables, where to his delight he could see by the light within that the door was open and a shadow passing the lit-up entry showed him that at all events part of his task would be easy. “Now no more thinking. I am but doing my duty, and it is time to act.”
Increasing his pace now, he stepped boldly into a broad shelter from which a long, dimly seen vista of horse-stalls opened out to right and left, and he was confronted at once by two of a group of men, three of whom bore lanterns, and who were coming towards him as if about to leave the place.
“Here,” he cried authoritatively, as he recognised one of the grooms as being he who had their steeds in charge, “I want our horses saddled at once.”