A few minutes later the hostess returned, and smiled once more upon finding that her guests were hard at work evidently in the full enjoyment of their meal.
“Ah, madam!” cried the King, raising his glass and drinking again. “You keep good wine. I would not have wished for better; but tell me, what other guests have you in the house?”
“None, my lord,” said the woman frankly. “There have been some of the country people at the market, but they have gone. There was an ordinary traveller too, earlier in the day. He came from somewhere in the south, I believe, but he has gone. You are the only guests I have, and I humbly hope that the meats are to your liking.”
“Excellent, madam, excellent,” said the King, looking at her fixedly. “Then we are quite alone?”
The woman met his eye without wincing, and bowed gravely.
“Yes, my lord; quite alone.”
“Then we will have no one here while we stay, madam. I like to be undisturbed. Understand me, please. I take the whole place, and you can charge me what you please.”
The woman made a grave courtesy, and retired to see to the next course she had prepared, wiping her brow as soon as she was outside.
“Some great French noble,” she muttered, “travelling to London, to the Court perhaps. I wonder who he is. Yes,” she said to herself excitedly, “and I wonder too who dared to enter that next room. It must have been that evil-looking traveller, that starveling. I believe he was a thief. It could not have been— Oh no, I know them all by sight.”