In a few rapid words she went on to relate how, in that moment of resentment at such scandalous gossip being propagated concerning her, she had threatened that when she became Queen she would change the whole entourage, and in a brief, pointed argument she showed him the strong motive with which the evil-eyed President of the Council had formed the dastardly conspiracy against her.
“Claire,” he asked, still holding her soft hand with the wedding ring upon it, “after all that has passed—after all my harsh, inhuman cruelty to you—can you really love me still? Do you really entertain one single spark of love for me?”
“Love you!” she cried, throwing herself into his arms in a passion of tears; “love you, Ferdinand!” she sobbed. “Why, you are my husband; whom else have I to love, besides our child?”
“Then I will break up this damnable conspiracy against you,” he said determinedly. “I—the King—will seek out and punish all who have plotted against my happiness and yours. They shall be shown no mercy; they shall all be swept into obscurity and ruin. They thought,” he added, in a hard, hoarse voice, “to retain their positions at Court by keeping us apart, because they knew that you had discovered their despicable duplicity. Leave them to me; Ferdinand of Marburg knows well how to redress a wrong, especially one which concerns his wife’s honour,” and he ran his hand over his wife’s soft hair as he bent and kissed her lips.
So overcome with emotion was she that at the moment she could not speak. God had at last answered those fervent appeals that she had made ever since the first year of their marriage.
“I have wronged you, Claire—deeply, very deeply wronged you,” he went on, in a husky, apologetic voice, his arm tenderly about her waist, as he again pressed his lips to hers in reconciliation. “But it was the fault of others. They lied to me; they exaggerated facts and manufactured evidence, and I foolishly believed them. Yet now that you have lifted the scales from my eyes, the whole of their devilishly clever intrigue stands plainly revealed. It utterly staggers me. I can only ask you to forgive. Let us from to-night commence a new life—that sweet, calm life of trust and love which when we married we both believed was to be ours for ever, but which, alas! by the interference and malignity of our enemies, was turned from affection into hatred and unhappiness.”
“I am ready, Ferdinand,” she answered, a sweet smile lighting up her beautiful features. “We will bury the past; for you are King and I am Queen, and surely none shall now come between us. My happiness to-night, knowing that you are, after all, good and generous, and that you really love me truly, no mere words of mine can reveal. Yet even now I have still a serious thought, a sharp pang of conscience for those who are doomed to suffer because they acted as my friends when I was outcast and friendless.”
“You mean the men Bourne and Redmayne,” the King said. “Yes, they are in a very perilous position. We must press for their extradition here, and then their release will be easy. To-morrow you must find some means by which to reassure them.”
“And Hinckeldeym?”
“Hinckeldeym shall this very night answer to his Sovereign for the foul lies he has spoken,” replied the King, in a hard, meaning tone. “But, dearest, think no more of that liar. He will never cross your path again; I shall take good care of that. And now,” he said, imprinting a long, lingering caress upon her white, open brow—“and now let us call up our little Ignatia and see how the child has grown. An hour ago I was the saddest man in all the kingdom, Claire; now,” he laughed, as he kissed her again, “I admit to you I am the very happiest!”