The Laughing Cavalier by Baroness Orczy (best 7 inch ereader .TXT) 📕

mean your brother Nicolaes,” he rejoined quietly. “Ah! the man is even a more arrant knave than I thought. So! he has tried to fasten the responsibility for this outrage against your person, firstly on me who worship the very ground you walk on, secondly on the brother whom you love?”

“No, no,” she protested eagerly, “I did not say that. It was I who⁠ ⁠…”

“Who thought so ill of me,” broke in Stoutenburg with gentle reproach, “of me and of Nicolaes. You questioned the rogue, and he did not deny it, nay more he enlarged upon the idea, which would place all the profits of this abominable transaction in his hands and yet exonerate him from guilt. But you shall question him yourself, Gilda. By his looks, by his answers, by his attitude you will be able to judge if I or Nicolaes⁠—or any of our friends, have paid him to lay hands upon you. Remember however,” he added significantly, “that such a lowborn knave will always lie to save his skin, so this do I entreat of you on my knees: judge by his looks more than by his words, and demand a proof of what he asserts.”

“I will judge, my lord, as I think best,” she retorted coldly. “And now, I pray you, send for the man. I would like to hear what he has to say.”

Stoutenburg immediately turned to obey: there was a guard outside the door, and it was easy to send one of the men with orders to Jan to bring the prisoner hither.

Within himself he was frankly taken aback at Gilda’s ready acquiescence⁠—nay obvious desire to parley with the foreigner. A sharp pang of jealousy had shot through his heart when he saw her glowing eyes, her eagerness to defend the knave. The instinct that guided his fierce love for Gilda, had quickly warned him that here was a danger of which he had never even dreamed.

Women were easily swayed, he thought, by a smooth tongue and a grand manner, both of which⁠—Stoutenburg was bound to admit⁠—the rogue possessed in no scanty measure. Fortunately the mischief⁠—if indeed mischief there was⁠—had only just begun: and of a truth reason itself argued that Gilda must loathe and despise the villain who had wronged her so deeply: moreover Stoutenburg had every hope that the coming interview if carefully conducted would open Gilda’s eyes more fully still to the true character of the foreign mercenary with the unctuous tongue and the chivalrous ways.

In any case the Lord of Stoutenburg himself had nothing to fear from that interview, and he felt that his own clever words had already shaken the foundations of Gilda’s mistrust of him. Mayhap in desiring to parley with the knave, she only wished to set her mind at rest finally on these matters, and also with regard to her own brother’s guilt. Stoutenburg with an inward grim smile of coming triumph passed his hand over his doublet where⁠—in an inner pocket⁠—reposed the parchment roll which was the last proof of Beresteyn’s connivance.

Gilda did not know the cipher-signature, and the knave would have some difficulty in proving his assertion, if indeed, he dared to name Nicolaes at all: whilst if he chose to play the chivalrous part before Gilda, then the anonymous document would indeed prove of incalculable value. In any case the complete humiliation of the knave who had succeeded in gaining Gilda’s interest, if nothing more, was Stoutenburg’s chief aim when he suggested the interview, and the document with the enigmatical signature could easily become a powerful weapon wherewith to make that humiliation more complete.

And thus musing, speculating, scheming, the Lord of Stoutenburg sent Jan over to the molens with orders to bring the prisoner under a strong guard to the jongejuffrouw’s presence, whilst Gilda, silent and absorbed, sat on in the tiny room of the miller’s hut.

In spite of her loyalty, her love for her brother, in spite of Stoutenburg’s smooth assertions, a burning anxiety gnawed at her heart⁠—she felt wretchedly, miserably lonely, with a sense of treachery encompassing her all round.

But there was a strange glow upon her face, which of a truth anxiety could not have brought about; rather must it have been inward anger, which assailed her whenever thoughts of the rogue whom she so hated intruded themselves upon her brain.

No doubt too, the heat of the fire helped to enhance that delicate glow which lent so much additional beauty to her face and such additional brilliance to her eyes.

XXXV The Witness for the Defence

The Lord of Stoutenburg was the first to enter: behind him came Jan, and finally a group of soldiers above whose heads towered another broad white brow, surmounted by a wealth of unruly brown hair which now clung matted against the moist forehead.

At a word of command from Stoutenburg, Jan and the other soldiers departed, leaving him and the prisoner only before Gilda Beresteyn.

The man had told her on that first night at Leyden that his name was Diogenes⁠—a name highly honoured in the history of philosophy. Well!⁠—philosophy apparently was standing him in good stead, for truly it must be responsible for the happy way in which he seemed to be bearing his present unhappy condition.

They had tied his arms behind his back and put a pinion through them, his clothes were torn, his massive chest was bare, his shirt bore ugly, dark stains upon it, but his face was just the same, that merry laughing face with the twinkling eyes, and the gentle irony that lurked round the lines of the sensitive mouth: at any rate when Gilda⁠—overcome with pity⁠—looked up with sweet compassion on him, she saw that same curious, immutable smile that seemed even now to mock and to challenge.

“This is the man, mejuffrouw,” began Stoutenburg after awhile, “who on New Year’s day at Haarlem dared to lay hands upon your person. Do you recognize him?”

“I do recognize him,” replied Gilda coldly.

“I