" With a heavy sigh he turned to Louis. "I suppose you
wonder why I talk like this, but when my heart's in my mouth I must
spit it out or it chokes me."
"I have learned to wonder at nothing," Louis answered sagely. Villon
picked up the dropped thread of his tale.
"I saluted the gallant and begged to know the lady's name. He took
me for a madman, but he told me."
In a second Huguette was on her legs again and nestling her eager
face close to that of Villon as she whispered coaxingly:
"What was the lady's name, dear Fran?ois?"
Master Fran?ois looked into her watchful eyes with a wise smile.
"Be secret, sweet," he murmured. "It was Her Majesty, the Queen." A
wild roar of laughter from Villon's friends greeted this sally, and
the fury it brought to Huguette's face. Louis, royally angered, made
as if to rise in protest, but the heavy hand of Tristan fell on his
shoulder and restrained him, and Villon, noticing his irritation,
waved him down with a pacifying gesture.
"Now, now, my rum duke," he cried, "your loyalty need not take fire.
It was not her majesty, but her name I shall keep to myself, though
it is written on my shoulders in fair large blue and black bruises.
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