"She who hath brought Obligato to the diminuendo and finale," answered
the fool; "even she who hath befriended the Huguenottine of the black
eyes."

"Ah, she, the Duke's Daughter--v'la, that is a flower of a lady! Did she
not say that my jerkin fitted neatly when I did act as butler to her
adorable Majesty three months syne? She hath no mate in the world save
Mademoiselle Aubert, whom I brought hither to honour and to fame."

"To honour and fame, was it--but by the hill of desperandum, Nuncio,"
said the fool, prodding him with his stick of bells.

"'Desperandum'! I know not Latin; it amazes me," said Lempriere, waving
a lofty hand.

"She--the Huguenottine--was a-mazed also, and from the maze was played by
Obligato."

"How so! how so!" cried the Seigneur, catching at his meaning. "Did
Leicester waylay and siege? 'Sblood, had I known this, I'd have broached
him and swallowed him even on crutches."

"She made him raise the siege, she turned his own guns upon him, and in
the end hath driven him hence." By rough questioning Lempriere got from
the fool by snatches the story of the meeting in the maze, which had left
Leicester standing with the jester's ribboned bells in his hand. Then
the Seigneur got to his feet, and hugged the fool, bubbling with
laughter.