The Project Gutenberg EBook of The King's Esquires, by George Manville Fenn

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Title: The King's Esquires
The Jewel of France

Author: George Manville Fenn

Illustrator: Ogle

Release Date: October 20, 2007 [EBook #23128]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KING'S ESQUIRES ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The King's Esquires; or, The Jewel of France, by George Manville Fenn.

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This excellent book is, as always with this author, a constant
succession of tense moments.

Dated at the beginning of the 1500s, the action starts in the Court of
the King of France. He is fretting because at some time in the past,
when the English ruled part of France, one of the French Crown Jewels, a
beautiful ruby, was taken from France and put among the English Crown
Jewels. So Francis, the King, decides on going to England on a visit to
the English King, the young Henry the Eighth, finding out where the
jewel is, purloining it before leaving, and restoring it to its place
among his own Crown Jewels. This all goes pretty well, except that King
Henry notices that the jewel is missing, and a chase is made after them.

They are all brought back, but no jewel is to be found. So eventually
they return to France, where to the amazement of all it turns out that
they were successful in their mission, and they really did manage to
bring back the famous ruby.

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THE KING'S ESQUIRES; OR, THE JEWEL OF FRANCE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.

OR, THE JEWEL OF FRANCE.

CHAPTER ONE.

HOW YOUNG DENIS KEPT GUARD.

His Most Christian Majesty King Francis the First had a great preference
for his Palace of Fontainebleau among the many places of residence from
which he could choose, and it is interesting to glance into that
magnificent palace on a certain afternoon in the year 151--. In a
special apartment, from which direct access could be obtained to the
guard chamber, where a detachment of the favourite musketeers of the
King of France was on duty, an