wondering why I did. But
there, you won't go and tell King Hal that I told you his secrets, will
you?"

"Not very likely, is it?" said Denis, smiling, but troubled the while by
an uncomfortable sensation which made him feel as if he regretted his
knowledge, though at the same time he knew that he had acquired
information that might be of extreme value if their masquerading were
discovered, perhaps mean the saving of his King.

His musings were suddenly broken off by the voice of companion.

"There," he said, "let's go out of doors in the sunshine. I feel as if
I had got dark passage on the brain."

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.

SO DOES DENIS.

It was the very next day that Denis, after his attendance upon Francis,
who had gone to join Henry, was alone in the King's apartments, standing
in the deep recess of a casement window, which he had flung open, and
was leaning out gazing at the landscape stretching far and wide before
him, and giving him a silvery glimpse here and there of the bright
glittering river.

He was so lost in admiration of the scene that he did not hear the door
open, and was only made conscious of some one being in the room behind
him by hearing a low muttering voice say:

"A blind search! A blind search! What shall I do next to bring it to
an end?"

Denis made a sharp movement, catching the sleeve of his doublet against
the copper fastening which held open the casement; and as he turned a
nervous hand suddenly seized him by the shoulder in a painful grasp, for
it was as if fingers of steel were pressing into his flesh.

"You, Master Leoni!" he cried, as the clutch was relaxed as quickly as
it came. "Yes, my boy," said the doctor; and the lad shivered slightly
as the fierce fire in one of Leoni's eyes died into a pleasant smile,
though the cold fixed stare in the other remained the same as of old.

"I thought I was alone."

"Well, boy; do you like your life here in the castle?"

"Oh yes," cried Denis; "but when are we to have, Carrbroke and I,
another fencing lesson?"

"At any time when the King does not require my services," said Leoni,
smiling. "Why, you will soon be a better swordsman than I."

"Oh, sir!" cried Denis deprecatingly.

"Well, say as good, my dear boy, when you know all that I can teach
you."

"And you will teach me all, sir?"

"Of course, of course," said the doctor, laying his hand caressingly on
the boy's shoulder. "You are a pupil of whom I feel proud. But