orcefully too. "The hawkers cry it in the
streets."

"Fools! Fools!" she mused. Then, making sure that no arras had ears, she
continued: "Before the night is done, thou shalt hear that Luxembourg
has fallen to the French--Mark!--Luxembourg! Feed the rabble on that, my
lord. Heaven preserve King Louis!"

The Duke started incredulously. When had Portsmouth seen the King? and
by what arts had she won the royal consent? A score of questions
trembled on his lips--and yet were checked before the utterance. Not an
intimation before of her success had reached his ear, though he had
advised with the Duchess almost daily since their accidental meeting
below Nell's terrace. Indeed, in his heart, he had never believed that
she would be able so to dupe the King. The shadow from the axe which
fell upon Charles I. still cast its warning gloom athwart the walls of
Whitehall; and, in the face of the temper of the English people and of
well-known treaties, the acquiescence of Charles II. in Louis's project
would be but madness. Luxembourg was the key strategetically to the
Netherlands and the states beyond. Its fall meant the augmentation of
the Empire of Louis, the personal ignominy of Charles!

"Luxembourg!" He repeated the word cautiously. "King Charles did not
consent--"

"Nay," replied the Duchess, in her sweetest way, "but I knew he would;
and so I sent the message in advance."

"Forgery! 'Twas boldly done, Louise," cried Buckingham, in tones of
admiration mixed with fear.

"I knew my power, my lord," she said confidently; and her eyes glistened
with womanly pride as she added: "The consent will come."

Buckingham's eyes--usually so frank--fell; and, for some seconds, he
stood seemingly lost in abstraction over the revelations made by the
Duchess. He was, however, playing a deeper game than he appeared to
play. Apparently in thoughtlessness, he began to toy with a ring which
hung upon a ribbon about his neck and which till then had been
cautiously concealed.

"Nay, what have you there?" questioned Portsmouth.

Buckingham's face assumed an expression of surprise. He pretended not to
comprehend the import of her words.

She pointed to the ring.

He glanced at it as though he regretted it had been seen, then added
carelessly, apparently to appease but really to whet the Duchess's
curiosity:

"Merely a ring the King gave Nell."

There was more than curiosity now in Portsmouth's eyes.

"I borrowed it to show it you,"