The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bardelys the Magnificent, by Rafael Sabatini

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Title: Bardelys the Magnificent

Author: Rafael Sabatini

Posting Date: March 5, 2009 [EBook #2389]
Release Date: November, 2000

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT ***

Produced by Polly Stratton

BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT

Being an Account of the Strange Wooing pursued by the Sieur Marcel de
Saint-Pol; Marquis of Bardelys, and of the things that in the course of
it befell him in Languedoc, in the year of the Rebellion

By Rafael Sabatini

CONTENTS

I. THE WAGER
II. THE KING'S WISHES
III. RENT: DE LESPERON
IV. A MAID IN THE MOONLIGHT
V. THE VICOMTE DE LAVEDAN
VI. IN CONVALESCENCE
VII. THE HOSTILITY OF SAINT-EUSTACHE
VIII. THE PORTRAIT
IX. A NIGHT ALARM
X. THE RISEN DEAD
XI. THE KING'S COMMISSIONER
XII. THE TRIBUNAL OF TOULOUSE
XIII. THE ELEVENTH HOUR
XIV. EAVESDROPPING
XV. MONSIEUR DE CHATELLERAULT IS ANGRY
XVI. SWORDS
XVII. THE BABBLING OF GANYMEDE
XVIII. SAINT-EUSTACHE IS OBSTINATE XIX. THE FLINT AND THE STEEL
XX. THE "BRAVI" AT BLAGNAC
XXI. LOUIS THE JUST
XXII. WE UNSADDLE

BARDELYS THE MAGNIFICENT

CHAPTER I. THE WAGER

"Speak of the Devil," whispered La Fosse in my ear, and, moved by the
words and by the significance of his glance, I turned in my chair.

The door had opened, and under the lintel stood the thick-set figure
of the Comte de Chatellerault. Before him a lacquey in my escutcheoned
livery of red-and-gold was receiving, with back obsequiously bent, his
hat and cloak.

A sudden hush fell upon the assembly where a moment ago this very man
had been the subject of our talk, and silenced were the wits that but
an instant since had been making free with his name and turning the
Languedoc courtship--from which he was newly returned with the shame of
defeat--into a subject for heartless mockery and jest. Surprise was
in the air for we had heard that Chatellerault was crushed by his
ill-fortune in the lists of Cupid, and we had n