Читать книгу Nightcap and Plume - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 16

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M. Beylon chose the day of the Coronation to take the case of English pistols, and the dagger in the shagreen case to the armoury, for he thought that, on that occasion everyone would be too occupied to notice him; he was not without hopes that the King would be induced to be what he, Beylon, considered reasonable, and go armed, so he intended to put the weapons ready of access in the inlaid cabinet by the door; he had not reached the armoury, a small apartment near the chapel, however, before he heard someone coming along the corridor; the king's Reader was over worked and over excited, he had to make a considerable effort to maintain his cheerful calm, especially when under the keen eyes of the Queen Dowager whom he greatly feared, so he turned into the first apartment he came to, put the case and the dagger in the drawer of a green marble console and hurried away, ashamed of himself as he saw that he had been diverted from his purpose only by a lackey walking carefully with a slow step, in order not to spill the water from the great agate vase filled with tresses of purple lilac that he carried. "I must watch my chance to take the weapons to the armoury," M. Beylon resolved anxiously, then the matter went out of his mind, for he had to wait privately on M. de Vergennes to press him for a guarantee for he 5,000 rix dollars Gustaf was trying to raise from the Dutch banking firm of Messrs. Grill and Sons.