“Signed by the king’s own hand,

“CHARLES R.”

“You will see your cousin immediately after your consultation with Du Boise, and arrange to deliver the documents to her hands privately at the hour of eight o’clock.”

“I beg your Majesty’s indulgence for one question,” I said, assuming as well as I could a reluctant manner.

“Yes, yes, but be quick,” returned the king.

“It is this,” I continued stammeringly.  “Is my cousin to deliver the documents to you after the hour of eight o’clock?”

“That is no affair of yours, and your question is impertinent,” answered the king.  “Obey my commands and keep your lips sealed, if you would oblige your king, save trouble to yourself, and perhaps be rewarded.  Hear me, Clyde!  I will brook no interference in this matter.  Do you fully understand?”

“Yes, your Majesty.  To obey the king’s command is the highest duty I know,” I answered, hanging my head.

“Ah, that is better.  Now you may go,” said the king, motioning his hand toward the door.

Frances had been expeditious in doing her part, and I was wondering what she had done to work so great a change in the king’s mind in so short a time.  So I made all haste to see Du Boise in order that I might the sooner see my cousin and question her.  I found Hamilton downcast, but when I gave him the king’s letter, his gloom turned to anger.

“No, no!” he cried, springing from his chair.  “Never!  Never!  Frances is buying the king’s complaisance, God knows at what price!  It shall not be!  The cur!  The coward!  I’ll kill him before the hour arrives!”

“Listen to me, George,” I insisted, “and for once in your life, don’t be a fool.  You will ruin us all if you lose your head at the moment when success is waiting for us.  You, yourself, suggested this plan, and, thanks to my cousin’s courage, it is working out beautifully.  I don’t know what she has to propose, nor what she is going to do.  I know nothing of her plans, but I trust her.  Can’t you?”

“Yes, yes, I trust her,” he replied, growing more calm.  “But I do not trust him.  She will go to him alone, expecting, doubtless, to escape, but she does not know the risk she is running.”

“Do not fear for her,” I answered assuringly.  “She will be prepared to defend herself.  Make all things ready, and I’ll go to learn of Frances’s plans.  You may be sure she will provide some way for her own protection.  When a woman of brains sets out to hoodwink a man, he usually gets what he deserves, even though he be an absolute king.”

“Well, be off, and back again at the earliest possible moment,” said George, resigning himself, under compulsion, to the hard conditions the situation imposed.

When I left Hamilton, I hastened to Frances and found her expecting me.  She told me her story in a few words:—­“The treaty and the bill of exchange, I believe you call it, are to be placed in my hands to-night at eight o’clock,” she said.  “I am trembling now, but I shall be calm when the time comes.  I am to take the documents to the king’s closet at nine o’clock, and am to enter by way of the privy stairs from the river.”