"Wanted?" repeated the player, stepping forward. "Where?" "At the palace," said the commandant. "The palace!" stopping short. "Who can want me there?" "Who?" The dwarf made a grimace. "Who?" he repeated mockingly. "Her ladyship," said the commandant, with a reproving glance at the jailer. "Her ladyship!" "Haven't you ears, my man?" The commandant frowned and made an impatient gesture. "Come, bestir yourself! The Governor's daughter has commanded your presence." CHAPTER XVIII THE MOUNTEBANK AND MY LADY "The Governor's daughter!" Had the light been stronger they must have seen the start the mountebank gave. "Impossible!" "Eh? What?" Surprised in turn, the officer gazed at him. "You dare--out with him!" To the soldiers. But in a moment had the mountebank recovered his old demeanor, and, without waiting for the troopers to obey the commandant's order, walked voluntarily toward the door and into the passage. "Our supper! Our supper!" A number of the prisoners, crowding forward, began once more to call lustily, when again was the disk-studded woodwork swung unceremoniously to, cutting short the sound of their lamentations. "Dogs!" Malevolently the dwarf gazed back. "To want to gorge themselves on a holy day!" "Pious Jacques!" murmured the commandant. "But I always said you made a model landlord!" "When not interfered with!" grumbled the other. "At any rate _he_ doesn't seem to appreciate his good fortune," with a glance at the mountebank. "No," jeering. "A gallant cavalier to step blithely at a great lady's command! 'Your Ladyship overwhelms me!'" bowing grotesquely. "'Your Ladyship's condescension'--" "Why, then, need you take me?" interposed the mountebank quickly. "Can you not tell her ladyship I am not fit to appear in her presence--an uncouth clown--" "Bah! I've already done that," answered the commandant. "But how came her ladyship to know of me--here--?" "How indeed?" "And what does she want of me?" "That," roughly, "you will find out!" and stepped down the hall, followed by the soldiers, mountebank and dwarf, the last of whom took leave of them at the door. Clear was the night; the stars, like liquid drops about to fall, caressed with silvery rays the granite piles. In contrast to the noisome atmosphere of the prison, faint perfumes, borne from some flowery slope of the distant shore, swept languorously in and out the open aisles and passages of the Mount. In such an hour that upper region seemed to belong entirely to the sky; to partake of its wondrous stillness; to share its mysteries and its secrets. Like intruders, penetrating an enchanted spot, now they trod soft shadows; then, clangorous, beat beneath foot delicate laceworks of light. "Here we are!" The officer stopped. At the same time upon a near-by balcony a nightingale began to sing, tentatively, as if trying the scope and quality of its voice. "You are to go in!" he announced abruptly.