[A Gentleman of France by Stanley Weyman]@TWC D-Link bookA Gentleman of France CHAPTER II 11/24
The King of Navarre cannot appear in it, nor can he protect you. Succeed or fail in it, you stead alone.
The only promise I make is, that if it ever be safe for me to acknowledge the act, I will reward the doer.' He paused, and for a few moments I stared at him in sheer amazement. What did he mean? Were he and the other real figures, or was I dreaming? 'Do you understand ?' he asked at length, with a touch of impatience. 'Yes, sire, I think I do,' I murmured, very certain in truth and reality that I did not. 'What do you say, then--yes or no ?' he rejoined.
'Will you undertake the adventure, or would you hear more before you make up your mind ?' I hesitated.
Had I been a younger man by ten years I should doubtless have cried assent there and then, having been all my life ready enough to embark on such enterprises as offered a chance of distinction.
But something in the strangeness of the king's preface, although I had it in my heart to die for him, gave me check, and I answered, with an air of great humility, 'You will think me but a poor courtier now, sire, yet he is a fool who jumps into a ditch without measuring the depth.
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