"You have heard how I was robbed?" he said.
"Yes, indeed," she answered, "so very distressing for you.
And you have never had news of your ship since?"
"Never a word," he said bitterly. "Ah, she's snug in a French port by now, with no legal means of extracting her.
That's what comes of having a Court packed with foreigners, and a King who speaks better French, by all accounts, than he does English.
However, I hope to settle accounts tonight, once and for all."
Dona glanced up at the clock above the stairs.
It wanted twenty minutes to midnight.
"And you, my lord?" she said, smiling upon Godolphin, "were you also involved in the loss of Mr. Rashleigh's ship?"
"I was, madam," he replied stiffly.
"But I trust you received no hurt?"
"Luckily none.
The rascals were too glad to show us their heels. Like every Frenchman, they preferred to run for it rather than face up to an honest fight."
"And was their leader really the desperate man you have led me to believe?"
"Twenty times worse, madam.
The most impudent, blood-thirsty, evil-looking rogue I've ever clapped eyes upon.
We have heard since that his own ship carried a full complement of women, on every voyage, and most of them, poor wretches, kidnapped from our villages.
Needless to say, I have told nothing of this to my wife."
"Naturally not, it might precipitate matters unduly," murmured Dona.
"He had a woman aboard the Merry Fortune," said Philip Rashleigh.
"I could see her there on the deck above me, as plain as I see you now.
A bold-faced baggage if ever there was one, with a cut on her chin, and her hair all over her eyes. Some harlot from the French docks, no doubt."
"And there was a boy," added Godolphin, "a wretched scrap of a boy who came knocking on Philip's door; I'll take my oath he had a hand in it.
He had a whining way of speaking, and a womanish cut about him that was most unpleasing."
"These Frenchmen are so decadent," said Dona.
"They'd never have slipped away from us, but for the wind," snorted Rashleigh; "down came a puff from Readymoney cove, and her sails filled.
You'd say it was the work of the devil himself.
George here had the villain covered with his musket, but he missed him."
"And how was that, my lord?"
"I was temporarily at a disadvantage, madam," began Godolphin, the colour mounting to his face, and Harry, looking down from the opposite end of the table slapped his hand on his knee and shouted,
"We've heard all about it, never fear, George. You lost your wig, didn't you? The rascal of a froggie pinched your wig?" and immediately all eyes turned on Godolphin, who sat stiff as a ramrod, staring at the glass in front of him.
"Take no notice of them, dear Lord Godolphin," smiled Dona, "only have a little more to drink.
For what, after all, is the loss of a wig?
It might have been something so much more precious, and what would Lady Godolphin do then?"
And Rashleigh's neighbour Carnethick, on her left, choked suddenly over his wine.
A quarter to midnight, ten minutes, five minutes to midnight, and there was young Tremayne discussing cock-fighting with Penrose of Tregonny, and a man from Bodmin whose name she had not heard was digging Rockingham in the ribs, whispering some bawdy story behind his hand, and Carnethick was leering at her across the table, and Philip Rashleigh was picking off grapes with a wrinkled hairy hand, and Harry, half lolling in his chair, was singing a song to himself that had no tune, one hand caressing his glass, and the other fondling the spaniel on his lap.
But suddenly, Eustick, glancing at the clock, leapt to his feet and called in a voice of thunder,
"Gentlemen, we have wasted time enough.
Have you all forgotten we have met tonight on very desperate business?"
There was silence at once.
Tremayne looked down at his plate, blushing, and Carnethick wiped his mouth with a lace handkerchief, gazing straight in front of him.
Someone coughed awkwardly, someone shuffled with his feet under the table, and only Harry continued smiling, humming his tuneless drunken song, and out in the courtyard the stable clock struck midnight.
Eustick looked meaningly at his hostess.
Dona rose to her feet at once, and
"You wish me to go?" she said.
"Nonsense," called Harry, opening one eye, "let my wife stay at her own table, damme.
The party will fall flat without her, parties always do.
Here's your health, my beautiful, even if you do permit servants in and out of your bedroom."
"Harry, the time for jesting is over," said Godolphin, and turning to Dona,
"We could talk more freely if you were not here.