D'Artagnan, the King Maker — page 292: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

To Save the Queen. 275 anchor our sprite to the earth. It:was easy to guess—this Gannarta—that is, D’Artagnan! redoubtable chevalier!’’ ‘At your grace’s service!” The voice was at her elbow—the speaker kneeling at her feet. “I am delighted I am called! Then, there is danger nigh !” “Strange apparition!” “Lisbon is prolific with apparitions! Don Sebastian has appeared!” “On the city walls?” “And within them—he thas saved a whole nunnery from a mob and eke a visiting prelate, who happened to be in the way! but there are other goblins! My friend Porthos, who has never seen a ghost, had this incredulity shaken last night! He saw one, black as the Africans!” “And you, who are always with him?” ‘\T was hunting spirits of another hue! Mine shrinks from appearing bodily—a spirit can manifest itself bod- ily !”’ “Was it one of those agreeable spirits who communi- cate with us by musi i “No, madame, its medium was writing! Not on a vul- gar scrap of paper, with liquid soot on the tip of a skewer—nay, nay! but with a diamond—emblem of light! on crystal—in a word, my spirit wrote to me on a mir- ror!” “Sir, I shall believe I am to'be queen, not over Portu- gal, but the land of the Fata Morgana!” “Oh, my lady, even fairyland has its counterweights. To the fays, the elves and the sylphs are opposed the gnomes, demons and imps. Now, that your grace’s rest, of which she stands in need, may not be disturbed by any of these, I beseech her to go to a safer resort by this un- known door % He opened the secret panel by which he had slipped in. His tone and text were airy, but his look was solemn. “I came by it, so that I know, while devious, it is safe. You need not carry a light. There will be unassailable solitude until you have the company you desire.” He put a candlestick into her resistless hand. This man had such a way, even convincing to queens. ‘ GOMIIGDOOkKS (C(O) im