"But is he noble?" said the Duke; "is he of gentle blood? – otherwise our promise is void."
"He is a cross ungainly piece of wood enough," said Crawford, looking at the tall, awkward, embarrassed figure of the Archer; "but I will warrant him a branch of the tree of Rothes for all that – and they have been as noble as any house in France or Burgundy, ever since it is told of their founder, that,
'Between the less-lee[64] and the mair, He slew the Knight, and left him there.' "
"There is then no help for it," said the Duke, "and the fairest and richest heiress in Burgundy must be the wife of a rude mercenary soldier like this, or die secluded in a convent – and she the only child of our faithful Reginald de Croye! – I have been too rash."
And a cloud settled on his brow, to the surprise of his peers, who seldom saw him evince the slightest token of regret for the necessary consequences of an adopted resolution.
"Hold, but an instant," said the Lord Crawford, "it may be better than your Grace conjectures. Hear but what this cavalier has to say. – Speak out, man, and a murrain to thee," he added, apart to Le Balafré.
But that blunt soldier, though he could make a shift to express himself intelligibly enough to King Louis, to whose familiarity he was habituated, yet found himself incapable of enunciating his resolution before so splendid and assembly as that in presence of which he then stood; and after having turned his shoulder to the princes, and preluded with a hoarse chuckling laugh, and two or three tremendous contortions of countenance, he was only able to pronounce the words, "Saunders Souplejaw" – and then stuck fast.
"May it please your Majesty, and your Grace," said Crawford, "I must speak for my countryman and old comrade. You shall understand, that he has had it prophesied to him by a Seer in his own land, that the fortune of his house is to be made by marriage; but as he is, like myself, something the worse for the wear, – loves the wine-house better than a lady's summer-parlour, and, in short, having some barrack tastes and likings, which would make greatness in his own person rather an encumbrance to him, he hath acted by my advice, and resigns the pretensions acquired by the fate of slaying William de la Marck, to him by whom the Wild Boar was actually brought to bay, who is his maternal nephew."
"I will vouch for that youth's services and prudence," said King Louis, overjoyed to see that fate had thrown so gallant a prize to one over whom he had some influence. "Without his prudence and vigilance, we had been ruined – It was he who made us aware of the night-sally."
"I then," said Charles, "owe him some reparation for doubting his veracity."
"And I can attest his gallantry as a man-at-arms," said Dunois.
"But," interrupted Crèvecoeur, "though the uncle be a Scottish gentillâtre, that makes not the nephew necessarily so."
"He is of the House of Durward," said Crawford; "descended from that Allan Durward, who was High Steward of Scotland."
"Nay, if it be young Durward," said Crèvecoeur, "I say no more. Fortune has declared herself on his side too plainly, for me to struggle farther with her humoursome ladyship; – but it is strange, from lord to horseboy, how wonderfully these Scots stick by each other."
"Highlanders, shoulder to shoulder!" answered Lord Crawford, laughing at the mortification of the proud Burgundian.
"We have yet to enquire," said Charles, thoughtfully, "what the fair lady's sentiments may be towards this fortunate adventurer."
"By the mass!" said Crèvecoeur, "I have but too much reason to believe your Grace will find her more amenable to authority than on former occasions. – But why should I grudge this youth his preferment? since, after all, it is sense, firmness, and gallantry, which have put him in possession of Wealth, Rank, and Beauty!"
– I had already sent these sheets to the press, concluding, as I thought, with a moral of excellent tendency for the encouragement of all fair-haired, blue-eyed, long-legged, stout-hearted emigrants from my native country, who might be willing in stirring times to take up the gallant profession of Cavalieros of Fortune. But a friendly monitor, one of those who like the lump of sugar which is found at the bottom of a tea-cup, as well as the flavour of the souchong itself, has entered a bitter remonstrance, and insists that I should give a precise and particular account of the espousals of the young heir of Glen-houlakin and the lovely Flemish Countess, and tell what tournaments were held, and how many lances were broken, upon so interesting an occasion; nor withhold from the curious reader the number of sturdy boys, who inherited the valour of Quentin Durward, and of bright damsels, in whom were renewed the charms of Isabelle de Croye. I replied in course of post, that times were changed, and public weddings were entirely out of fashion. In days, traces of which I myself can remember, not only were the "fifteen friends" of the happy pair invited to witness their union, but the bridal minstrelsy still continued, as in the "Ancient Mariner," to "nod their heads" till morning shone on them. The sack-posset was eaten in the nuptial chamber – the stocking was thrown – and the bride's garter was struggled for in presence of the happy couple whom Hymen had made one flesh. The authors of the period were laudably accurate in following its fashions. They spared you not a blush of the bride, not a rapturous glance of the bridegroom, not a diamond in her hair, not a button on his embroidered waistcoat; until at length, with Astræa, "they fairly put their characters to bed." But how little does this agree with the modest privacy which induces our modern brides – sweet bashful darlings! – to steal from pomp and plate, and admiration and flattery, and, like honest Shenstone,
To these, unquestionably, an exposure of the circumstances of publicity with which a bridal in the fifteenth century was always celebrated, must appear in the highest degree disgusting. Isabelle de Croye would be ranked in their estimation far below the maid who milks, and does the meanest chares; for even she, were it in the church-porch, would reject the hand of her journeyman shoemaker, should he propose "faire des noces," as it is called on Parisian signs, instead of going down on the top of the long coach to spend the honeymoon incognito at Deptford or Greenwich. I will not, therefore, tell more of this matter, but will steal away from the wedding as Ariosto from that of Angelica, leaving it to whom it may please to add farther particulars, after the fashion of their own imagination.
Note 64
An old rhyme, by which the Leslies vindicate their descent from an ancient knight, who is said to have slain a gigantic Hungarian champion, and to have formed a proper name for himself by a play of words upon the place where he fought his adversary.
Note 65
Orlando Furioso. Canto XXX. Stanza 16.