"That may scarce consist with our honour, Des Comines," said the King.
"To refuse it will scarcely consist with your Majesty's safety," replied Des Comines. "Charles is determined to show the people of Flanders, that no hope, nay no promise, of assistance from France, will save them in their mutinies from the wrath and vengeance of Burgundy."
"But, Sir Philip, I will speak plainly," answered the King – "Could we but procrastinate the matter, might not these rogues of Liege make their own part good against Duke Charles? The knaves are numerous and steady – Can they not hold out their town against him?"
"With the help of the thousand archers of France whom your Majesty promised them, they might have done something; but" –
"Whom I promised them!" said the King – "Alas! good Sir Philip! you much wrong me in saying so."
" – But without whom," continued Des Comines, not heeding the interruption, – "as your Majesty will not now likely find it convenient to supply them, – what chance will the burghers have of making good their town, in whose walls the large breaches made by Charles after the battle of St Tron are still unrepaired; so that the lances of Hainault, Brabant, and Burgundy, may advance to the attack twenty men in front?"
"The improvident idiots!" said the King – "If they have thus neglected their own safety, they deserve not my protection. – Pass on – I will make no quarrel for their sake."
"The next point, I fear, will sit closer to your Majesty's heart," said Des Comines.
"Ah!" replied the King, "you mean that infernal marriage! I will not consent to the breach of the contract betwixt my daughter Joan and my cousin of Orleans – it would be wresting the sceptre of France from me and my posterity; for that feeble boy the Dauphin is a blighted blossom, which will wither without fruit. This match between Joan and Orleans has been my thought by day, my dream by night – I tell thee, Sir Philip, I cannot give it up! – Besides, it is inhuman to require me, with my own hand, to destroy at once my own scheme of policy, and the happiness of a pair brought up for each other."
"Are they then so much attached?" said Des Comines.
"One of them at least is," said the King, "and the one for whom I am bound to be most anxious. But you smile, Sir Philip, – you are no believer in the force of love."
"Nay," said Des Comines, "if it please you, Sire, I am so little an infidel in that particular, that I was about to ask whether it would reconcile you in any degree to your acquiescing in the proposed marriage betwixt the Duke of Orleans and Isabelle de Croye, were I to satisfy you that the Countess's inclinations are so much fixed on another, that it is likely it will never be a match?"
King Louis sighed. – "Alas!" he said, "my good and dear friend, from what sepulchre have you drawn such dead man's comfort? Her inclination, indeed! – Why, to speak truth, supposing that Orleans detested my daughter Joan, yet, but for this ill-ravelled web of mischance, he must needs have married her; so you may conjecture how little chance there is of this damsel being able to refuse him under a similar compulsion, and he a Child of France besides. – Ah, no, Philip! – little fear of her standing obstinate against the suit of such a lover. – Varium et mutabile, Philip."
"Your Majesty may, in the present instance, undervalue the obstinate courage of this young lady. She comes of a race determinately wilful; and I have picked out of Crèvecoeur that she has formed a romantic attachment to a young squire, who, to say truth, rendered her many services on the road."
"Ha!" said the King, – "an archer of my Guards, by name Quentin Durward?"
"The same, as I think," said Des Comines; "he was made prisoner along with the Countess, travelling almost alone together."
"Now, our Lord and our Lady, and Monseigneur Saint Martin, and Monseigneur Saint Julian, be praised every one of them!" said the King, "and all laud and honour to the learned Galeotti, who read in the stars that this youth's destiny was connected with mine! If the maiden be so attached to him as to make her refractory to the will of Burgundy, this Quentin hath indeed been rarely useful to me."
"I believe, my lord," answered the Burgundian, "according to Crèvecoeur's report, that there is some chance of her being sufficiently obstinate; besides, doubtless, the noble Duke himself, notwithstanding what your Majesty was pleased to hint in way of supposition, will not willingly renounce his fair cousin, to whom he has been long engaged."
"Umph!" answered the King – "But you have never seen my daughter Joan. – A howlet, man! – an absolute owl, whom I am ashamed of! But let him be only a wise man, and marry her, I will give him leave to be mad par amours for the fairest lady in France. – And now, Philip, have you given me the full map of your master's mind?"
"I have possessed you, Sire, of those particulars on which he is at present most disposed to insist. But your Majesty well knows that the Duke's disposition is like a sweeping torrent, which only passes smoothly forward when its waves encounter no opposition; and what may be presented to chafe him into fury, it is impossible even to guess. Were more distinct evidence of your Majesty's practices (pardon the phrase, where there is so little time for selection) with the Liegeois and William de la Marck to occur unexpectedly, the issue might be terrible. – There are strange news from that country – they say La Marck hath married Hameline the elder Countess of Croye."
"That old fool was so mad on marriage, that she would have accepted the hand of Satan," said the King; "but that La Marck, beast as he is, should have married her, rather more surprises me."
"There is a report also," continued Des Comines, "that an envoy, or herald, on La Marck's part, is approaching Peronne; – this is like to drive the Duke frantic with rage – I trust that he has no letters, or the like, to show on your Majesty's part?"
"Letters to a Wild Boar!" answered the King, – "No, no, Sir Philip, I was no such fool as to cast pearls before swine – What little intercourse I had with the brute animal was by message, in which I always employed such low-bred slaves and vagabonds, that their evidence would not be received in a trial for robbing a hen-roost."
"I can then only further recommend," said Des Comines, taking his leave, "that your Majesty should remain on your guard, be guided by events, and, above all, avoid using any language or argument with the Duke which may better become your dignity than your present condition."
"If my dignity," said the King, "grow troublesome to me, – which it seldom doth while there are deeper interests to think of, – I have a special remedy for that swelling of the heart – It is but looking into a certain ruinous closet, Sir Philip, and thinking of the death of Charles the Simple; and it cures me as effectually as the cold bath would cool a fever. – And now, my friend and monitor, must thou be gone? Well, Sir Philip, the time must come when thou wilt tire reading lessons of state policy to the Bull of Burgundy, who is incapable of comprehending your most simple argument – If Louis of Valois then lives, thou hast a friend in the Court of France. I tell thee, my Philip, it would be a blessing to my kingdom should I ever acquire thee; who, with a profound view of subjects of state, hast also a conscience, capable of feeling and discerning between right and wrong. So help me, our Lord and Lady, and Monseigneur Saint Martin, Oliver and Balue have hearts as hardened as the nether millstone; and my life is embittered by remorse and penances for the crimes they make me commit. Thou, Sir Philip, possessed of the wisdom of present and past times, canst teach how to become great without ceasing to be virtuous."
"A hard task, and which few have attained," said the historian; "but which is yet within the reach of princes, who wil strive for it. Meantime, Sire, be prepared, for the Duke will presently confer with you."