CHAP. VIII.]

QUENTIN DURWARD.

"I will convey your Majesty's answer," said the ambassador, "to my most gracious master; yet, let me say, that, as it is in no degree different from the evasive replies which have already been returned to his just complaints, I cannot hope that it will afford the means of re-establishing peace and friendship betwixt France and Burgundy."

"Be that at God's pleasure," said the King. "It is not for dread of thy master's arms, but for the sake of peace only, that I return so temperate an answer to his injurious reproaches. Proceed with thine errand."

"My master's next demand," said the ambassador, "is, that your Majesty will cease your secret and underhand dealings with his towns of Ghent, Liege, and Malines. He requests that your Majesty will recall the secret agents, by whose means the discontents of his good citizens of Flanders are inflamed; and dismiss from your Majesty's dominions, or rather deliver up to the condign punishment of their liege lord, those traitorous fugitives, who, having fled from the scene of their machinations, have found too ready a refuge in Paris, Orleans, Tours, and other French

Say to the Duke of Burgundy," replied the King, "that I know of no such indirect practices as those with which he injuriously charges me; that my subjects of France have frequent intercourse with the good cities of Flanders, for the purpose of mutual benefit by free traffic, which it would be as much contrary to the Duke's interest as mine to interrupt; and that many Flemings have residence in my kingdom, and enjoy the protection of my laws, for the same purpose; but none, to our knowledge, for those of treason or mutiny against the Duke. Proceed with your message you have heard my answer."

"As formerly, Sire, with pain," replied the Count of Crèvecœur; it not being of that direct or explicit nature which the Duke, my master, will accept, in atonement for a long train of secret machinations, not the less certain, though now disavowed by your Majesty. But I proceed with my message. The Duke of Burgundy farther requires the King of France to send back to his dominions without delay, and under a secure safeguard, the persons of Isabelle Countess of Croye, and of her relation and guardian the Countess Hameline, of the same family, in respect the said Countess Isabelle, being, by the law of the country, and the feudal tenure of her estates, the ward of the said Duke of Burgundy, hath fled from his dominions, and from the charge which he, as a careful guardian, was willing to extend over her, and is here maintained in secret by the King of France, and by him fortified in her contumacy to the Duke, her natural lord and guardian, contrary to the laws of God and man, as they ever have been acknowledged in civilized Europe.-Once more I pause for your Majesty's reply."

"You did well, Count de Crèvecoeur," said Louis, scornfully, "to begin your embassy at an early hour; for if it be your purpose to call on me to account for the flight of every vassal whom your master's heady passion may have driven from his dominions, the bead-roll may last till sunset. Who can affirm that these ladies are in my dominions? who can presume to say, if it be so, that I have either countenanced their flight hither, or have received them with offers of protection? Nay, who is it will assert, that, if they are in France, their place of retirement is within my knowledge?"

Until this last climax of audacity, there had been a deep silence in the royal apartment during the extraordinary scene; but no sooner had the clash of the gauntlet, when cast down, been echoed by the deep voice of Toison d'Or, the Burgundian herald, with the ejaculation, "Vive Bourgogne !" than there was a general tumult. While Dunois, Orleans, old Lord Crawford, and one or two others, whose rank authorized their interference, contended which should lift up the gauntlet, the others in the hall exclaimed, Sire," said Crevecoeur, "may it please your Ma-Strike him down! Cut him to pieces! Comes he jesty, I was provided with a witness on this subject- here to insult the King of France in his own palace!" But the King appeased the tumult by exclaiming, one who beheld these fugitive ladies in the inn called the Fleur-de-Lys, not far from this Castle one who in a voice like thunder, which overawed and silenced saw your Majesty in their company, though under every other sound, "Silence, my lieges! lay not a the unworthy disguise of a burgess of Tours-one hand on the man, not a finger on the gage!-And who received from them, in your royal presence, you, Sir Count, of what is your life composed, or messages and letters to their friends in Flanders-all how is it warranted, that you thus place it on the which he conveyed to the hand and ear of the Duke cast of a die so perilous? Or is your Duke made of a different metal from other princes, since he thus of Burgundy." asserts his pretended quarrel in a manner so unusual?"

"He is indeed framed of a different and more noble metal than the other princes of Europe," said the undaunted Count of Crevecoeur; "for, when not one of

them dared to give shelter to you-to you, I say, King | mounted, and returned to disburden my mind of the Louis-when you were yet only Dauphin, an exile answer which I gave him but now.' from France, and pursued by the whole bitterness of "I said, sirs," said the King, turning around, withyour father's revenge, and all the power of his king-out any show of angry emotion, "that in the Count dom, you were received and protected like a brother Philip of Crèvecœur, our cousin the Duke possesses by my noble master, whose generosity of disposition as worthy a servant as ever rode at a prince's right you have so grossly misused. Farewell, Sire, my hand.-But you prevailed with him to stay?" mission is discharged."

"To stay for twenty-four hours; and in the meanwhile to receive again his gage of defiance," said the Cardinal: "he has dismounted at the Fleur-de-Lys." See that he be nobly attended and cared for, at our charges," said the King; "such a servant is a jewel in a prince's crown.-Twenty-four hours?" he added, muttering to himself, and looking as if he were stretching his eyes to see into futurity;"twenty-four hours?-tis of the shortest. Yet twenty-four hours, ably and skilfully employed, may be worth a year in the hand of indolent or incapable agents.-Well.-To the forest-to the forest, my gallant lords !-Orleans, my fair kinsman, lay aside that modesty, though it becomes you; mind not my Joan's coyness. The Loire may as soon avoid mingling with the Cher, as Upon this direct personal appeal, the Cardinal Ba-she from favouring your suit, or you from preferring lue proceeded to lift the gauntlet, with such precau- it," he added, as the unhappy prince moved slowly on tion as one would touch an adder,-so great was ap- after his betrothed bride. And now for your boarparently his aversion to this symbol of war,-and spears, gentlemen; for Allegre, my pricker, hath harpresently left the royal apartment to hasten after the boured one that will try both dog and man.-Dunois, challenger. lend me your spear,-take mine, it is too weighty for me; but when did you complain of such a fault in your lance?-To horse to horse, gentlemen.” And all the chase rode on.

else, Dunois," answered Louis; "he hath confessed | gratitude that made the King pause as he uttered the Crevecœur at the Castle-gate, and he hath commu- last reflection, and which converted the sneer that nicated to us his whole shrift-Said you not the trembled on his lip into something resembling an exwhole?" he continued, with an emphasis on the word, pression of contrition. But he instantly proceeded in and a glance at the Cardinal, which shot from be- another tone. twixt his long dark eyelashes, as a dagger gleams when it leaves the scabbard.

"Frankly, my Dunois, much as I revere the holy sacrament of matrimony," (here he crossed himself,) "I would rather the house of Orleans raised for me such gallant soldiers as thy father and thyself, who share the blood-royal of France without claiming its rights, than that the country should be torn to pieces, like to England, by wars arising from the rivalry of legitimate candidates for the crown. The lion should never have more than one cub."

"And as his Eminence," said the King, "is ready to communicate the secrets of others to us, he naturally expects that we should be equally communica- Dunois sighed and was silent, conscious that contive to him; and, in order to get upon this reciprocal tradicting his arbitrary Sovereign might well hurt his footing, he is very reasonably desirous to know if kinsman's interests, but could do him no service; yet these two ladies of Croye be actually in our territo- he could not forbear adding, in the next moment, ries. We are sorry we cannot indulge his curiosity," Since your Majesty has alluded to the birth of my not ourselves knowing in what precise place errant father, I must needs own, that, setting the frailty of damsels, disguised princesses, distressed countesses, his parents on one side, he might be termed happier, may lie leaguer within our dominions, which are, we and more fortunate, as the son of lawless love, than thank God and our Lady of Embrun, rather too ex- of conjugal hatred." tensive for us to answer easily his Eminence's most reasonable inquiries. But supposing they were with us, what say you, Dunois, to our cousin's peremptory demand?"

and more precarious attitude-his violet robe flying The King, as he passed, said to Dunois, "Yonder loose in every direction, and nothing securing him lies his Eminence low enough he is no great huntsfrom an instant and perilous fall, save the depth of man, though for a fisher (when a secret is to be the saddle, and its height before and behind. Dunois caught) he may match Saint Peter himself. He has, laughed without restraint; while the King, who had however, for once, I think, met with his match." a private mode of enjoying his jest inwardly, without The Cardinal did not hear the words, but the laughing aloud, mildly rebuked his minister on his scornful look with which they were spoken led him eager passion for the chase, which would not permit to suspect their general import. The devil is said to him to dedicate a few moments to business. I will seize such opportunities of temptation as was now no longer be your hinderance to a course," continued afforded by the passions of Balue, bitterly moved as he, addressing the terrified Cardinal, and giving his they had been by the scorn of the King. The moown horse the rein at the same time. mentary fright was over so soon as he had assured himself that his fall was harmless; but mortified vanity, and resentment against his Sovereign, had a much longer influence on his feelings.

surprise at the customs of the French Court, which thus permitted them to abandon to the dangers of the chase, and forsake in his need, their wisest statesman, were the natural modes of assistance and consolation which so strange a rencontre supplied to Crèvecœur; for it was the Burgundian ambassador who came to the assistance of the fallen Cardinal.

Before Balue could utter a word by way of answer or apology, his horse, seizing the bit with his teeth, went forth at an uncontrollable gallop, soon leaving behind the King and Dunois, who followed a more After all the chase had passed him, a single cavaregulated pace, enjoying the statesman's distressed lier, who seemed rather to be a spectator than a parpredicament. If any of our readers has chanced to taker of the sport, rode up with one or two attendbe run away with in his time, (as we ourselves have ants, and expressed no small surprise to find the Carin ours,) he will have a full sense at once of the pain, dinal upon the ground, without a horse or attendants, peril, and absurdity of the situation. Those four limbs and in such a plight as plainly showed the nature of the quadruped, which, no way under the rider's of the accident which had placed him there. To discontrol, nor sometimes under that of the creature mount, and offer his assistance in this predicament, they more properly belong to, fly at such a rate as ifto cause one of his attendants resign a staid and the hindermost meant to overtake the foremost-quiet palfrey for the Cardinal's use to express his those clinging legs of the biped which we so often wish safely planted on the green sward, but which now only augment our distress by pressing the animal's sides, the hands which have forsaken the bridle for the mane-the body which, instead of sitting upright on the centre of gravity, as old Angelo used to recommend, or stooping forward like a jockey's at Newmarket, lies, rather than hangs, crouched upon the back of the animal, with no better chance of saving itself than a sack of corn-combine to make a picture more than sufficiently ludicrous to spectators, however uncomfortable to the exhibiter. But add to this some singularity of dress or appearance on the part of the unhappy cavalier-a robe of office, a splen-reported to his master. But although he had listened did uniform, or any other peculiarity of costume,and let the scene of action be a race-course, a review, a procession, or any other place of concourse and public display, and if the poor wight would escape being the object of a shout of inextinguishable laughter, he must contrive to break a limb or two, or, which will be more effectual, to be killed on the spot; for on no slighter condition will his fall excite any thing like serious sympathy. On the present occasion, the short violet-coloured gown of the Cardinal, which he used as a riding-dress, (having changed his long robes before he left the Castle,) his scarlet stockings and scarlet hat, with the long strings hanging down, together with his utter helplessness, gave infinite zest to his exhibition of horsemanship.

He found the minister in a lucky time and humour for essaying some of those practices on his fidelity, to which it is well known that Balue had the criminal weakness to listen. Already in the morning, as the jealous temper of Louis had suggested, more had passed betwixt them than the Cardinal durst have with gratified ears to the high value, which, he was assured by Crevecoeur, the Duke of Burgundy placed upon his person and talents, and not without a feeling of temptation, when the Count hinted at the munificence of his master's disposition, and the rich benefices of Flanders, it was not until the accident, as we have related, had highly irritated him, that, stung with wounded vanity, he resolved, in a fatal hour, to show Louis XI., that no enemy can be so dangerous as an offended friend and confidant.

On the present occasion, he hastily requested Crèvecœur to separate from him, lest they should he observed, but appointed him a meeting for the evening in the Abbey of Saint Martin's at Tours, after vesper service; and that in a tone which assured the Burgundian that his master had obtained an advantage hardly to have been hoped for, except in such a moment of exasperation.

The horse, having taken matters entirely into his own hand, flew rather than gallopped up a long green avenue, overtook the pack in hard pursuit of the boar, and then, having overturned one or two yeomen In the meanwhile, Louis, who, though the most prickers, who little expected to be charged in the politic Prince of his time, upon this, as on other oc rear, having ridden down several dogs, and greatly casions, had suffered his passions to interfere with his confused the chase,-animated by the clamorous ex- prudence, followed contentedly the chase of the wild postulations and threats of the huntsman, carried the boar which was now come to an interesting point. It terrified Cardinal past the formidable animal itself, had so happened that a sounder (i. e. in the language which was rushing on at a speedy trot, furious and of the period, a boar of only two years old) had crossembossed with the foam which he churned around ed the track of the proper object of the chase, and his tusks. Balue, on beholding himself so near the withdrawn in pursuit of him all the dogs, (except two boar, set up a dreadful cry for help, which, or perhaps or three couple of old stanch hounds,) and the greater the sight of the boar, produced such an effect on his part of the huntsmen. The King saw, with internal horse, that the animal interrupted its headlong career glee, Dunois, as well as others, follow upon this false by suddenly springing to one side; so that the Car- scent, and enjoyed in secret the thought of triumphdinal, who had long kept his seat only because the ing over that accomplished knight, in the art of vemotion was straight forward, now fell heavily to the nerie, which was then thought almost as glorious as ground. The conclusion of Balue's chase took place war. Louis was well mounted, and followed close so near the boar, that, had not the animal been at on the hounds; so that, when the original boar turnthat moment too much engaged about his own af-ed to bay in a marshy piece of ground, there was no fairs, the vicinity might have proved as fatal to the one near him but the King himself. Cardinal, as it is said to have done to Favila, King of Louis showed all the bravery and expertness of an the Visigoths, of Spain. The powerful churchman experienced huntsman; for, unheeding the danger, got off, however, for the fright, and, crawling as he rode up to the tremendous animal, which was dehastily as he could out of the way of hounds and fending itself with fury against the dogs, and struck huntsmen, saw the whole chase sweep by him with-him with his boar-spear; yet, as the horse shyed from out affording him assistance; for hunters in those the boar, the blow was not so effectual as either to days were as little moved by sympathy for such mis-kill or disable him. No effort could prevail on the fortunes as they are in our own. horse to charge a second time; so that the King, dis