"Ay, let it pass on," said the King; "it is indeed shame it should have detained us a minute. – And now, Sir Philip, I hope you are French so far as to afford me yor best counsel in these difficult affairs. You have, I am well aware, the clew to the labyrinth, if you would but impart it."
"Your Majesty may command my best advice and service," replied Des Comines, "under reservation always of my duty to my own master."
This was nearly what the courtier had before stated; but he now repeated it in a tone so different, that whereas Louis understood from the former declaration, that the reserved duty to Burgundy was the prime thing to be considered, so he now saw clearly that the emphasis was reversed, and that more weight was now given by the speaker to his promise of counsel, than to a restriction which seemed interposed for the sake of form and consistency. The King resumed his own seat, and compelled Des Comines to sit by him, listening at the same time to that statesman, as if the words of an oracle sounded in his ears. Des Comines spoke in that low and impressive tone, which implies at once great sincerity and some caution, and at the same time so slowly, as if he was desirous that the King should weigh and consider each individual word as having its own peculiar and determined meaning. "The things," he said, "which I have suggested for your Majesty's consideration, harsh as they sound in your ear, are but substitutes for still more violent proposals brought forward in the Duke's councils, by such as are more hostile to your Majesty. And I need scarce remind your Majesty, that the more direct and more violent suggestions find readiest acceptance with our master, who loves brief and dangerous measures better than those that are safe, but at the same time circuitous."
"I remember" – said the King, "I have seen him swim a river at the risk of drowning, though there was a bridge to be found for riding two hundred yards round."
"True, Sire; and he that weighs not his life against the gratification of a moment of impetuous passion, will, on the same impulse, prefer the gratification of his will to the increase of his substantial power."
"Most true," replied the King; "a fool will ever grasp rather at the appearance than the reality of authority. All this I know to be true of Charles of Burgundy. But, my dear friend Des Comines, what do you infer from these premises?"
"Simply this, my lord," answered the Burgundian, "that as your Majesty has seen a skilful angler control a large and heavy fish, and finally draw him to land by a single hair, which fish had broke through a tackle tenfold stronger, had the fisher presumed to strain the line on him, instead of giving him head enough for all his wild flourishes; even so your Majesty, by gratifying the Duke in these particulars on which he has pitched his ideas of honour, and the gratification of his revenge, may evade many of the other unpalatable propositions at which I have hinted; and which – including, I must state openly to your Majesty, some of those through which France would be most especially weakened – will slide out of his remembrance and attention, and, being referred to subsequent conferences and future discussion, may be altogether eluded."
"I understand you, my good Sir Philip; but to the matter," said the King. "To which of those happy propositions is your Duke so much wedded, that contradiction will make him unreasonable and untractable?"
"To any or to all of them, if it please your Majesty, on which you may happen to contradict him. This is precisely what your Majesty must avoid; and to take up my former parable, you must needs remain on the watch, ready to give the Duke line enough whenever he shoots away under the impulse of his rage. His fury, already considerably abated, will waste itself if he be unopposed, and you will presently find him become more friendly and more tractable."
"Still," said the King, musing, "there must be some particular demands which lie deeper at my cousin's heart than the other proposals. Were I but aware of these, Sir Philip" –
"Your Majesty may make the lightest of his demands the most important, simply by opposing it," said Des Comines; "nevertheless, my lord, thus far I can say, that every shadow of treaty will be broken off, if your Majesty renounce not William de la Marck and the Liegeois."
"I have already said that I will disown them," said the King, "and well they deserve it at my hand; the villains have commenced their uproar at a moment that might have cost me my life."
"He that fires a train of powder," replied the historian, "must expect a speedy explosion of the mine. – But more than mere disavowal of their cause will be expected of your Majesty by Duke Charles; for know, that he will demand your Majesty's assistance to put the insurrection down, and your royal presence to witness the punishment which he destines for the rebels."
"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."
Louis looked long after Philip when he left the apartment, and at length burst into a bitter laugh. "He spoke of fishing – I have sent him home, a trout properly tickled! – And he thinks himself virtuous because he took no bribe, but contented himself with flattery and promises, and the pleasure of avenging an affront to his vanity! – Why, he is but so much the poorer for the refusal of the money – not a jot the more honest. He must be mine, though, for he hath the shrewdest head among them. – Well, now for nobler game! I am to face this leviathan Charles, who will presently swim hitherward, cleaving the deep before him. I must, like a trembling sailor, throw a tub overboard to amuse him. But I may one day find the chance – of driving a harpoon into his entrails!"[55]
Hold fast thy truth, young soldier. – Gentle maiden,
Keep you your promise plight – leave age its subtleties,
And grey-hair'd policy its maze of falsehood;
But be you candid as the morning sky,
Ere the high sun sucks vapours up to stain it.
On the perilous and important morning which preceded the meeting of the two Princes in the Castle of Peronne, Oliver le Dain did his master the service of an active and skilful agent, making interest for Louis in every quarter, both with presents and promises; so that when the Duke's anger should blaze forth, all around should be interested to smother, and not to increase, the conflagration. He glided, like night, from tent to tent, from house to house, making himself friends, but not, in the Apostle's sense, with the Mammon of unrighteousness. As was said of another active political agent, "his finger was in every man's palm, his mouth was in every man's ear;" and for various reasons, some of which we have formerly hinted at, he secured the favour of many Burgundian nobles, who either had something to hope or fear from France, or who thought that, were the power of Louis too much reduced, their own Duke would be likely to pursue the road to despotic authority, to which his heart naturally inclined him, with a daring and unopposed pace.
Where Oliver suspected his own presence or arguments might be less acceptable, he employed that of other servants of the King; and it was in this manner that he obtained, by the favour of the Count de Crèvecoeur, an interview betwixt Lord Crawford, accompanied by Le Balafré, and Quentin Durward, who, since he had arrived at Peronne, had been detained in a sort of honourable confinement. Private affairs were assigned as the cause of requesting this meeting; but it is probable that Crèvecoeur, who was afraid that his master might be stirred up in passion to do something dishonourably violent towards Louis, was not sorry to afford an opportunity to Crawford to give some hints to the young archer, which might prove useful to his master.
The meeting between the countrymen was cordial, and even affecting.
"Thou art a singular youth," said Crawford, stroking the head of young Durward, as a grandsire might do that of his descendant; "Certes, you have had as meikle good fortune as if you had been born with a lucky hood on your head."