Chivalry: Dizain des Reines

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ENTLEMAN, ANNOYS A SPIDER; AND BY THE GRACE OF DESTINY THE WEB OF THAT CU

y of the

nce, Earl Edmund of Lancaster. It was perfectly apparent, the Earl wrote, that the French King meant to surrender to the Earl's lord and brother neither the duchy

blood of Oriander's descendants. Next day the keeper of the privy purse entered upon the house-hold-books a considerable sum "to make good a large ruby and an emerald lost out of his coronet when the King's Grace was pleased to throw it into the fire"; and upon t

of France stood according to their rank; in unadorned russet were the big Earl and his attendants, but upon the scarlets and purples of the French l

once or twice, and without speaking, had hurriedly waved his lord

settlement on any children I might have by that incomparable lady. I assented, and yielded you the province, upon the understanding, sworn to according to the faith of loyal kings

necessity-unavoidable, alas!-of returning a hard answer before the council; and became so voluble that Sire Edward merely laughed in that big-lunged and d

ed to every consideration of expediency with a parrot-like reiteration of the circumstance that already the bargain was signed and sworn to: in consequence, while daily the

fashion. Sire Edward, who, till this, had loved her merely by report, and, in accordance with the high custom of old, through many perusals of her portrait, now appeared besotted. He was an aging man, near sixty, huge an

se two had dined at Rigon the forester's hut, in company with Dame Meregrett, the French King's younger sister. She sat a little ap

past us, as our cavalcade came toward the stag, and God's incurious angel slays us, much as we slew the stag. And we shall not understand, and we shall wonder, as the stag did, in helpless wonder. And Death

"I too have been

earily. Let us flout him, instead, with some gay

conquers, and of the lips that gibed at him remains but a little dust. Rather should I, who already stand ben

ire Ed

th, that comes

ks him from the

is glory and

rded dim

ther with the

her in his st

e remnant, n

s shore and n

ghosts lamentin

erciless: a cra

the place of

and mid-course

pause; the w

Nero and the

rowess-or of

hua, or Cha

ibe and surfei

race of him

he smites the

s his cou

sat beside the window yonder. With that, D

at now regarding the Princess. His big left hand propped the bearded chin; his grave countenance was flushed, and his intent

fold of it, and with composure awaited the ensuing action, afra

e we two alone, madame. Fate is

d, "has never denied much

rincess, I am of aging person now. During some thirty years I have ruled England according to my interpretation of God's will as it was anciently made manifest by the holy Evangelists; and during that period I have ruled England not withou

unsteadily said, "to put aside such privat

ithin my realm saving only Edward Plantagenet; and now I think his turn to

d, in sober verity, Love cannot extend his laws between husband and wife, since t

I to do with all this chaffering over Guienne?" The two stood very close to each other now. Blanch said, "It is a high matter-" Then on a sudden the

the Judean's lure, and by that Princess of Cyprus who reigned in Aristotle's time, and by Nicolete, the King's daughter of Carthage,-since the first flush of morning was as a rush-light before her resplendency, the man swore; and in conclusion, he likened her to a modern Countess of Tripolis, for love of whom he, like Rudel, h

ing matters, nothing in all the world, save that you love me. Then take me, since you will it,-and take me not as King, since you will otherwise, but as Edward Plantagenet

e had a gift that way

marries us, as glibly as though we two were peasants. Poor king and princess!" cried Dame B

Well, the King is pleased to loose his prisoner, that

th a horn swung about his neck, into the unlighted hut of Rigon the fores

ire! Horrible trea

d it before this,"

iculties, once for all; and Sire Edward knew the conscience of his old opponent to be invulnerable. The act would violate the core of hospitality and knighthood, no doubt, but its outcome would be a very definite gain to France, and for the rest, merely a dead body in a ditch. Not a monarch in Christendom, Sire Edward reflected, but feared and in consequence hated the Hammer of th

knew of this?" But Meregrett's pitiful eyes had

yet always the flesh trammels us, and allures the soul to such sensual delights as bar its passage toward the eternal life wherein alone lies the empire and the heritage of the soul. And why does this carnal prison so impede the soul? Because Satan once ranked among the sons of God, and the Eternal Father

ook, my Princess!" In the pathway from which he had recently emerged stood a man in full a

And presently, in a big splash of moonlight, the armed man's falchion glittered acro

w to strangle this herrin

h, Messire d'Aquitaine, the bushes of Ermenoue?l are alive with my associates. The h

rs concerning wome

ly no specific mention of petticoats," the soldier now recollected, "and in conse

Edward said, "we two had as

only said, "

thank you. Meantime I return to Rigon's hut to rearrange my toga as King Caesar did when th

You go to y

shoulders. "In the e

and without faltering p

ous vexation. "Presently come your brother and his tattling lords. To be discovered here with me at night

she were thinking abou

ay ripples of brilliancy, as you may see sparks shudder to extinction over burning charcoal. She had the Valois nose, long and delicate in form, and overhanging a short upper-lip; yet the lips were glorious in tint, and the whiteness of her skin would have matched the Hyperborean snows tidily enough. As for her ey

ard this tiny lady and paused.

I love you, sire. I may speak without shame now, for presently you di

itherto unguessed-at excellence. I must tell you in this place, since no other occasion offers, that even until the end of her life it was so. For to her what in other persons would have seemed flagrant dulness showed somehow, in Sire Edward, as the majestic deliberation of one that knows his ve

a woman's paltry face between his hands, half rou

ia. And once you were dead, she might marry him. One cannot blame her," Meregrett con

s, and my admiration for the cantankerous despoiler whom I praised this morning is somewhat abated. There was a Tenson once-Lord, Lord, ho

Sire

he smites the

s his cou

en, the while that I have my singing out, whatever

Sire

lat

lf-idly, still

fevered laugh

Merlin's,-and

vorceless Dea

may never

ten rapture,

ecstasy of l

tly, as quie

t planned the

leep, whilst ov

g lovers laugh-

, that take no

very soundly

e heralding o

et ripple of

t the world

one with Love, a

r nimble bo

usty;-yet our

ge-long severa

ve and the vain

baffle, if in

s may enter,

little, and

ing sleep our

to her in h

say no hindra

aim when Love

love at my d

e!-and Death ha

I, exact the

even as the

ind so would

y the King of England but by Edward Plantagenet-hot-blooded and desirous man!-in honor of the o

," she said. And, in

antime I crave largesse, madame, and a great almsgiving, so that in his unending sleep your poet ma

I, who have made of England an imperial nation, and have given to Thy Englishmen new laws! And to-night I crave my hire. Never, O my Father, have I had of any person aught save reverence or hatred! never in my life has any person loved me! And I am old, my Father-I am old, and presently I die. As I have served Thee-as Jacob wre

he calmly said, "and thou hast prevailed. For the King of kings was never obdurate, my dear, to them that

came into the room, and at the heels of the

man away, Victor," he said, disinterestedly, to de Montespan. Afterward he sat down beside the table and remained silent for a while, intently regarding Sire Edward and the ti

der of his visage had lapsed again into the meditative smile which was that of Lucifer watching a toasted soul. "And so it ends," he said, "and England loses to-night the heir that Manuel the Redeemer

to murder me?"

inger. Is it not good to be a king, my cousin, and to sit quite still, and to see your bitterest enemy hacked and slain,

Edward, "I am your kinsman a

t I murder you. What!" he presently said, "will you not beg for mercy? I had hoped," the French King added, somewhat wistfully, "that you might be afraid to die, O huge and righteous man! and would entreat me to spare you.

not hunt lions with these contraptions: for it is the nature of a rat-trap, fair cousin, to ensnare not the beast which imperiously desires and takes in daylight, but the tinier and the filth

is the Hammer of the Scots the man to trust for one half moment a Capet? Ill-mannered infant," the King said, with bitter laughter, "it is now necessary that I summon my attendants and remove you to a nursery which I have prepared in England." He set the horn to his lips and blew three blasts. There came many armed warriors into the hut, bearing ropes. Here was the entire retinue of the Earl of Aquitaine. Cursing, Sire Philippe sprang upon the English King, and with a dagg

waits us; and a ship awaits our party at Fécamp. To-morrow we sleep in England-and, Mort de Dieu! do you not think, ma

e trap was yours? It was you that

es in France, and have for some two years known your brother and your sister to the bottom. Granted that I came hither incognito, to forecast your kinfolk's immediate endeavors was none too difficult; and I wanted Guienne-and, in consequence, the

the gnats of France fly near enough. Eh, the greater fool was I to waste my labor on the shrewd and evil thing which has no more need of me than I of it! And now let me go hence, sire, unmolested, for the sake of chivalry. Could I hav

me," he said. "Little vixen, had you done ot

you. But it was never reasonable that gentlefolk should cheat at their dicing. Therefore I whispered Roger Bulmer my final decision; and he is now loosing all my captives in the courtyard of Mezelais, after birching the tails of

ointment to find him so unthriftily high-minded. "Yet

Masterfully he said: "Then let Guienne serve as such and ransom for a king his glad and common manhood. Now it appears expedient that I leave France without any unwholesome delay, because the

her little mouth. She said nothin

to the British realm, and landed at Dover, not Dame Blanch, as would have been in consonance with seasoned expectation, but Dame Meregrett, the other daughter of King Philippe the Bold; and upon the

OF THE T