Chivalry: Dizain des Reines

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N IN THE TORMENT OF A CERTAIN KNIGHT, WHOM SHE PROVES TO BE NO MORE THAN HUMAN; B

y of the

mund Eastney and Sir Gregory Darrell. She was Lord Berners' only daughter, a brown beauty, of extensive repute, thanks to a retinue of lovers who were pract

for without lady-service there would be no songs and tourneys, no measure and no good breeding; and a man delinquent in domnei is no more to be valued than an ear of corn without the grain. No, I am so profoundly an admirer of Love that I can nev

"Why, the old goat has

undancies are permissible to one of the wealthi

es of warfare between Sire Edward and Queen Ysabeau. Lord Berners, for one, vexed himself not inordinately over the outcome, since he protest

f that first squinting King Edward about whom I have told you in the two tales preceding this tale. It was in the September of this year, a little before Michaelmas, that they brought Sir Gregory Darrell to be judged by the Queen; notoriously the knight had been her husband's adherent. "Deat

e demanded-"or are you mad, then, Gregory Dar

id, "I rode

e Queen ordered, "give me the

t wrinkled his shaggy brows, like a person in shrewd and epicurean amusemen

document with her wet pen-point toward March. "So! get it over with, that necessary busin

at the point of shameful death. There was in the room a little dog which had come to the Queen, and now licked the palm of her left

King's party out of England,-and in reason I might no

Ordish-as your sister, say-Gregory, did I not hang, last April, the husband of your sister? Yes, Ralph de Belomys, a thin man with eager eyes, the Earl of Farrington he was. As his widow I will ride with you to Ordish, upon condition you disclose to none at Ordish, saving only, if you will, this quite immaculate

ows that I must die to-morrow and cunningly contrives, for old time's sake, to hearten me with a sig

any tyrants of antiquity were only bunglers. And, besides, I must have other thoughts than those

Queen arrange

de by side, "or else I mean to free you. In sober verity I do not know. I am in a holiday humor, and it

weakness is such that a child has more intelligence than I,-and toward

isite torture, for you have proven recreant, you have forgotten the maid Ysabeau,-Le Desir du Cuer, was it not, my Gr

s averted an unfriendly face in displeasure! yet of all wretched persons existent I am he who endures the most grievous anguish, for da

enedicite! it was ever your way, my friend, to love a woman chiefly for the vers

Ysa

e hath man

an's love

y woo a n

hat shame

must pick o

r brood

r no r

ot ri

he plan was

d than C

ower of

eaming B

ust love u

till life

r a s

re lig

h a retinue of twenty men-at-arms, and her brother Sir Gregory Dar

was Rosamund Eastney's comment. The period appears to have been after supper, and

tumbling rush of speech told of the sorry masquerade. "The she-devil

an odd inconsequence: "You have told me you were Pembroke's squire

then he halloaed, "Gregory, Madame de Farrington demands that racy song you made a

with blinking eyes yet rapt: these two were not overpleased at being disturbed,

my sister," he said, "tha

ill," the C

in any company. It is not, look you, of my own choice that I sing, my sister. Yet if Queen Ysabeau

Sir G

beau, la

ge dit ne

yne sut c

t laquais

found the catalogue unhandsome. Yet Sir Gregory delivered it with an incisive gusto, desperately countersigning his own death warrant. Her treacheries, her adu

Sir G

ocque, mon

à ce que l

mbre du t

rson, d'amo

fille-et

ment suis

finger the autumn-numbed fly that had annoyed her. She drew the little dagger from her girdle and meditatively cut the buzzing thing in two. She cast the fragm

de of clemency," she said at last,

adame Gertrude! since the Prophet Moses wrung healing wa

en-'Messire, I had thought until this that there was no thorough man in England save tall Roger Mortimer. I find him tawdry now, and-I remember. Come you, then, and rule the England that you love as you may love no woman, and rule me, messire, since I find even in your cruelty-For we are no pygmies, you and I! Yonder is squabbling Europe and all the ancient gold o

s) than a sheet, and the lute had droppe

und in England but one woman-the rose of all the world." His eyes were turned at th

ity almost a queen. "We have ridden far to-day, and to-morrow we must tra

leaving him, as was natural; and under her caress his stalwart person sh

Ysa

her wise, life (s

all high

herwise I had

ecause o

I have nau

are no l

pay to be bad

became,-

y to be what it

t greatly

not worn on

her laugh n

hand, lay quiet, half-forgetful of the poisonous woman yonder. The girl was now fulfilled with a great blaze of exultation: to-morrow Gregory must die, and then perhaps she might find ti

is indisputable that his hair is like spun gold and that his eyes resemble sun-drenched waters in June. It is certain that

cumstance, Madame Gertrude-you alone of all women in the world I envy,

sat silent, one bare foot jogging restlessly. "Yet I am two years his juni

y would rise from the floor-do they not, my girl?-and protest vain things. But, Rosamund, it has been done; in the moment of death men's souls have travelled farther and have been visible; it has been done, I tell you. And he would stan

he girl stammered, i

lder. "Bear witness when he comes that I never hated him. Yet for my quiet it was necessary that it suffer so cruelly, the scented, pampered body, and n

aveness of a child, and Gregory Darrell's love-" Now Ysabeau sat down upon the bed and caught up the girl's face between two fevered hands. "Rosamund, this Darrell perceives within the moment, as I do, that the love he bears for you is but what he remembers of the love he bore a certain maid long

this was a lie flatfooted. "Nay, kill me if you will, madame, since you are the stronger, yet, w

hey will give you to the gross Earl of Sarum, as they gave me to the painted man who was of late our King! and in that time to come you will know your body to be your husband's makeshift when he lacks leisure to seek out other recreation! and in that time to come you will long for death, and presently your heart will be a flame within you, my Rosamund, an ins

hat Gregory Darrell loves me, yet I have long ago acknowledged he loves me as one pets a child, or, let us say, a spaniel which reveres and amuses one. I lack his wit, you comprehend, and so he never speaks to me all that he thinks. Yet a part of it he tells me, and he loves me, and

ueen said, "when you know yoursel

rd heaven. "You are omnipotent, yet have You let me beco

nd, to a deed which by one stroke would make me mistress of these islands. To-day I looked on Gregory Darrell, a

mall events, it may be, and lacking both in abysses and in skyey heights. Yet is love a flame wherein the lover's soul must be purified; it is a flame which assays high queens just as it does their servants: and thus, madame, to judge between us I dare summon you." "Chil

hing save

ay be-Nay, I know," she said, and in a resonant voice, "that by this I am mistress of broad England, until my son-my own son, born of my body, and in glad anguish, Ro

uely, for she was puzzled and was almost

heeks, and rigid, and smiling very terribly, or look into some mirror and behold there not myself but him,-and in that instant I shall die. Meantime I rule, until my son attains his manhood. Eh, Rosamund, my only son was once so tiny, and so

eau's shoulder. "In part, I u

iny? So let us put out the light! though I dread darkness, Rosamund-For they say that hell is

e marrow we know him, however steadfastly we blink, and we know the presen

an's judgment misleads him and his faculties allure him to a truce, however brief, with iniquity. His senses raise a mist about his goings, and there is not an endowment of the man but in the end plays traitor to his interest, as of God's wisdom God intends; so that when the man is overthrown, the Etern

our Gregory could very long endure a wife given over to such high

seless September winds; but I believe that

conducted him into the hedged garden of Ordish, where Ysabeau walked in

ulder, "you have, I do protest, the very phoenix of sis

neless voice, "We ride

and ask but leave to speak, briefl

you loved me once in France. Oh, to-day, I may speak freely, for with you the doings of that boy and girl are matters overpast. Yet were it otherwise-eh, weigh the matter carefully! for I am mistress of England

be vile. Then have a care of me! The strange woman am I, of whom we read that her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. Hoh, many strong men have been slain by me, and in the gray time to com

have been unwise-"

many glorious colors, but the air o

the woman offers life and high place and wealth, and it may be, a greater love

ious gesture, the man flung back his he

u, and even now I love you: and you, too, dear Rosamund, I love, though with a difference. And every fibre of my being lusts for the power that you would give me, Ysabeau, and for the good which I would do with it in the

uld be considered?-an ape who chatters to himself of kinship with the arch

f his own finger. He must appraise all that he judges with no better instruments than two bits of colored jelly, with a bungling makeshift so maladroit that the nearest horologer's apprentice could have devised a more accurate device. In fine, each man is under penalty condemned to compute eternity with false weights, to estimate infinity with a yard-stick: a

play the fool and swear even to himself (while his own judgment shrieks and proves a flat denial), that he is at will omnipotent? You have chosen long ago, my poor proud Ysabeau; and I

little pitifully. "Should Queen Ysabeau be angry or vexed

idowhood and desirous to have done with worldly affairs. It is most natural she should relinquish to her beloved and only brother all her dower-lands-or so at least Messire de Berners acknowledges. Here, t

beau took Sir Gregory's hand and laid it upon the hand of Rosamund Eastney. "Our paladin is, in the outcome, a mortal man, and therefore

poke as though it was a sacrame

e Queen end

Ordish with all her train save one; and riding fro

Ysa

er dupes d

s with he

them with

es them

low sw

or et

rder than t

nging not

the body,

rment of

ly drugs

uin is

s by this

er mirt

ith bitter

ess dupes

inish du

they half

d horse, as he rode to announce to the King's men the King's barba

ngton's company, speak no syllable of your news, since it is not convenient that a lady so thoroughly and so praise-worthily-Lord, Lord, how

thout blemish among you-" he said. Then they armed complet

F THE FOU