Chivalry: Dizain des Reines

de mon cueur

jusques mor

qui pour mon

, m'ostant to

IM GREATLY; THEN FINDS HIM, TO HER HORROR, AN IMPOSTOR; AND FOR A SUFFIC

y of the

that presently they got back into Paris, and in its public places massacred some three thousand Armagnacs. That, however, is a matter which touches history; the root of our concernment is that, when the Queen and the Duke rode off to attend t

ush. Her eyes were large and black, having an extreme lustre, like the gleam of undried ink,-a lustre at some times uncanny. Her abundant hair, too, was black, and to-day seemed doubly sombre by contrast with the gold netting whi

f noises, among which a nice ear might distinguish the clatter of hoofs, a yelping and scurrying, and a contention of soft bodies, and ab

under the tumbled yellow hair, and noted the flash of his big teeth as he swore between them. He held a dead fox by the brush, which he was

"Mademoiselle, I fear we have disturbed your devotions. But I had not heard that it was a Benedictine custom to rehearse aves in tree-tops." Then, as she leaned forward, both elbows resting mor

nsuing action horrific, for Katharine smiled frankly at hi

rtrait!" he jeered, head flung back and big teeth glinting i

el disposition, but also of a fine tast

ire. I do not understand how y

per, my Princess. I have visited the courts of many kings, thou

frontier,-but she found the statement interesting. Straightway she touched the ker

n, seen the Ki

High

nder has gone mad, and that he eats children-lik

deal of scandal concerning the man

ously, in the crotch of the ap

e and opinions concerning Henry, the fifth of that name to reign in England, and

nce a just king, and he had heard, when the crown was laid aside, Sire Henry was sufficiently jovial, and even prankish. The harper educed anecdotes. He considered that

this ill-starred woman. "And

knew nothing of Ireland. The harper assured her that in this she was misinformed, since the kings of England claimed Ireland as an appanage, though the Irish themselves we

Patrick's request, all the Irish will die seven years to an hour before the second coming of Christ, in order to give the blessed saint sufficient time to marshal his company, which is considerable." Katharine admitted the convenience of this arrangement, as well as the neglect of her education. Alain gazed up at her for a long w

y bit, as though love were so much cold water. So they talked for a long while, with laughter mutually provoked and shared, with divers eloquent and dangerous pauses. The harper squatted up

past at Chateauneuf yonder, where this fox has been harrying my host's chickens. To-day I went out to slay him, and he led me, his murde

uction. Farewell, Messire Alain! An

ut not now. I return to Chateauneuf on certain necessary businesses; to-morrow I set out at cockcrow for Milan and the Visconti's livery. Farewell!" He mounted and rode away in the golden August sunlight, the hounds frisking about him. The fox-brush was fastened in his hat.

moreus ple

tote riens

day, she reflected, such hosts of women-children, who were not

wed like beryls. Nowhere in the orchard was there absolute shadow, nowhere a vista unblurred; in the east, half-way between horizon and zenith, two belts of coppery light flared against the gray sky like embers swaddled by ashes. The birds were waking; there were oc

g A

Destiny,

obdurate to

ransient grant

r as befit

e evening sum

-morrow waken

grief and wis

us no

Destiny,

elders troubl

very soon w

ollies of

, shall be as

not wise, and

ier than axi

us no

Destiny,

us youth-and mu

ned and our on

ers' beards and

rgotten that

on the shoulder

er flouts the

us not

ll that in t

, then have the

r habitatio

us no

e crotch of the apple-tree. The dew pattered sharply about h

said, transfigured; an

eathed

ore it; and in the man's mind not a grimy and mean incident of the past but marshalled to leer at hi

he sat there exalted by the height of his horse. "A meteor arrives with more prelude. But Love is an arbitrary lord; desiring my heart, he has seized it, and accordingly I would now brave hell to come to you, and finding you there, would esteem hell a pleasure-garden.

s!" Katharine said. "You are a mi

ace!" Alain swore; "the foxes which Samson, that old sinewy captain, loosed among the corn of heathenry kindled no disputation such as this fox has set afoot. That was an affair

ode away in silence. It was through a dank and tear-flawed world that she stumbled conventward,

n Isabeau had previously poisoned her two elder sons; I might here trace out a curious similitude between the Valois and that dragon-spawned race which Jason very anciently slew at Colchis, since the world was never at peace so long as any two of them existed. But King Charles g

n sedulously and without mercy. In late autumn an armament from Ireland joined Henry's forces. The Irish fought naked, it was sa

consumed their horses, and finding frogs and rats unpalatable, yield

The puddings to-day were quite uneatable, as you saw for yourself, and on Sunday the Englishman entered Rouen in great splendor, attended by his chief nobles; but the Butcher rode alone, and be

ny wen upon his neck-here-and with his left cheek scarred? with blue eyes, very bright, bright as tape

they say, too, that he has the damn

said Ka

dvancing on Paris itself. He repudiated the Aragonish alliance last August; and until last August he was content with Normandy, they tell us, but now he swears to win all France. The man is a

spoke aloud. "Until last August!" Katharine said. "Until last August! Poised kingdoms topple on the brink of ruin, now that you bid m

wailed: "Fool, fool! How could I

feat-and the news of some fresh defeat came daily-was her arraignment; impotently she cowered at God's knees, knowing herself a murderess, whose infamy was still af

s enclosure the Queen-Regent, Jehan of Burgundy, and Katharine entered from the French side. Simultaneously the English King appeared, accompanied by his brothers the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, and followed by

he Earl of Warwick embarked upon a sea of rhetoric. His French was indifferent, his periods were interminable, and his demands exorbitant; in brief, the King of En

r cover of Warwick's oratory

. "Has God no thunders remaining in His armory that this vile thie

now white. "I lov

xt. I can well believe, messire, that you

wept opposition before her with gusts of demoniacal fury, wept, shrieked, tore at her hair, and eventually fell into a sort of epileptic seizure; between rage and terror she became a horrid, frenzied beast. I do not dwell upon this, for it is not a condition in which the comeliest maid shows to advantage. But, for the Valois, insanity always

, "we wish you to know that we will have the daughter of your Ki

so; but before you have succeeded in ousting my lord and me from th

"I am tireless; also, I am agile as a fox in the pursuit of my

e, for before long the Queen-Regent was again attempting secret negotiations to bring this about. Yes, he could get the girl's body by a couple of pen-strokes, and had he been older that might have contented him: as it was, what he wanted was to rouse the look her eyes had borne in Chartres orchard that tranquil morning, and this one could not readily secure by fiddling with seals

new herself to be, not beaten but demolished. Only a fag-end of the French army lay entrenched at Troyes, where King Charles and his court awaited Henry's decision as to the morrow's action. If he chose to destroy them r

arine sat at cards with her father in his apartments at the H?tel de Ville. The King was pu

the v

d no meani

ghed the worl

with foll

ws brittle

ys that fli

through a

the dripp

ns naked

durate th

which is pr

hom alone

with loat

hath seen

with such sm

cleanse

h to remem

iny fixed

and the goal

ve engend

hat I strive

most perf

ve known y

rtens me n

have known

t else is

to do as

you my whole

eart in me

er cruel

hunger un

, though th

that wander

e more perfe

and, without speaking, laid a

I am sorry. But you know that your employer is master here. Who am I to forbid him entrance?" The gi

me they are always signing treaties, and I cannot see that any good comes of it. And I would h

ast, the love that draws a mother fiercely to shield her backward boy. "Father, will you not go into your chamber? I

lay cards. You are an ungrateful daughter, Katharine. You are never willing to

ror, who in your hour of triumph can find no nobler recreation than to shame a maid with her past folly! It was valorousl

hand. Katharine is a good girl, a fine upstanding girl, but I suppose-" He paused, as if to regard and hear some invisible counsellor, and then briskly resumed: "Yes, I suppose policy demands that she should marry you. We trammelled kings can never go free of policy-ey, my compère of En

calm blue eyes appraised Dame Katharine.

bleeding feet of Lazarus, I slew ten flies- very black they were, the black shrivelled souls of parricides,-and afterward I wept for it. I often weep; the Mediterranean hath its sources in my eyes, for my daughter ch

harine said. "Come

m omnipotent! I am King of France, Heaven's regent. At my command the winds go about the earth, and nightly the stars are kindled for my recreation. Perhaps I am mightier than God, but I do not remember now. The reason is written down and lies somewhere under a

thousand ti

eek the E

persons cheat

"And that is the king whom you have conquered! Is it not a notable conquest to overcome so wise a king? to pilfer renown from an idiot? There are cut-throats in Troyes, rogues doubly damned, who would scorn the action. Now shall I fetch my mother, sire? the commander of that great army which you overcame? As the hour i

the hand to punish the sins of this realm, and to reign in it like a true king. Henry Plantagenet will cast out the Valois from the throne they have defiled, as Darius cast out Belshazzar, for such is the des

at he believed France to be his by Divine favor and Heaven's peculiar intervention. He thought himself God's factor, not His rebel. H

uphold your claim to France. You sell, and I with my body purchase, pea

of Valois will neither make nor mar me." She was unable to deny this, unpalatable as was the fact. "But I love you, and therefore as man wooes woman I sue to you. Do you not understand that there can be between us no question of expediency? Katharine, in Chartres orchard there met a man and a maid we know of; n

lvation I esteem the welfare of France. Can I, then, fail to love the King of England, who chooses the blood of my countrymen as a judicious garb to come a-wooing in? How else, since you

et, for all tha

sently she said, quite simply, "To see you lying in your coffin I would willin

oved A

. You can never comprehend

for this dagger, which I now throw out of the window-" with the word it jangled in the courtyard below. "I am in Troyes alone among some thousand Frenchmen, any one of whom would willingly give his life for the privilege o

eart leapt when he saw i

alone! Y

ul smile, "Proud spirit! Ho

the supreme hour, Destiny at her beck, her main desire was to slap the man for his childishness. Oh, he had no right thus to besot himself with adoration! This dejection at her feet of his high destiny awed her, and pricked her, too, wit

ates as lesser folk squeeze water from a sponge. "I cannot go thus. Ack

!" she wailed,

I am c

ve you! and presently I shall stand quite still and see little Frenchmen scramble about you as hounds leap about a stag, and afterward kill you. And after that I shall live! I preserve France, but after I have slain you, Henry, I must live. Mine is the agony, the enduring agony." She stayed motionless for an int

g silence, she could have borne it; but there was only love. And w

ain-" She gave a swallowing motion and was silent. When she spoke it was with cris

er, and you have forced me to deny His favor, as Peter denied Christ. My dear, be very kind to me, for I come to you naked of

is breast. "Love i

in. He had come armed; he had his soldiers no doubt in the corridor; he

," she told her

magnificent in a curious suit of burnished armor; in place of his helmet-plume he wore a fox-brush ornamen

OF THE T

EPIL

que je dis avoir vues et sues sont enregistrés icy, afin que vou

FIXED TO THE BOOK WHICH HE HAD MADE ACCORDING TO THE BEST OF

Epil

n Li

ady who bade me compile you. Bow down before her judgment. And if her sentence

live out your little hour among these very credulous persons; and at your appointed season perish and be forgotten. Thus may you share your betters' fate, and be at one with those famed come

ou will say also that Messire de Montbrison afforded me the main matter of the sixth and seventh stories, and many of the songs which this book contains; and that, moreover, I once journeyed to Caer Idion and talked for some two hours with Richard Holland (whom I found a very old and garrulous and cheery person), and got of him the matter of the eighth tale in this dizain, together with much information as concerns the sixth and the seventh. And you will add that the matter of the fourth and fifth tales was in every detail related to me by my

int came from Manuel of Poictesme, or whether (as yet others say) this poison was inherited from the demon wife whom Foulques Plantagenet fetched out of hell, the blood in these men was not all human. These men might not tread equally with human beings: their wives suffered therefor, just as they

rding to his cloth; and that he cannot undertake to robe an Ephialtes or a towering Orion suitably when the resources of his shop amount to only a few yards of cambric. Indeed had I the power to make you better, my little book, I would have exercised that power to the utmost. A good conscience is a co

uld elect to answer them by repetition of this song which I now make for you,

t, my book! a

on the i

nnot view you

d, and willi

the book I m

e you, for that

if I have wr

, that never

rfectly, and la

the power, m

n you some wi

n but had

pas

we, who kno

ranted never

be strong a

ied me to

loving labo

vion tap up

e, not all d

got such

gh-hearted

ntented craf

t to loved

oes the wor

all else im

DECAS R

TNO

tice sur la vie de Nicolas de Caen, p. 93 et seq. The indebtedness to An

n and Castile, whose conversion to sainthood the

hronism. But Nicolas, be it repea

ut, for obvious reasons, his translator

she had ruled England as Regent with signal capacity,-although this fa