concede the point to Louis, had ordered to be introduced, so as to be near the person of their master. The faithful Lord Crawford was at their head.
'Crawford – my honest and faithful Crawford,' said the King, 'where hast thou been to-day? – Are the lords of Burgundy so inhospitable as to neglect one of the bravest and most noble gentlemen that ever trode a court? – I saw you not at the banquet.'
'I declined it, my liege,' said Crawford – 'times are changed with me. The day has been that I could have ventured a carouse with the best man in Burgundy, and that in the juice of his own grape; but a matter of four pints now flusters me, and I think it concerns your Majesty's service to set in this an example to my callants.'
'Thou art ever prudent,' said the King; 'but surely your toil is the less when you have so few men to command? – and a time of festivity requires not so severe self-denial on your part as a time of danger.'
'If I have few men to command,' said Crawford, 'I have the more need to keep the knaves in fitting condition; and whether this business be like to end in feasting or fighting, God and your Majesty know better than old John of Crawford.'
'You surely do not apprehend any danger?' said the King hastily, yet in a whisper.
'Not I,' answered Crawford; 'I wish I did; for, as old Earl Tineman [46] used to say, apprehended dangers may be always defended dangers. – The word for the night, if your Majesty pleases?'
'Let it be Burgundy, in honour of our host and of a liquor that you love, Crawford.'
'I will quarrel with neither Duke nor drink, so called,' said Crawford, 'provided always that both be sound. A good night to your Majesty!'
'A good night, my trusty Scot,' said the King, and passed on to his apartments.
At the door of his bedroom Le Balafre was placed sentinel. 'Follow me hither,' said the King, as he passed him; and the Archer accordingly, like a piece of machinery put in motion by an artist, strode after him into the apartment, and remained there fixed, silent, and motionless, attending the royal command.
'Have you heard from that wandering Paladin, your nephew?' said the King; 'for he hath been lost to us, since, like a young knight who had set out upon his first adventures, he sent us home two prisoners, as the first fruits of his chivalry.'
'My lord, I heard something of that,' said Balafre; 'and I hope your Majesty will believe, that if he hath acted wrongfully, it was in no shape by my precept or example, since I never was so bold as to unhorse any of your Majesty's most illustrious house, better knowing my own condition, and' –
'Be silent on that point,' said the King; 'your nephew did his duty in the matter.'
'There indeed,' continued Balafre, 'he had the cue from me. – 'Quentin,' said I to him, 'whatever comes of it, remember you belong to the Scottish Archer-guard, and do your duty whatever comes on't.''
'I guessed he had some such exquisite instructer,' said Louis; 'but it concerns me that you answer my first question – Have you heard of your nephew of late? – Stand aback, my masters,' he added, addressing the gentlemen of his chamber, 'for this concerneth no ears but mine.'
'Surely, please your Majesty,' said Balafre, 'I have seen this very evening the groom Charlot, whom my kinsman dispatched from Liege, or some castle of the Bishop's which is near it, and where he hath lodged the Ladies of Croye in safety.'
'Now our Lady of Heaven be praised for it!' said the King. 'Art thou sure of it? – sure of the good news?'
'As sure as I can be of aught,' said Le Balafre; 'the fellow, I think, hath letters for your Majesty from the Ladies of Croye.'
'Haste to get them,' said the King – 'Give thy harquebuss to one of these knaves – to Oliver – to any one. – Now our Lady of Embrun be praised! and silver shall be the screen that surrounds her high altar!'
Louis, in this fit of gratitude and devotion, doffed, as usual, his hat, selected from the figures with which it was garnished that which represented his favourite image of the Virgin, placed it on a table, and, kneeling down, repeated reverently the vow he had made.
The groom, being the first messenger whom Durward had dispatched from Schonwaldt, was now introduced with his letters. They were addressed to the King by the Ladies of Croye, and barely thanked him in very cold terms for his courtesy while at his Court, and, something more warmly, for having permitted them to retire, and sent them in safety from his dominions; expressions at which Louis laughed very heartily, instead of resenting them. He then demanded of Charlot, with obvious interest, whether they had not sustained some alarm or attack upon the road? Charlot, a stupid fellow, and selected for that quality, gave a very confused account of the affray in which his companion, the Gascon, had been killed, but knew of no other. Again Louis demanded of him, minutely and particularly, the route which the party had taken to Liege; and seemed much interested when he was informed, in reply, that they had, upon approaching Namur, kept the more direct road to Liege, upon the right bank of the Maes, instead of the left bank, as recommended in their route. The King then ordered the man a small present, and dismissed him, disguising the anxiety he had expressed, as if it only concerned the safety of the Ladies of Croye.
Yet the news, though they inferred the failure of one of his own favourite plans, seemed to imply more internal satisfaction on the King's part than he would have probably indicated in a case of brilliant success. He sighed like one whose breast has been relieved from a heavy burden, muttered his devotional acknowledgments with an air of deep sanctity, raised up his eyes, and hastened to adjust newer and surer schemes of ambition.
With such purpose, Louis ordered the attendance of his astrologer, Martius Galeotti, who appeared with his usual air of assumed dignity, yet not without a shade of uncertainty on his brow, as if he had doubted the King's kind reception. It was, however, favourable, even beyond the warmest which he had ever met with at any former interview. Louis termed him his friend, his father in the sciences – the glass by which a king should look into distant futurity – and concluded by thrusting on his finger a ring of very considerable value. Galeotti, not aware of the circumstances which had thus suddenly raised his character in the estimation of Louis, yet understood his own profession too well to let that ignorance be seen. he received with grave modesty the praises of Louis, which he contended were only due to the nobleness of the science which he practised, a science the rather the more deserving of admiration on account of its working miracles through means of so feeble an agent as himself; and he and the King took leave, for once much satisfied with each other.
On the Astrologer's departure, Louis threw himself into a chair, and appearing much exhausted, dismissed the rest of his attendants, excepting Oliver alone, who, creeping around with gentle assiduity and noiseless step, assisted him in the task of preparing for repose.
While he received this assistance, the King, unlike to his wont, was so silent and passive, that his attendant was struck by the unusual change in his deportment. The worst minds have often something of good principle in them – banditti show fidelity to their captain, and sometimes a protected and promoted favourite has felt a gleam of sincere interest in the monarch to whom he owed his greatness. Oliver le Diable, le Mauvais, (or by whatever other name he was called expressive of his evil propensities,) was, nevertheless, scarcely so completely identified with Satan as not to feel some touch of grateful feeling for his master in this singular condition, when, as it seemed, his fate was deeply interested, and his strength seemed to be exhausted. After for a short time rendering to the King in silence the usual services paid by a servant to his master at the toilet, the attendant was at length tempted to say, with the freedom which his Sovereign's indulgence had permitted him in such circumstances, 'Tete-dieu, Sire, you seem as if you had lost a battle; and yet I, who was near your Majesty during this whole day, never knew you fight a field so gallantly.'
'A field!' said King Louis, looking up, and assuming his wonted causticity of tone and manner; 'Pasques- dieu, my friend Oliver, say I have kept the arena in a bull-fight; for a blinder, and more stubborn, untameable, uncontrollable brute, than our cousin of Burgundy, never existed, save in the shape of a Murcian bull, trained for the bullfeasts. – Well, let it pass – I dodged him bravely. But, Oliver, rejoice with me that my plans in Flanders have not taken effect, whether as concerning those two rambling Princesses of Croye, or in Liege – you understand me?'
'In faith, I do not, Sire,' replied Oliver; 'it is impossible for me to congratulate your Majesty on the failure of your favourite schemes, unless you tell me some reason for the change in your own wishes and views.'
'Nay,' answered the King, 'there is no change in either, in a general view. But, Pasques-dieu, my friend, I have this day learned more of Duke Charles than I before knew. When he was Count de Charalois, in the time of
