'
'
'H'm!' said the King; 'and now give me the entire story.'
John Copeland obeyed. I must tell you that early in the narrative King Edward arose and, with a sob, strode toward a window. 'Catherine!' he said. He remained motionless what time Master Copeland went on without any manifest emotion. When he had ended, King Edward said, 'And where is Madame de Salisbury now?'
At this the Brabanter went mad. As a leopard springs he leaped upon the King, and grasping him by either shoulder, shook that monarch as one punishing a child.
'Now by the splendor of God—!' King Edward began, very terrible in his wrath. He saw that John Copeland held a dagger to his breast, and shrugged. 'Well, my man, you perceive I am defenceless. Therefore make an end, you dog.'
'First you will hear me out,' John Copeland said.
'It would appear,' the King retorted, 'that I have little choice.'
At this time John Copeland began: 'Sire, you are the greatest monarch our race has known. England is yours, France is yours, conquered Scotland lies prostrate at your feet. To-day there is no other man in all the world who possesses a tithe of your glory; yet twenty years ago Madame Philippa first beheld you and loved you, an outcast, an exiled, empty-pocketed prince. Twenty years ago the love of Madame Philippa, great Count William's daughter, got for you the armament wherewith England was regained. Twenty years ago but for Madame Philippa you had died naked in some ditch.'
'Go on,' the King said presently.
'And afterward you took a fancy to reign in France. You learned then that we Brabanters are a frugal people: Madame Philippa was wealthy when she married you, and twenty years had but quadrupled her fortune. She gave you every penny of it that you might fit out this expedition; now her very crown is in pawn at Ghent. In fine, the love of Madame Philippa gave you France as lightly as one might bestow a toy upon a child who whined for it.'
The King fiercely said, 'Go on.'
'Eh, sire, I intend to. You left England undefended that you might posture a little in the eyes of Europe. And meanwhile a woman preserves England, a woman gives you all Scotland as a gift, and in return demands nothing —God ha' mercy on us!—save that you nightly chafe your feet with a bit of woollen. You hear of it—and ask, '
'You will be hanged ere dawn,' the King replied, and yet by this one hand had screened his face. 'Meanwhile spit out your venom.'
'I say to you, then,' John Copeland continued, 'that to-day you are master of Europe. That but for this woman whom for twenty years you have neglected you would to-day be mouldering in some pauper's grave. Eh, without question, you most magnanimously loved that shrew of Salisbury! because you fancied the color of her eyes, Sire Edward, and admired the angle between her nose and her forehead. Minstrels unborn will sing of this great love of yours. Meantime I say to you'—now the man's rage was monstrous—'I say to you, go home to your too-tedious wife, the source of all your glory! sit at her feet! and let her teach you what love is!' He flung away the dagger. 'There you have the truth. Now summon your attendants, my tres beau sire, and have me hanged.'
The King gave no movement. 'You have been bold—' he said at last.
'But you have been far bolder, sire. For twenty years you have dared to flout that love which is God made manifest as His main heritage to His children.'
King Edward sat in meditation for a long while. 'I consider my wife's clerk,' he drily said, 'to discourse of love in somewhat too much the tone of a lover.' And a flush was his reward.
But when this Copeland spoke he was as one transfigured. His voice was grave and very tender.
'As the fish have their life in the waters, so I have and always shall have mine in love. Love made me choose and dare to emulate a lady, long ago, through whom I live contented, without expecting any other good. Her purity is so inestimable that I cannot say whether I derive more pride or sorrow from its pre-eminence. She does not love me, and she never will. She would condemn me to be hewed in fragments sooner than permit her husband's little finger to be injured. Yet she surpasses all others so utterly that I would rather hunger in her presence than enjoy from another all which a lover can devise.'
Sire Edward stroked the table through this while, with an inverted pen. He cleared his throat. He said, half- fretfully:
'Now, by the Face! it is not given every man to love precisely in this troubadourish fashion. Even the most generous person cannot render to love any more than that person happens to possess. I had a vision once: The devil sat upon a cathedral spire and white doves flew about him. Monks came and told him to begone. 'Do not the spires show you, O son of darkness,' they clamored, 'that the place is holy?' And Satan (in my vision) said these spires were capable of various interpretations. I speak of symbols, John. Yet I also have loved, in my own fashion —and, it would seem, I win the same reward as you.'
He said more lately: 'And so she is at Stirling now? with Robert Stewart?' He laughed, not overpleasantly. 'Eh, yes, it needed a bold person to bring all your tidings! But you Brabanters are a very thorough-going people.'
The King rose and flung back his big head as a lion might. 'John, the loyal service you have done us and our esteem for your valor are so great that they may well serve you as an excuse. May shame fall on those who bear you any ill-will! You will now return home, and take your prisoner, the King of Scotland, and deliver him to my wife, to do with as she may elect. You will convey to her my entreaty—not my orders, John—that she come to me here at Calais. As remuneration for this evening's insolence, I assign lands as near your house as you can choose them to the value of ?500 a year for you and for your heirs.'
You must know that John Copeland fell upon his knees before King Edward. 'Sire—' he stammered.
But the King raised him. 'Nay,' he said, 'you are the better man. Were there any equity in Fate, John Copeland, your lady had loved you, not me. As it is, I shall strive to prove not altogether unworthy of my fortune. Go, then, John Copeland—go, my squire, and bring me back my Queen.'
Presently he heard John Copeland singing without. And through that instant was youth returned to Edward Plantagenet, and all the scents and shadows and faint sounds of Valenciennes on that ancient night when a tall girl came to him, running, stumbling in her haste to bring him kingship. Now at last he understood the heart of Philippa.
'Let me live!' the King prayed; 'O Eternal Father, let me live a little while that I may make atonement!' And meantime John Copeland sang without and the Brabanter's heart was big with joy.
Sang John Copeland:
