惊婚记 英文版 Quentin Durward
瓦尔特.司各特 Sir Walter Scott
CHAPTER I: THE CONTRAST
Look here upon this picture, and on this,The counterfeit presentment of two brothers.
HAMLET
The latter part of the fifteenth century prepared a train of futureevents that ended by raising France to that state of formidable powerwhich has ever since been from time to time the principal objectof jealousy to the other European nations. Before that period shehad to struggle for her very existence with the English alreadypossessed of her fairest provinces while the utmost exertions ofher King, and the gallantry of her people, could scarcely protectthe remainder from a foreign yoke. Nor was this her sole danger.The princes who possessed the grand fiefs of the crown, and, inparticular, the Dukes of Burgundy and Bretagne, had come to weartheir feudal bonds so lightly that they had no scruple in liftingthe standard against their liege and sovereign lord, the King ofFrance, on the slightest pretence. When at peace, they reigned asabsolute princes in their own provinces; and the House of Burgundy,possessed of the district so called, together with the fairest andrichest part of Flanders, was itself so wealthy, and so powerful,as to yield nothing to the crown, either in splendour or in strength.
In imitation of the grand feudatories, each inferior vassal ofthe crown assumed as much independence as his distance from thesovereign power, the extent of his fief, or the strength of hischateau enabled him to maintain; and these petty tyrants, no longeramenable to the exercise of the law, perpetrated with impunity thewildest excesses of fantastic oppression and cruelty. In Auvergnealone, a report was made of more than three hundred of theseindependent nobles, to whom incest, murder, and rapine were themost ordinary and familiar actions.
Besides these evils, another, springing out of the long continuedwars betwixt the French and English, added no small misery to thisdistracted kingdom. Numerous bodies of soldiers, collected intobands, under officers chosen by themselves, from among the bravestand most successful adventurers, had been formed in various partsof France out of the refuse of all other countries. These hirelingcombatants sold their swords for a time to the best bidder; and,when such service was not to be had, they made war on their ownaccount, seizing castles and towers, which they used as the placesof their retreat, making prisoners, and ransoming them, exactingtribute from the open villages and the country around them -- andacquiring, by every species of rapine, the appropriate epithets ofTondeurs and Ecorcheurs, that is, Clippers and Flayers.
In the midst of the horrors and miseries arising from sodistracted a state of public affairs, reckless and profuse expensedistinguished the courts of the lesser nobles, as well as of thesuperior princes; and their dependents, in imitation, expended inrude but magnificent display the wealth which they extorted fromthe people. A tone of romantic and chivalrous gallantry (which,however, was often disgraced by unbounded license) characterized theintercourse between the sexes; and the language of knight errantrywas yet used, and its observances followed, though the pure spiritof honourable love and benevolent enterprise which it inculcateshad ceased to qualify and atone for its extravagances. The joustsand tournaments, the entertainments and revels, which each pettycourt displayed, invited to France every wandering adventurer; andit was seldom that, when arrived there, he failed to employ hisrash courage, and headlong spirit of enterprise, in actions forwhich his happier native country afforded no free stage.
At this period, and as if to save this fair realm from the variouswoes with which it was menaced, the tottering throne was ascendedby Louis XI, whose character, evil as it was in itself, met, combated,and in a great degree neutralized the mischiefs of the time -- aspoisons of opposing qualities are said, in ancient books of medicine,to have the power of counteracting each other.
Brave enough for every useful and political purpose, Louis had nota spark of that romantic valour, or of the pride generally associatedwith it, which fought on for the point of honour, when the pointof utility had been long gained. Calm, crafty, and profoundlyattentive to his own interest, he made every sacrifice, both ofpride and passion, which could interfere with it. He was careful indisguising his real sentiments and purposes from all who approachedhim, and frequently used the expressions, "that the king knew nothow to reign, who knew not how to dissemble; and that, for himself,if he thought his very cap knew his secrets, he would throw itinto the fire." No man of his own, or of any other time, betterunderstood how to avail himself of the frailties of others, andwhen to avoid giving any advantage by the untimely indulgence ofhis own.
He was by nature vindictive and cruel, even to the extent of findingpleasure in the frequent executions which he commanded. But, asno touch of mercy ever induced him to spare, when he could withsafety condemn, so no sentiment of vengeance ever stimulated himto a premature violence. He seldom sprang on his prey till it wasfairly within his grasp, and till all hope of rescue was vain; andhis movements were so studiously disguised, that his success wasgenerally what first announced to the world the object he had beenmanoeuvring to attain.
In like manner, the avarice of Louis gave way to apparent profusion,when it was necessary to bribe the favourite or minister of a rivalprince for averting any impending attack, or to break up any allianceconfederated against him. He was fond of license and pleasure; butneither beauty nor the chase, though both were ruling passions, everwithdrew him from the most regular attendance to public business andthe affairs of his kingdom. His knowledge of mankind was profound,and he had sought it in the private walks of life, in which heoften personally mingled; and, though naturally proud and haughty,he hesitated not, with an inattention to the arbitrary divisionsof society which was then thought something portentously unnatural,to raise from the lowest rank men whom he employed on the mostimportant duties, and knew so well how to choose them, that he wasrarely disappointed in their qualities. Yet there were contradictionsin the character of this artful and able monarch; for human natureis rarely uniform. Himself the most false and insincere of mankind,some of the greatest errors of his life arose from too rash aconfidence in the honour and integrity of others. When these errorstook place, they seem to have arisen from an over refined system ofpolicy, which induced Louis to assume the appearance of undoubtingconfidence in those whom it was his object to overreach; for, inhis general conduct, he was as jealous and suspicious as any tyrantwho ever breathed.
couragewas allied to rashness and frenzy, then wore the ducal coronet ofBurgundy, which he burned to convert into a royal and.
Two other points may be noticed to complete the sketch of thisformidable character, by which he rose among the rude, chivalroussovereigns of the period to the rank of a keeper among wild beasts,who, by superior wisdom and policy, by distribution of food, andsome discipline by blows, comes finally to predominate over thosewho, if unsubjected by his arts, would by main strength have tornhim to pieces.
The first of these attributes was Louis's excessive superstition, aplague with which Heaven often afflicts those who refuse to listento the dictates of religion. The remorse arising from his evilactions Louis never endeavoured to appease by any relaxation inhis Machiavellian stratagems (on account of the alleged politicalimmorality of Machiavelli, an illustrious Italian of the sixteenthcentury, this expression has come to mean "destitute of politicalmorality; habitually using duplicity and bad faith." Cent. Dict.),but laboured in vain to soothe and silence that painful feeling bysuperstitious observances, severe penance, and profuse gifts tothe ecclesiastics. The second property, with which the first issometimes found strangely united, was a disposition to low pleasuresand obscure debauchery. The wisest, or at least the most craftysovereign of his time, he was fond of low life, and, being himselfa man of wit, enjoyed the jests and repartees of social conversationmore than could have been expected from other points of his character.He even mingled in the comic adventures of obscure intrigue, witha freedom little consistent with the habitual and guarded jealousyof his character, and he was so fond of this species of humblegallantry, that he caused a number of its gay and licentious anecdotesto be enrolled in a collection well known to book collectors, inwhose eyes (and the work is unfit for any other) the right editionis very precious.
(This editio princeps, which, when in good preservation, ismuch sought after by connoisseurs, is entitled Les Cent NouvellesNouvelles, contenant Cent Histoires Nouveaux, qui sont moult plaisansa raconter en toutes bonnes compagnies par maniere de joyeuxete.Paris, Antoine Verard. Sans date d'annee d'impression; en foliogotique. See De Bure. S)
By means of this monarch's powerful and prudent, though most unamiablecharacter, it pleased Heaven, who works by the tempest as well asby the soft, small rain, to restore to the great French nation thebenefits of civil government, which, at the time of his accession,they had nearly lost.
Ere he succeeded to the crown, Louis had given evidence of his vicesrather than of his talents. His first wife, Margaret of Scotland,was "done to death by slanderous tongues" in her husband's court,where, but for the encouragement of Louis himself, not a word wouldhave been breathed against that amiable and injured princess. Hehad been an ungrateful and a rebellious son, at one time conspiringto seize his father's person, and at another levying open waragainst him. For the first offence, he was banished to his appanageof Dauphine, which he governed with much sagacity; for the secondhe was driven into absolute exile, and forced to throw himself onthe mercy, and almost on the charity, of the Duke of Burgundy andhis son; where he enjoyed hospitality, afterwards indifferentlyrequited, until the death of his father in 1461.
In the very outset of his reign, Louis was almost overpowered bya league formed against him by the great vassals of France, withthe Duke of Burgundy, or rather his son, the Count de Charalois,at its head. They levied a powerful army, blockaded Paris, foughta battle of doubtful issue under its very walls, and placed theFrench monarchy on the brink of actual destruction. It usuallyhappens in such cases, that the more sagacious general of the twogains the real fruit, though perhaps not the martial fame, of thedisputed field. Louis, who had shown great personal bravery duringthe battle of Montl'hery, was able, by his prudence, to availhimself of its undecided character, as if it had been a victory onhis side. He temporized until the enemy had broken up their leaguer,and showed so much dexterity in sowing jealousies among those greatpowers, that their alliance "for the public weal," as they termedit, but in reality for the overthrow of all but the externalappearance of the French monarchy, dissolved itself, and was neveragain renewed in a manner so formidable. From this period, Louis,relieved of all danger from England by the Civil Wars of York andLancaster, was engaged for several years, like an unfeeling butable physician, in curing the wounds of the body politic, or ratherin stopping, now by gentle remedies, now by the use of fire andsteel, the progress of those mortal gangrenes with which it wasthen infected. The brigandage of the Free Companies (troops thatacknowledged no authority except that of their leaders, and whohired themselves out at will), and the unpunished oppression of thenobility, he laboured to lessen, since he could not actually stopthem; and, by dint of unrelaxed attention, he gradually gained someaddition to his own regal authority, or effected some diminutionof those by whom it was counterbalanced.
Still the King of France was surrounded by doubt and danger. Themembers of the league "for the public weal," though not in unison,were in existence, and, like a scotched snake (see Macbeth. III,ii, 13, "We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it."), might reuniteand become dangerous again. But a worse danger was the increasingpower of the Duke of Burgundy, then one of the greatest princes ofEurope, and little diminished in rank by the very slight dependenceof his duchy upon the crown of France.
Charles, surnamed the Bold, or rather, the Audacious, for his couragewas allied to rashness and frenzy, then wore the ducal coronet ofBurgundy, which he burned to convert into a royal and independentregal crown. The character of this Duke was in every respect thedirect contrast to that of Louis XI.
The latter was calm, deliberate, and crafty, never prosecutinga desperate enterprise, and never abandoning one likely to besuccessful, however distant the prospect. The genius of the Dukewas entirely different. He rushed on danger because he loved it, andon difficulties because he despised them. As Louis never sacrificedhis interest to his passion, so Charles, on the other hand, neversacrificed his passion, or even his humour, to any other consideration.Notwithstanding the near relationship that existed between them,and the support which the Duke and his father had afforded to Louisin his exile when Dauphin, there was mutual contempt and hatredbetwixt them. The Duke of Burgundy despised the cautious policy ofthe King, and imputed to the faintness of his courage that he soughtby leagues, purchases, and other indirect means those advantageswhich, in his place, the Duke would have snatched with an armedhand. He likewise hated the King, not only for the ingratitude hehad manifested for former kindnesses, and for personal injuriesand imputations which the ambassadors of Louis had cast upon him,when his father was yet alive, but also, and especially, becauseof the support which he afforded in secret to the discontentedcitizens of Ghent, Liege, and other great towns in Flanders. Theseturbulent cities, jealous of their privileges, and proud of theirwealth, were frequently in a state of insurrection against theirliege lords, the Dukes of Burgundy, and never failed to find underhandcountenance at the court of Louis, who embraced every opportunityof fomenting disturbance within the dominions of his overgrownvassal.
The contempt and hatred of the Duke were retaliated by Louis withequal energy, though he used a thicker veil to conceal his sentiments.It was impossible for a man of his profound sagacity not to despisethe stubborn obstinacy which never resigned its purpose, howeverfatal perseverance might prove, and the headlong impetuosity whichcommenced its career without allowing a moment's consideration forthe obstacles to be encountered. Yet the King hated Charles evenmore than he contemned him, and his scorn and hatred were the moreintense, that they were mingled with fear; for he know that theonset of the mad bull, to whom he likened the Duke of Burgundy, mustever be formidable, though the animal makes it with shut eyes. Itwas not alone the wealth of the Burgundian provinces, the disciplineof the warlike inhabitants, and the mass of their crowded population,which the King dreaded, for the personal qualities of their leaderhad also much in them that was dangerous. The very soul of bravery,which he pushed to the verge of rashness, and beyond it -- profuse inexpenditure -- splendid in his court, his person, and his retinue,in all which he displayed the hereditary magnificence of the houseof Burgundy, Charles the Bold drew into his service almost all thefiery spirits of the age whose tempers were congenial; and Louissaw too clearly what might be attempted and executed by such atrain of resolute adventurers, following a leader of a characteras ungovernable as their own.
There was yet another circumstance which increased the animosityof Louis towards his overgrown vassal; he owed him favours whichhe never meant to repay, and was under the frequent necessityof temporizing with him, and even of enduring bursts of petulantinsolence, injurious to the regal dignity, without being able totreat him otherwise than as his "fair cousin of Burgundy."
It was about the year 1468, when their feuds were at the highest,though a dubious and hollow truce, as frequently happened, existedfor the time betwixt them, that the present narrative opens. Theperson first introduced on the stage will be found indeed to be ofa rank and condition, the illustration of whose character scarcelycalled for a dissertation on the relative position of two greatprinces; but the passions of the great, their quarrels, and theirreconciliations involve the fortunes of all who approach them; andit will be found, on proceeding farther in our story, that thispreliminary chapter is necessary for comprehending the history ofthe individual whose adventures we are about to relate.