惊婚记 英文版 Quentin Durward
瓦尔特.司各特 Sir Walter Scott
CHAPTER XII: THE POLITICIAN Page 1
This is a lecturer, so skill'd in policy,That (no disparagement to Satan's cunning)He well might read a lesson to the devil,And teach the old seducer new temptations.
OLD PLAY
As Louis entered the gallery, he bent his brows in the manner wehave formerly described as peculiar to him, and sent, from underhis gathered and gloomy eyebrows, a keen look on all around; indarting which, as Quentin afterwards declared, his eyes seemed toturn so small, so fierce, and so piercing, as to resemble thoseof an aroused adder looking through the bush of heath in which helies coiled.
When, by this momentary and sharpened glance, the King hadreconnoitered the cause of the bustle which was in the apartment,his first address was to the Duke of Orleans.
"You here, my fair cousin?" he said; -- and turning to Quentin,added sternly, "Had you not charge?"
"Forgive the young man, Sire," said the Duke; "he did not neglecthis duty; but I was informed that the Princess was in this gallery."
"And I warrant you would not be withstood when you came hither topay your court," said the King, whose detestable hypocrisy persistedin representing the Duke as participating in a passion which wasfelt only on the side of his unhappy daughter; "and it is thus youdebauch the sentinels of my guard, young man? -- But what cannotbe pardoned to a gallant who only lives par amours (by his loveaffairs)?"
The Duke of Orleans raised his head, as if about to reply in somemanner which might correct the opinion conveyed in the King'sobservation; but the instinctive reverence, not to say fear, ofLouis, in which he had been bred from childhood, chained up hisvoice.
"And Joan hath been ill?" said the King; "but do not be grieved,Louis; it will soon pass away; lend her your arm to her apartment,while I will conduct these strange ladies to theirs."
The order was given in a tone which amounted to a command, andOrleans accordingly made his exit with the Princess at one extremityof the gallery, while the King, ungloving his right hand, courteouslyhanded the Countess Isabelle and her kinswoman to their apartment,which opened from the other. He bowed profoundly as they entered,and remained standing on the threshold for a minute after they haddisappeared; then, with great composure, shut the door by whichthey had retired and turning the huge key, took it from the lock,and put it into his girdle -- an appendage which gave him stillmore perfectly the air of some old miser, who cannot journey incomfort unless he bear with him the key of his treasure closet.
With slow and pensive step, and eyes fixed on the ground, Louisnow paced towards Quentin Durward, who, expecting his share of theroyal displeasure, viewed his approach with no little anxiety.
"Thou hast done wrong," said the King, raising his eyes, and fixingthem firmly on him when he had come within a yard of him, -- "thouhast done foul wrong, and deservest to die. -- Speak not a wordin defence! -- What hadst thou to do with Dukes or Princesses? --what with any thing but my order?"
"So please your Majesty," said the young soldier, "what could Ido?"
"What couldst thou do when thy post was forcibly passed?" answeredthe King, scornfully, -- "what is the use of that weapon onthy shoulder? Thou shouldst have levelled thy piece, and if thepresumptuous rebel did not retire on the instant, he should havedied within this very hall! Go -- pass into these farther apartments.In the first thou wilt find a large staircase, which leads to theinner Bailley; there thou wilt find Oliver Dain (the inner baileycontained the stables and often the chapel. It communicated directlywith the keep). Send him to me -- do thou begone to thy quarters.-- As thou dost value thy life, be not so loose of thy tongue asthou hast been this day slack of thy hand."
Well pleased to escape so easily, yet with a soul which revoltedat the cold blooded cruelty which the King seemed to require fromhim in the execution of his duty, Durward took the road indicated;hastened down stairs, and communicated the royal pleasure to Oliver,who was waiting in the court beneath. The wily tonsor bowed, sighed,and smiled, as, with a voice even softer than ordinary, he wishedthe youth a good evening; and they parted, Quentin to his quarters,and Oliver to attend the King.
In this place, the Memoirs which we have chiefly followed incompiling this true history were unhappily defective; for, foundedchiefly on information supplied by Quentin, they do not convey thepurport of the dialogue which, in his absence, took place betweenthe King and his secret counsellor. Fortunately the Library ofHautlieu contains a manuscript copy of the Chronique Scandaleuse ofJean de Troyes (the Marquis de Hautlieu is the name of an imaginarycharacter in whose library Scott declares himself to have found thememorials which form the basis of the novel of Quentin Durward),much more full than that which has been printed; to which are addedseveral curious memoranda, which we incline to think must have beenwritten down by Oliver himself after the death of his master, andbefore he had the happiness to be rewarded with the halter which hehad so long merited. From this we have been able to extract a veryfull account of the obscure favourite's conversation with Louisupon the present occasion, which throws a light upon the policy ofthat Prince, which we might otherwise have sought for in vain.
When the favourite attendant entered the Gallery of Roland, hefound the King pensively seated upon the chair which his daughterhad left some minutes before. Well acquainted with his temper, heglided on with his noiseless step until he had just crossed theline of the King's sight, so as to make him aware of his presence,then shrank modestly backward and out of sight, until he shouldbe summoned to speak or to listen. The Monarch's first address wasan unpleasant one: "So, Oliver, your fine schemes are melting likesnow before the south wind! -- I pray to Our Lady of Embrun thatthey resemble not the ice heaps of which the Switzer churls tellsuch stories, and come rushing down upon our heads."
"I have heard with concern that all is not well, Sire," answeredOliver.
"Not well!" exclaimed the King, rising and hastily marching up anddown the gallery. "All is ill, man -- and as ill nearly as possible;so much for thy fond romantic advice, that I, of all men, shouldbecome a protector of distressed damsels! I tell thee Burgundy isarming, and on the eve of closing an alliance with England. AndEdward, who hath his hands idle at home, will pour his thousandsupon us through that unhappy gate of Calais. Singly, I might cajoleor defy them; but united, united -- and with the discontent andtreachery of that villain Saint Paul! -- All thy fault, Oliver,who counselled me to receive the women, and to use the services ofthat damned Bohemian to carry messages to their vassals."
"My lord," said Oliver, "you know my reasons. The Countess'sdomains lie between the frontiers of Burgundy and Flanders -- hercastle is almost impregnable -- her rights over neighbouring estatesare such as, if well supported, cannot but give much annoyance toBurgundy, were the lady but wedded to one who should be friendlyto France."
"It is, it is a tempting bait," said the King; "and could we haveconcealed her being here, we might have arranged such a marriagefor this rich heiress as would have highly profited -- France. Butthat cursed Bohemian, how couldst thou recommend such a heathenhound for a commission which required trust?"
steadfastly to our excellent end, the peace and thewelfare of France, and respect so little?
"Please you," said Oliver, "to remember it was your Grace's selfwho trusted him too far -- much farther than I recommended. Hewould have borne a letter trustily enough to the Countess's kinsman,telling him to hold out her castle, and promising speedy relief;but your Highness must needs put his prophetic powers to the test;and thus he became possessed of secrets which were worth betrayingto Duke Charles."
"I am ashamed, I am ashamed," said Louis. "And yet, Oliver, theysay that these heathen people are descended from the sage Chaldeans,who did read the mysteries of the stars in the plains of Shinar(they lie between the Tigris and Euphrates)."
Well aware that his master, with all his acuteness and sagacity,was but the more prone to be deceived by soothsayers, astrologers,diviners, and all that race of pretenders to occult science, andthat he even conceived himself to have some skill in these arts.Oliver dared to press this point no farther; and only observedthat the Bohemian had been a bad prophet on his own account, elsehe would have avoided returning to Tours, and saved himself fromthe gallows he had merited.
"It often happens that those who are gifted with propheticknowledge," answered Louis, with much gravity, "have not the powerof foreseeing those events in which they themselves are personallyinterested."
"Under your Majesty's favour," replied the confidant, "that seemsas if a man could not see his own hand by means of the candle whichhe holds, and which shows him every other object in the apartment."
"He cannot see his own features by the light which shows the facesof others," replied Louis; "and that is the more faithful illustrationof the case. -- But this is foreign to my purpose at present. TheBohemian hath had his reward, and peace be with him. -- But theseladies! -- Not only does Burgundy threaten us with war for harbouringthem, but their presence is like to interfere with my projects inmy own family. My simple cousin of Orleans hath barely seen thisdamsel, and I venture to prophesy that the sight of her is like tomake him less pliable in the matter of his alliance with Joan."
"Your Majesty," answered the counsellor, "may send these ladies ofCroye back to Burgundy, and so make your peace with the Duke. Manymight murmur at this as dishonourable; but if necessity demandsthe sacrifice --"
"If profit demanded the sacrifice, Oliver, the sacrifice shouldbe made without hesitation," answered the King. "I am an old,experienced salmon, and use not to gulp the angler's hook becauseit is busked up with a feather called honour. But what is worse thana lack of honour, there were, in returning those ladies to Burgundy,a forfeiture of those views of advantage which moved us to givethem an asylum. It were heart breaking to renounce the opportunityof planting a friend to ourselves, and an enemy to Burgundy, inthe very centre of his dominions, and so near to the discontentedcities of Flanders. Oliver, I cannot relinquish the advantageswhich our scheme of marrying the maiden to a friend of our ownhouse seems to hold out to us."
often the chapel. It communicated directlywith the keep). Send him to me -- .
"Your Majesty," said Oliver, after a moment's thought, "might conferher hand on some right trusty friend, who would take all blame onhimself, and serve your Majesty secretly, while in public you mightdisown him."
"And where am I to find such a friend?" said Louis. "Were I tobestow her upon any one of our mutinous and ill ruled nobles, wouldit not be rendering him independent? and hath it not been my policyfor years to prevent them from becoming so? -- Dunois indeed --him, and him only, I might perchance trust. -- He would fight forthe crown of France, whatever were his condition. But honours andwealth change men's natures. -- Even Dunois I will not trust."
"Your Majesty may find others," said Oliver, in his smoothestmanner, and in a tone more insinuating than that which he usuallyemployed in conversing with the King, who permitted him considerablefreedom; "men dependent entirely on your own grace and favour, andwho could no more exist without your countenance than without sunor air -- men rather of head than of action -- men who"
"Men who resemble thyself, ha!" said King Louis. "No, Oliver, bymy faith that arrow was too rashly shot! -- What! because I indulgethee with my confidence, and let thee, in reward, poll my liegesa little now and then, dost thou think it makes thee fit to be thehusband of that beautiful vision, and a Count of the highest classto boot? -- thee -- thee, I say, low born, and lower bred, whosewisdom is at best a sort of dinning, and whose courage is more thandoubtful."
"Your Majesty imputes to me a presumption of which I am not guilty,in supposing me to aspire so highly," said Oliver.
"I am glad to hear it, man," said the King; "and truly, I hold yourjudgment the healthier that you disown such a reverie. But methinksthy speech sounded strangely in that key. -- Well, to return. -- Idare not wed this beauty to one of my subjects -- I dare not returnher to Burgundy -- I dare not transmit her to England or to Germany,where she is likely to become the prize of some one more apt tounite with Burgundy than with France, and who would be more readyto discourage the honest malcontents in Ghent and Liege, than toyield them that wholesome countenance which might always find Charlesthe Hardy enough to exercise his valour on, without stirring fromhis domains -- and they were in so ripe a humour for insurrection,the men of Liege in especial, that they alone, well heated andsupported, would find my fair cousin work for more than a twelvemonth;and backed by a warlike Count of Croye -- O, Oliver! the plan istoo hopeful to be resigned without a struggle. -- Cannot thy fertilebrain devise some scheme?"
Oliver paused for a long time -- then at last replied, "What if abridal could be accomplished betwixt Isabelle of Croye and youngAdolphus, the Duke of Gueldres?"
"What!" said the King, in astonishment "sacrifice her, and she,too, so lovely a creature, to the furious wretch who deposed,imprisoned, and has often threatened to murder his own father! --No, Oliver, no that were too unutterably cruel even for you andme, who look so steadfastly to our excellent end, the peace and thewelfare of France, and respect so little the means by which it isattained. Besides, he lies distant from us and is detested by thepeople of Ghent and Liege. -- No, no -- I will none of Adolphus ofGueldres -- think on some one else."
"My invention is exhausted, Sire," said the counsellor; "I canremember no one who, as husband to the Countess of Croye, would belikely to answer your Majesty's views. He must unite such variousqualities -- a friend to your Majesty -- an enemy to Burgundy --of policy enough to conciliate the Ghentois and Liegeois, and ofvalour sufficient to defend his little dominions against the powerof Duke Charles -- of noble birth besides -- that your Highnessinsists upon; and of excellent and virtuous character to the bootof all."
"Nay, Oliver," said the King, "I leaned not so much -- that is sovery much, on character; but methinks Isabelle's bridegroom shouldbe something less publicly and generally abhorred than Adolphusof Gueldres. For example, since I myself must suggest some one --why not William de la Marck?"
"On my halidome, Sire," said Oliver, "I cannot complain of yourdemanding too high a standard of moral excellence in the happyman, if the Wild Boar of Ardennes can serve your turn. De la Marck!-- why, he is the most notorious robber and murderer on all thefrontiers -- excommunicated by the Pope for a thousand crimes."
"We will have him released from the sentence, friend Oliver -- HolyChurch is merciful."
"Almost an outlaw," continued Oliver, "and under the ban of theEmpire, by an ordinance of the Chamber at Ratisbon."
(Ratisbon was the seat of the German Reichstag from 1663 to 1806.)
"We will have the ban taken off, friend Oliver," continued theKing, in the same tone; "the Imperial Chamber will hear reason."
(A supreme court of appeals established in 1495 by Maximilian I:the first law court established in Germany.)
"And admitting him to be of noble birth," said Oliver, "he hath themanners, the face, and the outward form, as well as the heart, ofa Flemish butcher -- she will never accept of him."
"His mode of wooing, if I mistake him not," said Louis, "will renderit difficult for her to make a choice."
"I was far wrong indeed, when I taxed your Majesty with beingover scrupulous," said the counsellor. "On my life, the crimes ofAdolphus are but virtues to those of De la Marck! -- And then howis he to meet with his bride? Your Majesty knows he dare not stirfar from his own forest of Ardennes."
"That must be cared for," said the King; "and, in the first place,the two ladies must be acquainted privately that they can be nolonger maintained at this Court, except at the expense of a warbetween France and Burgundy, and that, unwilling to deliver them upto my fair cousin of Burgundy, I am desirous they should secretlydepart from my dominions."
"They will demand to be conveyed to England," said Oliver "and weshall have her return to Flanders with an island lord, having around, fair face, long brown hair, and three thousand archers athis back."
"No -- no," replied the king; "we dare not (you understand me) sofar offend our fair cousin of Burgundy as to let her pass to England.It would bring his displeasure as certainly as our maintaining herhere. No, no -- to the safety of the Church alone we will ventureto commit her; and the utmost we can do is to connive at the LadiesHameline and Isabelle de Croye departing in disguise, and with asmall retinue, to take refuge with the Bishop of Liege, who willplace the fair Isabelle for the time under the safeguard of aconvent."
"And if that convent protect her from William de la Marck, whenhe knows of your Majesty's favourable intentions, I have mistakenthe man."
"Why, yes," answered the King, "thanks to our secret supplies ofmoney, De la Marck hath together a handsome handful of as unscrupuloussoldiery as ever were outlawed; with which he contrives to maintainhimself among the woods, in such a condition as makes him formidableboth to the Duke of Burgundy and the Bishop of Liege. He lacksnothing but some territory which he may call his own; and thisbeing so fair an opportunity to establish himself by marriage, Ithink that, Pasques dieu! he will find means to win and wed, withoutmore than a hint on our part. The Duke of Burgundy will then havesuch a thorn in his side as no lancet of our time will easilycut out from his flesh. The Boar of Ardennes, whom he has alreadyoutlawed, strengthened by the possession of that fair lady's lands,castles, and seigniory, with the discontented Liegeois to boot,who, by may faith, will not be in that case unwilling to choosehim for their captain and leader -- let Charles then think of warswith France when he will, or rather let him bless his stars if shewar not with him. -- How dost thou like the scheme, Oliver, ha?"
"Rarely," said Oliver, "save and except the doom which confersthat lady on the Wild Boar of Ardennes. -- By my halidome, savingin a little outward show of gallantry, Tristan, the Provost Marshal,were the more proper bridegroom of the two."
"Anon thou didst propose Master Oliver the barber," said Louis; "butfriend Oliver and gossip Tristan, though excellent men in the wayof counsel and execution, are not the stuff that men make counts of.- Know you not that the burghers of Flanders value birth in othermen precisely because they have it not themselves? -- A plebeianmob ever desire an aristocratic leader. Yonder Ked, or Cade, or-- how called they him? -- in England, was fain to lure his rascalrout after him by pretending to the blood of the Mortimers (JackCade was the leader of Cade's Rebellion. Calling himself Mortimer,and claiming to be a cousin of Richard, Duke of York, in 1450,at the head of twenty thousand men, he took formal possession ofLondon. His alleged object was to procure representation for thepeople, and so reduce excessive taxation.). William de la Marckcomes of the blood of the Princes of Sedan, as noble as mine own.-- And now to business. I must determine the ladies of Croye to aspeedy and secret flight, under sure guidance. This will be easilydone -- we have but to hint the alternative of surrendering themto Burgundy. Thou must find means to let William de la Marck knowof their motions, and let him choose his own time and place to pushhis suit. I know a fit person to travel with them."