惊婚记 英文版 Quentin Durward
瓦尔特.司各特 Sir Walter Scott
CHAPTER XXVI: THE INTERVIEW Page 1
When Princes meet, Astrologers may mark itAn ominous conjunction, full of boding,Like that of Mars with Saturn.
OLD PLAY
One hardly knows whether to term it a privilege or a penalty annexedto the quality of princes, that, in their intercourse with eachother, they are required by the respect which is due to their ownrank and dignity, to regulate their feelings and expressions by asevere etiquette, which precludes all violent and avowed displayof passion, and which, but that the whole world are aware that thisassumed complaisance is a matter of ceremony, might justly passfor profound dissimulation. It is no less certain, however, thatthe overstepping of these bounds of ceremonial, for the purposeof giving more direct vent to their angry passions, has the effectof compromising their dignity with the world in general; as wasparticularly noted when those distinguished rivals, Francis theFirst and the Emperor Charles, gave each other the lie direct, andwere desirous of deciding their differences hand to hand, in singlecombat.
Charles of Burgundy, the most hasty and impatient, nay, the mostimprudent prince of his time, found himself, nevertheless, fetteredwithin the magic circle which prescribed the most profound deferenceto Louis, as his Suzerain and liege Lord, who had deigned to conferupon him, a vassal of the crown, the distinguished honour of apersonal visit. Dressed in his ducal mantle, and attended by hisgreat officers and principal knights and nobles, he went in gallantcavalcade to receive Louis XI. His retinue absolutely blazed withgold and silver; for the wealth of the Court of England beingexhausted by the wars of York and Lancaster, and the expenditureof France limited by the economy of the Sovereign, that of Burgundywas for the time the most magnificent in Europe. The cortege ofLouis, on the contrary, was few in number, and comparatively meanin appearance, and the exterior of the King himself, in a threadbarecloak, with his wonted old high crowned hat stuck full of images,rendered the contrast yet more striking; and as the Duke, richlyattired with the coronet and mantle of state, threw himself fromhis noble charger, and, kneeling on one knee, offered to hold thestirrup while Louis dismounted from his little ambling palfrey,the effect was almost grotesque.
The greeting between the two potentates was, of course, as fullof affected kindness and compliment as it was totally devoid ofsincerity. But the temper of the Duke rendered it much more difficultfor him to preserve the necessary appearances, in voice, speech,and demeanour; while in the King, every species of simulation anddissimulation seemed so much a part of his nature that those bestacquainted with him could not have distinguished what was feignedfrom what was real.
Perhaps the most accurate illustration, were it not unworthy twosuch high potentates, would be to suppose the King in the situationof a stranger, perfectly acquainted with the habits and dispositionsof the canine race, who, for some, purpose of his own, is desirousto make friends with a large and surly mastiff that holds him insuspicion and is disposed to worry him on the first symptoms eitherof diffidence or of umbrage. The mastiff growls internally, erectshis bristles, shows his teeth, yet is ashamed to fly upon theintruder, who seems at the same time so kind and so confiding, andtherefore the animal endures advances which are far from pacifyinghim, watching at the same time the slightest opportunity which mayjustify him in his own eyes for seizing his friend by the throat.
The King was no doubt sensible, from the altered voice, constrainedmanner, and abrupt gestures of the Duke, that the game he had toplay was delicate, and perhaps he more than once repented havingever taken it in hand. But repentance was too late, and all thatremained for him was that inimitable dexterity of management, whichthe King understood equally at least with any man that ever lived.
The demeanour which Louis used towards the Duke was such as toresemble the kind overflowing of the heart in a moment of sincerereconciliation with an honoured and tried friend, from whomhe had been estranged by temporary circumstances now passed away,and forgotten as soon as removed. The King blamed himself for nothaving sooner taken the decisive step, of convincing his kind andgood kinsman by such a mark of confidence as he was now bestowing,that the angry passages which had occurred betwixt them were nothingin his remembrance, when weighed against the kindness which receivedhim when an exile from France, and under the displeasure of theKing his father. He spoke of the good Duke of Burgundy, as Philipthe father of Duke Charles was currently called, and remembered athousand instances of his paternal kindness.
"I think, cousin," he said, "your father made little difference inhis affection betwixt you and me; for I remember when by an accidentI had bewildered myself in a hunting party, I found the good Dukeupbraiding you with leaving me in the forest, as if you had beencareless of the safety of an elder brother."
The Duke of Burgundy's features were naturally harsh and severe;and when he attempted to smile, in polite acquiescence to the truthof what the King told him, the grimace which he made was trulydiabolical.
"Prince of dissemblers," he said, in his secret soul, "would thatit stood with my honour to remind you how you have requited allthe benefits of our House!"
"And then," continued the King, "if the ties of consanguinity andgratitude are not sufficient to bind us together, my fair cousin,we have those of spiritual relationship; for I am godfather to yourfair daughter Mary, who is as dear to me as one of my own maidens;and when the Saints (their holy name be blessed!) sent me a littleblossom which withered in the course of three months, it was yourprincely father who held it at the font, and celebrated the ceremonyof baptism with richer and prouder magnificence than Paris itselfcould have afforded. Never shall I forget the deep, the indelibleimpression which the generosity of Duke Philip, and yours, mydearest cousin, made upon the half broken heart of the poor exile!"
"Your Majesty," said the Duke, compelling himself to make somereply, "acknowledged that slight obligation in terms which overpaidall the display which Burgundy could make, to show a due sense ofthe honour you had done its Sovereign."
"I remember the words you mean, fair cousin," said the King, smiling;"I think they were, that in guerdon of the benefit of that day, I,poor wanderer, had nothing to offer, save the persons of myself, ofmy wife, and of my child. -- Well, and I think I have indifferentlywell redeemed my pledge."
"I mean not to dispute what your Majesty is pleased to aver," saidthe Duke; "but --"
"But you ask," said the King, interrupting him, "how my actionshave accorded with my words. -- Marry thus: the body of my infantchild Joachim rests in Burgundian earth -- my own person I havethis morning placed unreservedly in your power -- and, for that ofmy wife, -- truly, cousin, I think, considering the period of timewhich has passed, you will scarce insist on my keeping my word inthat particular. She was born on the Day of the Blessed Annunciation"(he crossed himself, and muttered an Ora pro nobis (intercede forus)), "some fifty years since; but she is no farther distant thanRheims, and if you insist on my promise being fulfilled to theletter, she shall presently wait your pleasure."
Angry as the Duke of Burgundy was at the barefaced attempt of theKing to assume towards him a tone of friendship and intimacy, hecould not help laughing at the whimsical reply of that singularmonarch, and his laugh was as discordant as the abrupt tones ofpassion in which he often spoke. Having laughed longer and louderthan was at that period, or would now be, thought fitting the timeand occasion, he answered in the same tone, bluntly declining thehonour of the Queen's company, but stating his willingness to acceptthat of the King's eldest daughter, whose beauty was celebrated.
"I am happy, fair cousin," said the King, with one of those dubioussmiles of which he frequently made use, "that your gracious pleasurehas not fixed on my younger daughter, Joan. I should otherwise havehad spear breaking between you and my cousin of Orleans; and, hadharm come of it, I must on either side have lost a kind friend andaffectionate cousin."
"Nay, nay, my royal sovereign," said Duke Charles, "the Duke ofOrleans shall have no interruption from me in the path which hehas chosen par amours. The cause in which I couch my lance againstOrleans must be fair and straight."
Louis was far from taking amiss this brutal allusion to the personaldeformity of the Princess Joan. On the contrary, he was ratherpleased to find that the Duke was content to be amused with broadjests, in which he was himself a proficient, and which (accordingto the modern phrase) spared much sentimental hypocrisy. Accordingly,he speedily placed their intercourse on such a footing that Charles,though he felt it impossible to play the part of an affectionateand reconciled friend to a monarch whose ill offices he had sooften encountered, and whose sincerity on the present occasion heso strongly doubted, yet had no difficulty in acting the heartylandlord towards a facetious guest; and so the want of reciprocityin kinder feelings between them was supplied by the tone of goodfellowship which exists between two boon companions -- a tonenatural to the Duke from the frankness, and, it might be added, thegrossness of his character, and to Louis, because, though capableof assuming any mood of social intercourse, that which really suitedhim best was mingled with grossness of ideas and of caustic humourand expression.
Both Princes were happily able to preserve, during the period of abanquet at the town house of Peronne, the same kind of conversation,on which they met as on a neutral ground, and which, as Louis easilyperceived, was more available than any other to keep the Duke ofBurgundy in that state of composure which seemed necessary to hisown safety.
Yet he was alarmed to observe that the Duke had around him severalof those French nobles, and those of the highest rank, and in situationsof great trust and power, whom his own severity or injustice haddriven into exile; and it was to secure himself from the possibleeffects of their resentment and revenge, that (as already mentioned)he requested to be lodged in the Castle or Citadel of Peronne,rather than in the town itself. This was readily granted by DukeCharles, with one of those grim smiles of which it was impossibleto say whether it meant good or harm to the party whom it concerned.
(Scott quotes from the Memoires of De Comines as follows: "thesenobles . . . inspired Louis with so much suspicion that he . . .demanded to be lodged in the old Castle of Peronne, and thus renderedhimself an absolute captive.")
But when the King, expressing himself with as much delicacy as hecould, and in the manner he thought best qualified to lull suspicionasleep, asked whether the Scottish Archers of his Guard might notmaintain the custody of the Castle of Peronne during his residencethere, in lieu of the gate of the town which the Duke had offeredto their care, Charles replied, with his wonted sternness of voiceand abruptness of manner, rendered more alarming by his habit, whenhe spoke, of either turning up his mustaches, or handling his swordor dagger, the last of which he used frequently to draw a littleway, and then return to the sheath (this gesture, very indicativeof a fierce character, is also by stage tradition a distinction ofShakespeare's Richard III. S.),
"Saint Martin! No, my Liege. You are in your vassal's camp and city-- so men call me in respect to your Majesty -- my castle and townare yours, and my men are yours; so it is indifferent whether mymen at arms or the Scottish Archers guard either the outer gate ordefences of the Castle. -- No, by Saint George! Peronne is a virginfortress -- she shall not lose her reputation by any neglect ofmine. Maidens must be carefully watched, my royal cousin, if wewould have them continue to live in good fame."
"Surely, fair cousin, and I altogether agree with you," said theKing, "I being in fact more interested in the reputation of thegood little town than you are -- Peronne being, as you know, faircousin, one of those upon the same river Somme, which, pledged toyour father of happy memory for redemption of money, are liable tobe redeemed upon repayment. And, to speak truth; coming, like anhonest debtor, disposed to clear off my obligations of every kind,I have brought here a few sumpter mules loaded with silver forthe redemption -- enough to maintain even your princely and royalestablishment, fair cousin, for the space of three years."
"I will not receive a penny of it," said the Duke, twirling hismustaches -- "the day of redemption is past, my royal cousin; norwere there ever serious purpose that the right should be exercised,the cession of these towns being the sole recompense my fatherever received from France, when, in a happy hour for your family,he consented to forget the murder of my grandfather, and to exchangethe alliance of England for that of your father. Saint George! ifhe had not so acted, your royal self, far from having towns in theSomme, could scarce have kept those beyond the Loire. No -- I willnot render a stone of them, were I to receive for every stone sorendered its weight in gold. I thank God, and the wisdom and valourof my ancestors, that the revenues of Burgundy, though it be aduchy, will maintain my state, even when a King is my guest, withoutobliging me to barter my heritage."
"Well, fair cousin," answered the King, with the same mildand placid manner as before, and unperturbed by the loud tone andviolent gestures of the Duke, "I see that you are so good a friendto France that you are unwilling to part with aught that belongsto her. But we shall need some moderator in those affairs when wecome to treat of them in council. -- What say you to Saint Paul?"
"Neither Saint Paul, nor Saint Peter, nor e'er a Saint in theCalendar," said the Duke of Burgundy, "shall preach me out of thepossession of Peronne."
"Nay, but you mistake me," said King Louis, smiling; "I mean Louisde Luxembourg, our trusty constable, the Count of Saint Paul. --Ah! Saint Mary of Embrun! we lack but his head at our conference!the best head in France, and the most useful to the restoration ofperfect harmony betwixt us."
"By Saint George of Burgundy!" said the Duke, "I marvel to hearyour Majesty talk thus of a man, false and perjured, both to Franceand Burgundy -- one who hath ever endeavoured to fan into a flameour frequent differences, and that with the purpose of givinghimself the airs of a mediator. I swear by the Order I wear thathis marshes shall not be long a resource for him!"
notmaintain the custody of the Castle of Peronne during his residencethere, in lieu of the.
"Be not so warm, cousin," said the King, smiling, and speaking underhis breath; "when I wished for the head constable, as a means ofending the settlement of our trifling differences, I had no desirefor his body, which might remain at Saint Quentin's with muchconvenience."
ofLouis, on the contrary, was few in number, and comparatively meanin appearance, and the exterior of the King himself.
"Ho! ho! I take your meaning, my royal cousin," said Charles, withthe same dissonant laugh which some other of the King's coarsepleasantries had extorted; and added, stamping his heel on theground, "I allow, in that sense, the head of the Constable mightbe useful at Peronne."
These, and other discourses, by which the King mixed hints at seriousaffairs amid matters of mirth and amusement, did not follow eachother consecutively; but were adroitly introduced during the timeof the banquet at the Hotel de Ville, during a subsequent interviewin the Duke's own apartments, and, in short, as occasion seemed torender the introduction of such delicate subjects easy and natural.
Indeed, however rashly Louis had placed himself in a risk which theDuke's fiery temper and the mutual subjects of exasperated enmitywhich subsisted betwixt them rendered of doubtful and perilousissue, never pilot on an unknown coast conducted himself with morefirmness and prudence. He seemed to sound with the utmost addressand precision the depths and shallows of his rival's mind andtemper, and manifested neither doubt nor fear when the result of hisexperiments discovered much more of sunken rocks and of dangerousshoals than of safe anchorage.
At length a day closed which must have been a wearisome one to Louis,from the constant exertion, vigilance, precaution, and attentionwhich his situation required, as it was a day of constraint to theDuke, from the necessity of suppressing the violent feelings towhich he was in the general habit of giving uncontrolled vent.
No sooner had the latter retired into his own apartment, after hehad taken a formal leave of the King for the night, than he gaveway to the explosion of passion which he had so long suppressed;and many an oath and abusive epithet, as his jester, Le Glorieuxsaid, "fell that night upon heads which they were never coinedfor," his domestics reaping the benefit of that hoard of injuriouslanguage which he could not in decency bestow on his royal guest,even in his absence, and which was yet become too great to bealtogether suppressed. The jests of the clown had some effect intranquillizing the Duke's angry mood -- he laughed loudly, threwthe jester a piece of gold, caused himself to be disrobed intranquillity, swallowed a deep cup of wine and spices, went to bed,and slept soundly.
The couchee of King Louis is more worthy of notice than that ofCharles; for the violent expression of exasperated and headlongpassion, as indeed it belongs more to the brutal than the intelligentpart of our nature, has little to interest us, in comparison tothe deep workings of a vigorous and powerful mind.
Louis was escorted to the lodgings he had chosen in the Castle, orCitadel of Peronne, by the Chamberlains and harbingers of the Dukeof Burgundy, and received at the entrance by a strong guard ofarchers and men at arms.
jester a piece of gold, caused himself to be disrobed intranquillity, swallowed.
As he descended from his horse to cross the drawbridge, over amoat of unusual width and depth, he looked on the sentinels, andobserved to Comines, who accompanied him, with other Burgundiannobles, "They wear Saint Andrew's crosses -- but not those of myScottish Archers."
"You will find them as ready to die in your defence, Sire," saidthe Burgundian, whose sagacious ear had detected in the King's toneof speech a feeling which doubtless Louis would have concealed ifhe could. "They wear the Saint Andrew's Cross as the appendage ofthe collar of the Golden Fleece, my master the Duke of Burgundy'sOrder."
"Do I not know it?" said Louis, showing the collar which he himselfwore in compliment to his host. "It is one of the dear bonds offraternity which exist between my kind brother and myself. We arebrothers in chivalry, as in spiritual relationship; cousins by birth,and friends by every tie of kind feeling and good neighbourhood.-- No farther than the base court, my noble lords and gentlemen!I can permit your attendance no farther -- you have done me enoughof grace."