Chivalry

by James Branch Cabell

  These six entered the tent pitched for the conference--the hanging ofblue velvet embroidered with fleurs-de-lys of gold blurred before thegirl's eyes, and till death the device sickened her--and there the Earlof Warwick embarked upon a sea of rhetoric. His French wasindifferent, his periods interminable, and his demands exorbitant; inbrief, the King of England wanted Katharine and most of France, with areversion at the French King's death of the entire kingdom. MeanwhileSire Henry sat in silence, his eyes glowing.

  "I have come," he said, under cover of Warwick's oratory--"I have comeagain, my lady."

  Katharine's gaze flickered over him. "Liar!" she said, very softly."Has God no thunder in His armory that this vile thief should gounblasted? Would you filch love as well as kingdoms?"

  His ruddy face went white. "I love you, Katharine."

  "Yes," she answered, "for I am your pretext. I can well believe,messire, that you love your pretext for theft and murder."

  Neither spoke after this, and presently the Earl of Warwick having cometo his peroration, the matter was adjourned till the next day. Theparty separated. It was not long before Katharine had informed hermother that, God willing, she would never again look upon the King ofEngland's face uncoffined. Isabeau found her a madwoman. The girlswept opposition before her with gusts of demoniacal fury, wept,shrieked, tore at her hair, and eventually fell into a sort ofepileptic seizure; between rage and terror she became a horrid,frenzied beast. I do not dwell upon this, for it is not a condition inwhich the comeliest maid shows to advantage. But, for the Valois,insanity always lurked at the next corner, expectant, and they knew it;to save the girl's reason the Queen was forced to break off alldiscussion of the match. Accordingly, the Duke of Burgundy went nextday to the conference alone. Jehan began with "ifs," and over theseflimsy barriers Henry, already maddened by Katharine's scorn, presentlyvaulted to a towering fury.

  "Fair cousin," the King said, after a deal of vehement bickering, "wewish you to know that we will have the daughter of your King, and thatwe will drive both him and you out of this kingdom."

  The Duke answered, not without spirit: "Sire, you are pleased to sayso; but before you have succeeded in ousting my lord and me from thisrealm, I am of the opinion that you will be very heartily tired."

  At this the King turned on his heel; over his shoulder he flung: "I amtireless; also, I am agile as a fox in the pursuit of my desires. Saythat to your Princess." Then he went away in a rage.

  It had seemed an approvable business to win love incognito, accordingto the example of many ancient emperors, but in practice he had trippedover an ugly outgrowth from the legendary custom. The girl hated him,there was no doubt about it; and it was equally certain he loved her.Particularly caustic was the reflection that a twitch of his fingerwould get him Katharine as his wife, for in secret negotiation theQueen-Regent was soon trying to bring this about; yes, he could get thegirl's body by a couple of pen-strokes; but, God's face! what he wantedwas to rouse the look her eyes had borne in Chartres orchard thattranquil morning, and this one could not readily secure by fiddlingwith seals and parchments. You see his position: he loved the Princesstoo utterly to take her on lip-consent, and this marriage was now hisone possible excuse for ceasing from victorious warfare. So heblustered, and the fighting recommenced; and he slew in a despairingrage, knowing that by every movement of his arm he became to her somuch the more detestable.

  He stripped the realm of provinces as you peel the layers from anonion. By the May of the year of grace 1420 France was, and knewherself to be, not beaten but demolished. Only a fag-end of the Frencharmy lay entrenched at Troyes, where the court awaited Henry's decisionas to the morrow's action. If he chose to destroy them root andbranch, he could; and they knew such mercy as was in the man to bequite untarnished by previous usage. He drew up a small force beforethe city and made no overtures toward either peace or throat-cutting.

  This was the posture of affairs on the evening of the Sunday afterAscension day, when Katharine sat at cards with her father in hisapartments at the Hotel de Ville. The King was pursing his lips overan alternative play, when there came the voice of one singing below inthe courtyard.

  Sang the voice:

  "_I get no joy of my life That have weighed the world--and it was Abundant with folly, and rife With sorrows brittle as glass, And with joys that flicker and pass As dreams through a fevered head, And like the dripping of rain In gardens naked and dead Is the obdurate thin refrain Of our youth which is presently dead._

  "_And she whom alone I have loved Looks ever with loathing on me, As one she hath seen disproved And stained with such smirches as be Not ever cleansed utterly, And is loth to remember the days When Destiny fixed her name As the theme and the goal of my praise, And my love engenders shame, And I stain what I strive for and praise._

  "_O love, most perfect of all, Just to have known you is well! And it heartens me now to recall That just to have known you is well, And naught else is desirable Save only to do as you willed And to love you my whole life long-- But this heart in me is filled With hunger cruel and strong, And with hunger unfulfilled._

  "_O Love, that art stronger than we, Albeit not lightly stilled, Thou art less cruel than she._"

  Malise came hastily into the room, and, without speaking, laid afox-brush before the Princess.

  Katharine twirled it in her hand, staring at the card-littered table."So you are in his pay, Malise? I am sorry. But you know that youremployer is master here. Who am I to forbid him entrance?" The girlwent away silently, abashed, and the Princess sat quite still, tappingthe brush against the table.

  "They do not want me to sign another treaty, do they?" her father askedtimidly. "It appears to me they are always signing treaties, and Icannot see that any good comes of it. And I would have won the lastgame, Katharine, if Malise had not interrupted us. You know I wouldhave won."

  "Yes, father, you would have won. Oh, he must not see you!" Katharinecried, a great tide of love mounting in her breast, the love that drawsa mother fiercely to shield her backward boy. "Father, will you not gointo your chamber? I have a new book for you, father--all pictures,dear. Come--" She was coaxing him when Henry appeared in the doorway.

  "But I do not wish to look at pictures," Charles said, peevishly; "Iwish to play cards. You are an ungrateful daughter, Katharine. Youare never willing to amuse me." He sat down with a whimper and beganto pinch at his dribbling lips.

  Katharine had moved a little toward the door. Her face was white."Now welcome, sire!" she said. "Welcome, O great conqueror, who inyour hour of triumph can find no nobler recreation than to shame a maidwith her past folly! It was valorously done, sire. See, father; hereis the King of England come to observe how low we sit that yesterdaywere lords of France."

  "The King of England!" echoed Charles, and rose now to his feet. "Ithought we were at war with him. But my memory is treacherous. Youperceive, brother of England, I am planning a new mouse-trap, and mymind is somewhat preempted. I recall now you are in treaty for mydaughter's hand. Katharine is a good girl, messire, but I suppose--"He paused, as if to regard and hear some insensible counsellor, andthen briskly resumed: "Yes, I suppose policy demands that she shouldmarry you. We trammelled kings can never go free of policy--ey, mycompere of England? No; it was through policy I wedded her mother; andwe have been very unhappy, Isabeau and I. A word in your ear,son-in-law: Madame Isabeau's soul formerly inhabited a sow, asPythagoras teaches, and when our Saviour cast it out at Gadara, theinfluence of the moon drew it hither."

  Henry did not say anything. Always his calm blue eyes appraised DameKatharine.

  "Oho, these Latinists cannot hoodwink me, you observe, though byordinary it chimes with my humor to appear content. Policy again,messire: for once roused, I am terrible. To-day in the greathall-window, under the bleeding feet of Lazarus, I slew ten flies--veryblack they were, the black shrivelled souls of par
ricides--andafterward I wept for it. I often weep; the Mediterranean hath itssources in my eyes, for my daughter cheats at cards. Cheats, sir!--andI her father!" The incessant peering, the stealthy cunning with whichCharles whispered this, the confidence with which he clung to hisdestroyer's hand, was that of a conspiring child.

  "Come, father," Katharine said. "Come away to bed, dear."

  "Hideous basilisk!" he spat at her; "dare you rebel against me? Am Inot King of France, and is it not blasphemy a King of France should bethus mocked? Frail moths that flutter about my splendor." Heshrieked, in an unheralded frenzy, "beware of me, beware! for I amomnipotent! I am King of France, God's regent. At my command thewinds go about the earth, and nightly the stars are kindled for myrecreation. Perhaps I am mightier than God, but I do not remember now.The reason is written down and lies somewhere under a bench. Now Isail for England. Eia! eia! I go to ravage England, terrible andmerciless. But I must have my mouse-traps, Goodman Devil, for inEngland the cats o' the middle-sea wait unfed." He went out of theroom, giggling, and in the corridor began to sing:

  "_Adieu de fois plus de cent mile! Aillors vois oir l'Evangile, Car chi fors mentir on ne sait...._"

  All this while Henry remained immovable, his eyes fixed upon Katharine.Thus (she meditated) he stood among Frenchmen; he was the boulder, andthey the waters that babbled and fretted about him. But she turned andmet his gaze squarely.

  "And that," she said, "is the king whom you have conquered! Is it nota notable conquest to overcome so sapient a king? to pilfer renown froman idiot? There are pickpockets in Troyes, rogues doubly damned, whowould scorn the action. Now shall I fetch my mother, sire? thecommander of that great army which you overcame? As the hour is lateshe is by this tipsy, but she will come. Or perhaps she is with somepaid lover, but if this conqueror, this second Alexander, wills it shewill come. O God!" the girl wailed, on a sudden; "O just andall-seeing God! are not we of Valois so contemptible that in conqueringus it is the victor who is shamed?"

  "Flower o' the marsh!" he said, and his big voice pulsed with manytender cadences--"flower o' the marsh! it is not the King of Englandwho now comes to you, but Alain the harper. Henry Plantagenet God hasled hither by the hand to punish the sins of this realm and to reign init like a true king. Henry Plantagenet will cast out the Valois fromthe throne they have defiled, as Darius Belshazzar, for such is thedesire and the intent of God. But to you comes Alain the harper, notas a conqueror but as a suppliant--Alain who has loved youwhole-heartedly these two years past and who now kneels before youentreating grace."

  Katharine looked down into his countenance, for to his speech he hadfitted action. Suddenly and for the first time she understood that hebelieved France his by a divine favor and Heaven's peculiarintervention. He thought himself God's factor, not His rebel. He wasrather stupid, this huge handsome boy; and realizing it, her hand wentto his shoulder, half maternally.

  "It is nobly done, sire. I know that you must wed me to uphold yourclaim to France, for otherwise in the world's eyes you are shamed. Yousell, and I with my body purchase, peace for France. There is no needof a lover's posture when hucksters meet."

  "So changed!" he said, and he was silent for an interval, stillkneeling. Then he began: "You force me to point out that I no longerneed a pretext to hold France. France lies before me prostrate. ByGod's singular grace I reign in this fair kingdom, mine by right ofconquest, and an alliance with the house of Valois will neither makenor mar me." She was unable to deny this, unpalatable as was the fact."But I love you, and therefore as man wooes woman I sue to you. Do younot understand that there can be between us no question of expediency?Katharine, in Chartres orchard there met a man and a maid we know of;now in Troyes they meet again--not as princess and king, but as man andmaid, the wooer and the wooed. Once I touched your heart, I think.And now in all the world there is one thing I covet--to gain for thepoor king some portion of that love you would have squandered on theharper." His hand closed upon hers.

  At his touch the girl's composure vanished. "My lord, you woo tootimidly for one who comes with many loud-voiced advocates. I amdaughter to the King of France, and next to my soul's salvation Iesteem France's welfare. Can I, then, fail to love the King ofEngland, who chooses the blood of my countrymen as a judicious garb tocome a-wooing in? How else, since you have ravaged my native land,since you have besmirched the name I bear, since yonder afield everywound in my dead and yet unburied Frenchmen is to me a mouth whichshrieks your infamy?"

  He rose. "And yet, for all that, you love me."

  She could not find words with which to answer him at the first effort,but presently she said, quite simply, "To see you lying in your coffinI would willingly give up my hope of heaven, for heaven can afford nosight more desirable."

  "You loved Alain."

  "I loved the husk of a man. You can never comprehend how utterly Iloved him."

  Now I have to record of this great king a piece of magnanimity whichbears the impress of more ancient times. "That you love me isindisputable," he said, "and this I propose to demonstrate. You willobserve that I am quite unarmed save for this dagger, which I now throwout of the window--" with the word it jangled in the courtyard below."I am in Troyes alone among some thousand Frenchmen, any one of whomwould willingly give his life for the privilege of taking mine. Youhave but to sound the gong beside you, and in a few moments I shall bea dead man. Strike, then! for with me dies the English power inFrance. Strike, Katharine! if you see in me but the King of England."

  She was rigid; and his heart leapt when he saw it was because of terror.

  "You came alone! You dared!"

  He answered, with a wonderful smile, "Proud spirit! how else might Iconquer you?"

  "You have not conquered!" Katharine lifted the baton beside the gong,poising it. God had granted her prayer--to save France. Now might thepast and the ignominy of the past be merged in Judith's nobler guilt.But I must tell you that in the supreme hour, Destiny at her beck, hermain desire was to slap the man for his childishness. Oh, he had noright thus to besot himself with adoration! This dejection at her feetof his high destiny awed her, and pricked her, too, with her inabilityto understand him. Angrily she flung away the baton. "Go! ah, go!"she cried, as one strangling. "There has been enough of bloodshed, andI must spare you, loathing you as I do, for I cannot with my own handmurder you."

  But the King was a kindly tyrant, crushing independence from hisassociates as lesser folk squeeze water from a sponge. "I cannot gothus. Acknowledge me to be Alain, the man you love, or else strikeupon the gong."

  "You are cruel!" she wailed, in her torture.

  "Yes, I am cruel."

  Katharine raised straining arms above her head in a hard gesture ofdespair. "You have conquered. You know that I love you. Oh, if Icould find words to voice my shame, to shriek it in your face, I couldbetter endure it! For I love you. Body and heart and soul I am yourslave. Mine is the agony, for I love you! and presently I shall standquite still and see little Frenchmen scramble about you as hounds leapabout a stag, and afterward kill you. And after that I shall live! Ipreserve France, but after I have slain you, Henry, I must live. Mineis the agony, the enduring agony." She stayed motionless for aninterval. "God, God! let me not fail!" Katharine breathed; and then:"O fair sweet friend, I am about to commit a vile action, but it is forthe sake of France that I love next to God. As Judith gave her body toHolofernes, I crucify my heart for France's welfare." Very calmly shestruck upon the gong.

  If she could have found any reproach in his eyes during the ensuingsilence, she could have borne it; but there was only love. And withall that, he smiled as one knowing the upshot of the matter.

  A man-at-arms came into the room. "Germain--" Katharine said, and thenagain, "Germain--" She gave a swallowing motion and was silent. Whenshe spoke it was with crisp distinctness. "Germain, fetch a harp.Messire Alain here is about to play for me."

  At the man's d
eparture she said: "I am very pitiably weak. Need youhave dragged my soul, too, in the dust? God heard my prayer, and youhave forced me to deny His favor, as Peter denied Christ. My dear, bevery kind to me, for I come to you naked of honor." She fell at theKing's feet, embracing his knees. "My master, be very kind to me, forthere remains only your love."

  He raised her to his breast. "Love is enough," he said.

  Next day the English entered Troyes and in the cathedral church thesetwo were betrothed. Henry was there magnificent in a curious suit ofburnished armor; in place of his helmet-plume he wore a fox-brushornamented with jewels, which unusual ornament afforded great matter ofremark among the busy bodies of both armies.

  THE END OF THE TENTH NOVEL

  The Epilogue

  "_Et je fais scavoir a tous lecteurs de ce Livret que les chases que je dis avoir vues et sues sont enregistres icy, afin que vous pouviez les regarder selon vostre ban sens, s'il vous plaist._"

  HERE IS APPENDED THE EPILOGUE THAT MESSIRE NICOLAS DE CAEN MADE FOR THE BOOK WHICH CONTAINED THE SOUL OF HIM; AND WHICH (IN CONSEQUENCE) HE MIGHT NOT VIEW AS HE DID ANYTHING THAT CONVEYED ABOUT THIS WORLD MERE FLESH AND BLOOD AND THE SOUL OF ANOTHER PERSON.

  The Epilogue

  _A son Livret_

  Intrepidly depart, my little book, into the presence of that mostillustrious lady who bade me compile you. Bow down before her judgmentpatiently. And if her sentence be that of death I counsel you togrieve not at what cannot be avoided.