"Oh! that we have, amongst the best in the world," replied the Count; "though, to say sooth, when we gave you a number of our weavers, to teach you Englishmen that art, we borrowed from you in return much of our skill in working the precious metals. Many of our best goldsmiths, even now, are either Englishmen, or the descendants of those who first came over. I had one right dexterous artificer, who used to dwell with my household, and who is still my servant; but my mother's confessor suspected him of a leaning towards heresy, and exacted that he should be sent forth out of the castle. 'Twas but for a jest at our good father the Pope; but poor Brune made it worse by saying, when questioned, that as there are three Popes, all living, the confessor might place it on the shoulders of him he liked. Many a grave man, I have remarked, will bear anything rather than a jest; and father Claude, from that moment, would not be satisfied till Nicholas Brune was gone." "Poor fellow! And what became of him?" asked Richard of Woodville; "I have known some of his family in England." "Oh, he is in a shop at the corner of the market, close to the castle gate," replied the Prince, "and drives a thriving trade; so that he has gained by the exchange--I hope, both in pocket and in prudence. I have not heard any charge against him lately; and I do believe it was but a silly jest, which none but an Englishman would have ventured." Richard of Woodville smiled, but made no reply; and in a few minutes after, they reached the gates of the palace, from which he followed the Count of Charolois straight to the presence of Margaret of Bavaria, Duchess of Burgundy, whom they found in an inner chamber, surrounded by a small party of young dames and elderly knights, devising, as the term was in those days, upon some motto which had been laid before them. Amongst faint traces of what had once been great beauty, the countenance of the Princess displayed deep lines of thought and anxiety. She smiled kindly upon the young stranger, and seemed to him to examine his face with more attention than was ordinary, or, perhaps, altogether pleasant. She made no remark, however, but spoke of the Court of England with better information than her son had displayed, and, somewhat to the surprise of the young Englishman, evinced some knowledge of his own family and history; for, although the Court of Burgundy at this time held the place which that of the Count of Foix had formerly filled, and was the centre of all the news, and, we may say, of all the gossip in Europe--though its heralds and its minstrels made it their business, day and night, to collect all the tales, anecdotes, and rumours of every eminent person throughout the chivalrous world, Richard of Woodville was not aware of ever having done anything to merit such sort of notice.