Anne of Geierstein; Or, The Maiden of the Mist. Volume 2 (of 2)Scott, Walter
History
Anne of Geierstein; Or, The Maiden of the Mist. Volume 2 (of 2)
Scott, Walter
France -- History -- Louis XI, 1461-1483 -- Fiction
"Not a whit, not a whit; we bear no malice for what is done in fair
fight under shield. It is no more than if you had beat him in
wrestling or at quoits--only it is a game cannot be played over
again."
They now entered the town of Nancy. The windows were hung with
tapestry, and the streets crowded with tumultuous and rejoicing
multitudes, whom the success of the battle had relieved from great
alarm for the formidable vengeance of Charles of Burgundy.
The prisoners were received with the utmost kindness by the Landamman,
who assured them of his protection and friendship. He appeared to
support the death of his son Rudiger with stern resignation.
"He had rather," he said, "his son fell in battle, than that he should
live to despise the old simplicity of his country, and think the
object of combat was the gaining of spoil. The gold of the dead
Burgundy," he added, "would injure the morals of Switzerland more
irretrievably than ever his sword did their bodies."
He heard of his brother's death without surprise, but apparently with
emotion.
"It was the conclusion," he said, "of a long tissue of ambitious
enterprises, which often offered fair prospects, but uniformly ended
in disappointment."
The Landamman further intimated that his brother had apprised him that
he was engaged in an affair of so much danger that he was almost
certain to perish in it, and had bequeathed his daughter to her
uncle's care, with instructions respecting her.
Here they parted for the present, but shortly after, the Landamman
inquired earnestly of the Earl of Oxford what his motions were like to
be, and whether he could assist them.
"I think of choosing Bretagne for my place of refuge," answered the
Earl, "where my wife has dwelt since the battle of Tewkesbury expelled
us from England."
"Do not so," said the kind Landamman, "but come to Geierstein with the
countess, where, if she can, like you, endure our mountain manners and
mountain fare, you are welcome as to the house of a brother, to a soil
where neither conspiracy nor treason ever flourished. Bethink you, the
Duke of Bretagne is a weak prince, entirely governed by a wicked
favourite, Peter Landais. He is as capable--I mean the minister--of
selling brave men's blood, as a butcher of selling bullock's flesh;
and you know, there are those, both in France and Burgundy, that
thirst after yours."
The Earl of Oxford expressed his thanks for the proposal, and his
determination to profit by it, if approved of by Henry of Lancaster,
Earl of Richmond, whom he now regarded as his sovereign.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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