"So please your Grace," answered Contay, "I left the English gentleman's son with Monsieur de Colvin." "What! thine own son, Oxford? And with thee here? Why did you not tell me of him? Is he a true scion of the ancient tree?" "It is my pride to believe so, my lord. He has been the faithful companion of all my dangers and wanderings." "Happy man!" said the Duke, with a sigh. "You, Oxford, have a son to share your poverty and distress--I have none to be partner and successor to my greatness." "You have a daughter, my lord," said the noble De Vere, "and it is to be hoped she will one day wed some powerful prince, who may be the stay of your Highness's house." "Never! By St. George, never!" answered the Duke, sharply and shortly. "I will have no son-in-law, who may make the daughter's bed a stepping-stone to reach the father's crown. Oxford, I have spoken more freely than I am wont, perhaps more freely than I ought--but I hold some men trustworthy, and believe you, Sir John de Vere, to be one of them." The English nobleman bowed, and was about to leave his presence, but the Duke presently recalled him. "There is one thing more, Oxford.--The cession of Provence is not quite enough. René and Margaret must disavow this hot-brained Ferrand de Vaudemont, who is making some foolish stir in Lorraine, in right of his mother Yolande." "My lord," said Oxford, "Ferrand is the grandson of King René, the nephew of Queen Margaret; but yet"---- "But yet, by St. George, his rights, as he calls them, on Lorraine must positively be disowned. You talk of their family feelings, while you are urging me to make war on my own brother-in-law!" "René's best apology for deserting his grandson," answered Oxford, "will be his total inability to support and assist him. I will communicate your Grace's condition, though it is a hard one." So saying, he left the pavilion. CHAPTER VIII. I humbly thank your Highness, And am right glad to catch this good occasion Most thoroughly to be winnow'd, where my chaff And corn shall fly asunder. _King Henry VIII._ Colvin, the English officer, to whom the Duke of Burgundy, with splendid pay and appointments, committed the charge of his artillery, was owner of the tent assigned for the Englishman's lodging, and received the Earl of Oxford with the respect due to his rank, and to the Duke's especial orders upon that subject. He had been himself a follower of the Lancaster faction, and of course was well disposed towards one of the very few men of distinction whom he had known personally, and who had constantly adhered to that family through the train of misfortunes by which they seemed to be totally overwhelmed. A repast, of which his son had already partaken, was offered to the Earl by Colvin, who omitted not to recommend, by precept and example, the good wine of Burgundy, from which the sovereign of the province was himself obliged to refrain.