The Caged LionYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
History
The Caged Lion
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
James I, King of Scotland, 1394-1437 -- Fiction; Scotland -- History -- James I, 1406-1437 -- Fiction
Duke Philippe would not bear close inspection; the striking features and
full red lips, that had made so effective an appearance in the gay
procession seen from a distance, seemed harsh, haughty, and sensual near
at hand, and when brought into close contact with the strange bright
stern purity, now refined into hectic transparency, of King Henry's face,
the grand and melancholy majesty of the royal Stewart's, or even the
spare, keen, irregular visage of John of Bedford. And while his robes
were infinitely more costly than--and his ornaments tenfold
outnumbered--all that the three island princes wore, yet no critical eye
could take him for their superior, even though his tone in addressing an
inferior was elaborately affable and condescending, and theirs was always
the frankness of an equal. Where they gave the sense of pure gold, he
seemed like some ruder metal gilt and decorated; as if theirs were
reality, his the imitation; theirs the truth, his the display.
But in reality his birth was as princely as theirs; and no monarch in
Europe, not even Henry, equalled him in material resources; he was
idolized by the Parisians; and Henry was aware that France had been made
over to England more by his revenge for his father's murder at Montereau
than by the victory at Agincourt. Therefore the King endured his grand
talk about _our_ arms and _our_ intentions; and for Malcolm's sake, James
submitted to a sort of patronage, as if meant to imply that if Philippe
the Magnificent chose to espouse the cause of a captive king, his ransom
would be the merest trifle.
When Henry bade him to the Pentecostal banquet, 'when kings keep state,'
he graciously accepted the invitation for himself and his two sisters,
Marguerite, widow of the second short-lived Dauphin, and Anne, still
unmarried; but when Henry further explained his plan of feasting merely
with the orderly, and apportioning the food in real alms, the Duke by no
means approved.
'Feed those miserables!' he said. 'One gains nothing thereby! They make
no noise; whereas if you affront the others, who know how to cry out,
they will revile you like dogs!
'I will not be a slave to the rascaille,' said Henry.
'Ah, my fair lord, you, a victor, may dispense with these cares; but for
a poor little prince like me, it is better to reign in men's hearts than
on their necks.'
'In the hearts of honest men--on the necks of knaves,' said Henry.
Philippe shrugged his shoulders. He was wise in his own generation; for
he had all the audible voices in Paris on his side, while the cavils at
Henry's economy have descended to the present time.
'Do you see your rival, Sir?' said the voice of the Bishop of Therouenne
in Malcolm's ear, just as the Duke had begun to rise to take leave; and
he pointed out a knight of some thirty years, glittering with gay devices
from head to foot, and showing a bold proud visage, exaggerating the
harshness of the Burgundian lineaments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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