France -- History -- 15th century -- Juvenile fiction
To go away at that moment, to leave the hated soil of France
forevermore, was now the ardent desire of the little princess, but even
royal ladies can not always do as they would like, and she was made to
realize that some days must elapse before it would be possible for her
to set out for her own country, where her father and her brother would
be waiting for her.
The chief delight of the princess at this time was in listening to the
songs of Burgundy as sung by the tuneful voice of Antoine. Anne of
Beaujeu entered her apartments one morning when the boy was singing his
Burgundian chansons. That cold and dignified lady was quite favorably
impressed by the singer's talent, and requested him to sing a well-known
French song.
"Madame," said the princess, "I shall be pleased to have my page sing
for you anything that you may fancy, but you will pardon me if I leave
the room while he sings of the glories of France!" And she walked out
with her head held high in the air.
Cunegunda was now utterly happy. Her migraine had been cured, thanks to
Saint Roch or to the change of air and scene necessitated by the
journey to his shrine, and she was going to return to her beloved
country.
"Ah, there is a land governed by a majestic ruler, a man who looks like
a sovereign," said she proudly. "But the kings of France, pouf! The old
king, who was alive when we came, looked like an old peasant, with his
claw-like hands and his awkward legs, and the present one, who in the
very bloom of his youth should be ruddy and handsome, has a large head
and is undersized and is not at all kingly in appearance."
"But let us think only of the real man shut inside of that
unprepossessing shell," said Le Glorieux, adding, "There is that clever
sentence again; I was afraid I had forgotten it."
"I do not see anything so very clever about it," retorted Dame
Cunegunda; "anybody could have thought it out."
"Anybody might think out things, my good Frau," he replied, "but it is
the knowing just when to say them that counts. But I have very bad news
for you, and instead of discussing my wonderful gift of always being
able to say the right thing at the right time, I really should be bathed
in tears."
"Has something dreadful happened to my father? Has news come from
Austria?" asked Marguerite, in alarm.
"By no means. Calm yourself, my little princess. The King of the Romans
may be at this moment climbing the cliffs to surprise the wary chamois,
or he may be defying some unlucky knight to mortal combat in the
tournament."
"Then it must have been decided that we are to remain in France," cried
Cunegunda. "Oh, unlucky was the day that we ever set foot in this unholy
land! I might have known that there was no such good luck for me as to
leave it!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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