The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-NayHewlett, Maurice
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The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay
Hewlett, Maurice
Richard I, King of England, 1157-1199 -- Fiction
'Madame,' said Philip, 'I am King of France, your brother and lord. He
is my vassal; owes fealty and breaks it, signs treaties and levies war;
hectors me and laughs, kills my servants and laughs. He is my cousin,
but I am his suzerain. I do not choose to be mocked. There will be no
rest for this kingdom while he is in it.' He stopped, then turned to the
shaking man. 'As for you, Count of Mortain, I must have an explanation.
My sister loves her enemies: it is a Christian virtue. I have not found
it one of yours. You, perhaps, fear your enemies, even caged. Is this
your thought? You have made yourself snug in Aquitaine, Count; you are
not unknown in Anjou, I think. Do you begin to wish that you might be?
Are you, by chance, a little oversnug? I candidly say that I prefer you
for my neighbour in those parts. I can deal with you. Do me the
obedience to speak.'
'Sire,' said the Count, spreading out his hands, 'Madame Alois has
turned me. I am a sinner, but I can restore. My brother is my lord, a
clement prince--'
'Pish!' said King Philip, and gave him his back.
'Madame, go to bed,' he said to his sister. 'I shall pay dear for it,
but I will not oppose my cousin's ransom. Be content with that.' Alois
slipped out. Then he turned upon John like a flash of flame.
'Now, Mortain,' he said, 'what proof is there of that old business of my
sister's?'
John showed him a scared eye--the milky eye of a drowned man. 'Ah, God,
sire, there is none at all--none--none!' He had no breath. Philip raised
his voice.
'Look to yourself; I shall not help you. Leave my lands, go where you
will, hide, bury your head, drown yourself. If I spoke what lies
bottomed in my heart I should kill you with mere words. But there is
worse for you in store. There will be war in France, if I know Richard;
but mark what I say, after that there shall be war in England.' The
thought of Richard overwhelmed him: he gave a queer little sigh. 'See,
now, how much love and what lives of women are spent for one tall man,
who gives nothing, and asks nothing, but waits, looking lordly, while
they give and give and give. Let Richard come, since women cry for
wounds. But you!' He flamed again. 'Get you to hell: you are all a liar.
Avoid me, lest I learn more of you.'
'Dear sire,' John began. Philip loathed him. 'Ah, get you gone, snake,
or I tread upon you,' he said; and the prince avoided. So much was
wrought by Alois of France.
* * * * *
No visitation of a dead woman could have shocked Queen Berengère more
suddenly than the apparition of a tall nun, when she saw it was Jehane.
She put her hand upon her heart.
'Ah,' she said, 'you trouble me again, Jehane? Am I never to rest from
you?'
jehane did not falter. 'Do I have any rest? The King is chained in
Styria; he must be redeemed. It is your turn. I saved his life for you
once by selling my own. Now I am the wife of an old man, with nothing
more to sell. Do you sell something.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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