Chivalry by James Branch Cabell
"I, Antoine Riczi--in the name of my worshipful lady, Dame Jehane, thedaughter of Messire Charles until lately King of Navarre, the Duchessof Brittany and the Countess of Rougemont--do take you, Sire Henry ofLancaster, King of England and in title of France, and Lord of Ireland,to be my husband; and thereto I, Antoine Riczi, in the spirit of mysaid lady"--he paused here to regard the gross hulk of masculinitybefore him, and then smiled very sadly--"in precisely the spirit of mysaid lady, I plight you my troth."
Afterward the King made him presents of some rich garments of scarlettrimmed with costly furs, and of four silk belts studded with silverand gold, and with valuable clasps, whereof the recipient might well beproud, and Riczi returned to Lyonnois. "Depardieux!" his uncle said;"so you return alone!"
"As Prince Troilus did," said Riczi--"to boast to you of liberalentertainment in the tent of Diomede."
"You are certainly an inveterate fool," the Vicomte considered after aprolonged appraisal of his face, "since there is always a deal of otherpink-and-white flesh as yet unmortgaged-- Boy with my brother's eyes!"the Vicomte said, and in another voice; "I would that I were God topunish as is fitting! Nay, come home, my lad!--come home!"
So these two abode together at Montbrison for a long time, and in thepurlieus of that place hunted and hawked, and made sonnets once in awhile, and read aloud from old romances some five days out of theseven. The verses of Riczi were in the year of grace 1410 made public,and not without acclamation; and thereafter the stripling Comte deCharolais, future heir to all Burgundy and a zealous patron of rhyme,was much at Montbrison, and there conceived for Antoine Riczi suchadmiration as was possible to a very young man only.
In the year of grace 1412 the Vicomte, being then bedridden, diedwithout any disease and of no malady save the inherencies of his age."I entreat of you, my nephew," he said at last, "that always you use astouchstone the brave deed you did at Eltham. It is necessary a manserve his lady according to her commandments, but you have performedthe most absurd and the cruelest task which any woman ever imposed uponher servitor. I laugh at you, and I envy you." Thus he died, aboutMartinmas.
Now was Antoine Riczi a powerful baron, and got no comfort of hislordship, since in his meditations the King of Darkness, that oldincendiary, had added a daily fuel until the ancient sorrow quickenedinto vaulting flames of wrath and of disgust.
"What now avail my riches?" said the Vicomte. "Nay, how much wealthierwas I when I was loved, and was myself an eager lover! I relish noother pleasures than those of love. Love's sot am I, drunk with adeadly wine, poor fool, and ever I thirst. As vapor are all mychattels and my acres, and the more my dominion and my power increase,the more rancorously does my heart sustain its misery, being robbed ofthat fair merchandise which is the King of England's. To hate her isscant comfort and to despise her none at all, since it follows that Iwho am unable to forget the wanton am even more to be despised thanshe. I will go into England and execute what mischief I may againsther."
The new Vicomte de Montbrison set forth for Paris, first to do homagefor his fief, and secondly to be accredited for some plausible missioninto England. But in Paris he got disquieting news. Jehane's husbandwas dead, and her stepson Henry, the fifth monarch of that name toreign in Britain, had invaded France to support preposterous claimswhich the man advanced to the very crown of that latter kingdom; and asthe earth is altered by the advent of winter was the appearance ofFrance transformed by his coming, and everywhere the nobles werestirred up to arms, the castles were closed, the huddled cities werefortified, and on either hand arose intrenchments.
Thus through this sudden turn was the new Vicomte, the dreamer and therecluse, caught up by the career of events, as a straw is by a torrent,when the French lords marched with their vassals to Harfleur, wherethey were soundly drubbed by the King of England; as afterward atAgincourt.
But in the year of grace 1417 there was a breathing space fordiscredited France, and presently the Vicomte de Montbrison was sentinto England, as ambassador. He got in London a fruitless audience ofKing Henry, whose demands were such as rendered a renewal of the warinevitable; and afterward, in the month of April, about the day of PalmSunday, and within her dower-palace of Havering-Bower, an interviewwith Queen Jehane.
_Nicolas omits, and unaccountably, to mention that during the Frenchwars she had ruled England as Regent, and with marvellouscapacity--although this fact, as you will see more lately, is the pivotof his chronicle._
A solitary page ushered the Vicomte whither she sat alone, byprearrangement, in a chamber with painted walls, profusely lighted bythe sun, and making pretence to weave a tapestry. When the page hadgone she rose and cast aside the shuttle, and then with a glad andwordless cry stumbled toward the Vicomte. "Madame and Queen--!" hecoldly said.
A frightened woman, half-distraught, aging now but rather handsome, hisjudgment saw in her, and no more; all black and shimmering gold hissenses found her, and supple like some dangerous and lovely serpent;and with a contained hatred he had discovered, as by the terseillumination of a thunderbolt, that he could never love any woman savethe woman whom he most despised.
She said: "I had forgotten. I had remembered only you, Antoine, andNavarre, and the clean-eyed Navarrese--" Now for a little, Jehanepaced the gleaming and sun-drenched apartment as a bright leopardessmight tread her cage. Then she wheeled. "Friend, I think that GodHimself has deigned to avenge you. All misery my reign has been.First Hotspur, then prim Worcester harried us. Came Glyndwyr afterwardto prick us with his devil's horns. Followed the dreary years thatlinked me to the rotting corpse God's leprosy devoured while the poorfurtive thing yet moved. All misery, Antoine! And now I live beneatha sword."
"You have earned no more," he said. "You have earned no more, OJehane! whose only title is the Constant Lover!" He spat it out.
She came uncertainly toward him, as though he had been some notimplacable knave with a bludgeon. "For the King hates me," sheplaintively said, "and I live beneath a sword. Ever the bigfierce-eyed man has hated me, for all his lip-courtesy. And now helacks the money to pay his troops, and I am the wealthiest personwithin his realm. I am a woman and alone in a foreign land. So I mustwait, and wait, and wait, Antoine, till he devise some trumped-upaccusation. Friend, I live as did Saint Damoclus, beneath a sword.Antoine!" she wailed--for now was the pride of Queen Jehane shatteredutterly--"within the island am I a prisoner for all that my chains areof gold."
"Yet it was not until o' late," he observed, "that you disliked themetal which is the substance of all crowns."
And now the woman lifted to him a huge golden collar garnished withemeralds and sapphires and with many pearls, and in the sunlight thegems were tawdry things. "Friend, the chain is heavy, and I lack thepower to cast it off. The Navarrese we know of wore no such perilousfetters about her neck. Ah, you should have mastered me at Vannes.You could have done so, and very easily. But you only talked--oh, Marypity us! you only talked!--and I could find only a servant where I hadsore need to find a master. Then pity me."
But now came many armed soldiers into the apartment. With spirit QueenJehane turned to meet them, and you saw that she was of royal blood,for the pride of ill-starred emperors blazed and informed her body aslight occupies a lantern. "At last you come for me, messieurs?"
"Whereas," their leader read in answer from a parchment--"whereas theKing's stepmother, Queen Jehane, is accused by certain persons of anact of witchcraft that with diabolical and subtile methods wroughtprivily to destroy the King, the said Dame Jehane is by the Kingcommitted (all her attendants being removed), to the custody of SirJohn Pelham, who will, at the King's pleasure, confine her withinPevensey Castle, there to be kept under Sir John's control: the landsand other properties of the said Dame Jehane being hereby forfeit tothe King, whom God preserve!"
"Harry of Monmouth!" said Jehane--"oh, Harry of Monmouth, could I butcome to you, very quietly, and with a knife--!" She shrugged hershoulders, and the gold about her person gl
"Young Riczi is avenged," the Vicomte said; "and I came hither desiringvengeance."
She wheeled, a lithe flame (he thought) of splendid fury. "And in thegutter Jehane dares say what Queen Jehane upon the throne might neversay. Had I reigned all these years as mistress not of England but ofEurope--had nations wheedled me in the place of barons--young Riczi hadbeen avenged, no less. Bah! what do these so-little persons matter?Take now your petty vengeance! drink deep of it! and know that alwayswithin my heart the Navarrese has lived to shame me! Know that to-dayyou despise Jehane, the purchased woman! and that Jehane loves you! andthat the love of proud Jehane creeps like a beaten cur toward yourfeet, and in the sight of common men! and know that Riczi isavenged,--you milliner!"
"'TAKE NOW YOUR PETTY VENGEANCE!'" _Painting byElisabeth Shippen Green_]
"Into England I came desiring vengeance--Apples of Sodom! O bitterfruit!" the Vicomte thought; "O fitting harvest of a fool's assiduoushusbandry!"
They took her from him: and that afternoon, after long meditation, theVicomte de Montbrison entreated a fresh and private audience of KingHenry, and readily obtained it. "Unhardy is unseely," the Vicomte saidat its conclusion. Then the tale tells that the Vicomte returned toFrance and within this realm assembled all such lords as the abuses ofthe Queen-Regent Isabeau had more notoriously dissatified.
The Vicomte had upon occasion an invaluable power of speech; and now,so great was the devotion of love's dupe, so heartily, so hastily, didhe design to remove the discomforts of Queen Jehane, that now hiseloquence was twin to Belial's.
Then presently these lords had sided with King Henry, as had theVicomte de Montbrison, in open field. Latterly Jehan Sans-Peur wasslain at Montereau; and a little later the new Duke of Burgundy, wholoved the Vicomte as he loved no other man, had shifted his coat.Afterward fell the poised scale of circumstance, and with an awefulclangor; and now in France clean-hearted persons spoke of the Vicomtede Montbrison as they would of Ganelon or of Iscariot, and in everymarket-place was King Henry proclaimed as governor of the realm.
Meantime was Queen Jehane conveyed to prison and lodged therein forfive years' space. She had the liberty of a tiny garden, high-walled,and of two scantily furnished chambers. The brace of hard-featuredfemales Pelham had provided for the Queen's attendance might speak toher of nothing that occurred without the gates of Pevensey, and she sawno other persons save her confessor, a triple-chinned Dominican; and infine, had they already lain Jehane within the massive and gilded coffinof a queen the outer world would have made as great a turbulence in herears.
But in the year of grace 1422, upon the feast of Saint Bartholomew, andabout vespers--for thus it wonderfully fell out--one of those grimattendants brought to her the first man, save the fat confessor, whomthe Queen had seen within five years. The proud, frail woman lookedand what she saw was the common inhabitant of all her dreams.
Said Jehane: "This is ill done. The years have avenged you. Becontented with that knowledge, and, for Heaven's sake, do not endeavorto moralize over the ruin Heaven has made, and justly made, of QueenJehane, as I perceive you mean to do." She leaned backward in thechair, very coarsely clad in brown, but knowing her countenance to bethat of the anemone which naughtily dances above wet earth.
"Friend," the lean-faced man now said, "I do not come with such intent,as my mission will readily attest, nor to any ruin, as your mirror willattest. Nay, madame, I come as the emissary of King Henry, now dyingat Vincennes, and with letters to the lords and bishops of his council.Dying, the man restores to you your liberty and your dower-lands, yourbed and all your movables, and six gowns of such fashion and such coloras you may elect."
Then with hurried speech he told her of five years' events: how withinthat period King Henry had conquered entire France, and had married theFrench King's daughter, and had begotten a boy who would presentlyinherit the united realms of France and England, since in the supremehour of triumph King Henry had been stricken with a mortal sickness,and now lay dying or perhaps already dead, at Vincennes; and how withhis penultimate breath the prostrate conqueror had restored to QueenJehane all properties and all honors which she formerly enjoyed.
"I shall once more be Regent," the woman said when he had made an end;"Antoine, I shall presently be Regent both of France and of England,since Dame Katharine is but a child." Jehane stood motionless save forthe fine hands that plucked the air. "Mistress of Europe! absolutemistress, and with an infant ward! now, may God have mercy on myunfriends, for they will soon perceive great need of it!"
"Yet was mercy ever the prerogative of royal persons," the Vicomtesuavely said, "and the Navarrese we know of was both royal and verymerciful, O Constant Lover."
The speech was as a whip-lash. Abruptly suspicion kindled in her eyes,as a flame leaps from stick to stick. "Harry of Monmouth fearedneither man nor God. It needed more than any death-bed repentance tofrighten him into restoral of my liberty." There was a silence. "You,a Frenchman, come as the emissary of King Henry who has devastatedFrance! are there no English lords, then, left alive of all his army?"
The Vicomte de Montbrison said: "There is perhaps no person betterfitted to patch up this dishonorable business of your captivity,wherein a clean man might scarcely dare to meddle."
She appraised this, and more lately said with entire irrelevance: "Theworld has smirched you, somehow. At last you have done something saveconsider your ill-treatment. I praise God, Antoine, for it brings younearer."
He told her all. King Henry, it appeared, had dealt with him atHavering in perfect frankness. The King needed money for his wars inFrance, and failing the seizure of Jehane's enormous wealth, hadexhausted every resource. "And France I mean to have," the King said."Yet the world knows you enjoy the favor of the Comte de Charolais; soget me an alliance with Burgundy against my imbecile brother of France,and Dame Jehane shall repossess her liberty. There you have my price."
"And this price I paid," the Vicomte sternly said, "for 'Unhardy isunseely,' Satan whispered, and I knew that Duke Philippe trusted me.Yea, all Burgundy I marshalled under your stepson's banner, and forthree years I fought beneath his loathed banner, until in Troyes we hadtrapped and slain the last loyal Frenchman. And to-day in France mylands are confiscate, and there is not an honest Frenchman but spitsupon my name. All infamy I come to you for this last time, Jehane! asa man already dead I come to you, Jehane, for in France they thirst tomurder me, and England has no further need of Montbrison, her bluntedand her filthy instrument!"
The woman shuddered. "You have set my thankless service above yourlife, above your honor even. I find the rhymester glorious and veryvile."
"All vile," he answered; "and outworn! King's daughter, I swore toyou, long since, eternal service. Of love I freely gave you yonder inNavarre, as yonder at Eltham I crucified my innermost heart for yourdelectation. Yet I, at least, keep faith, and in your face I flingfaith like a glove--outworn, it may be, and, God knows, unclean! YetI, at least, keep faith! Lands and wealth have I given up for you, Oking's daughter, and life itself have I given you, and lifelong servicehave I given you, and all that I had save honor; and at the last I giveyou honor, too. Now let the naked fool depart, Jehane, for he hasnothing more to give."
She had leaned, while thus he spoke, upon the sill of an open casement."Indeed, it had been far better," she said, and with averted face, "hadwe never met. For this love of ours has proven a tyrannous and evillord. I have had everything, and upon each feast of will and sense theworld afforded me this love has swept down, like a harpy--was it not aharpy you called the bird in that old poem of yours?--to rob me ofdelight. And you have had nothing, for of life he has pilfered you,and he has given you in exchange but dreams, my poor Antoine, and hehas led you at the last to infamy. We are as God made us, and--I maynot understand why He permits this despotism."
Thereafter, somewhere
Sang the peasant:
"_King Jesus hung upon the Cross, 'And have ye sinned?' quo' He,-- 'Nay, Dysmas, 'tis no honest loss When Satan cogs the dice ye toss, And thou shall sup with Me,-- Sedebis apud angelos, Quia amavisti!'_
"_At Heaven's Gate was Heaven's Queen, 'And have ye sinned?' quo' She,-- 'And would I hold him worth a bean That durst not seek, because unclean, My cleansing charity?-- Speak thou that wast the Magdalene, Quia amavisti!'_"
"It may be that in some sort the jingle answers me!" then said Jehane;and she began with an odd breathlessness: "Friend, when King Henrydies--and even now he dies--shall I not as Regent possess such power asno woman has ever wielded in Europe? can aught prevent this?"
"Naught," he answered.
"Unless, friend, I were wedded to a Frenchman. Then would the sternEnglish lords never permit that I have any finger in the government."She came to him with conspicuous deliberation and laid one delicatehand upon either shoulder. "Friend, I am aweary of these tinselsplendors. I crave the real kingdom."
Her mouth was tremulous and lax, and her gray eyes were more brilliantthan the star yonder. The man's arms were about her, and an ecstasytoo noble for any common mirth had mastered them, and a vast desirewhose aim they could not word, or even apprehend save cloudily.
And of the man's face I cannot tell you. "King's daughter! mistress ofhalf Europe! I am a beggar, an outcast, as a leper among honorablepersons."