“selh que m blasma vostr’ amor ni m defen
non podon far en re mon cor mellor,
ni’l dous dezir qu’ieu ai de vos major,
ni l’enveya’ ni’l dezir, ni’l talen.”
the fifth novel.—philippa of hainault dares to love unthriftily, and with the prodigality of her affection shames treachery, and common-sense, and high romance, quite stolidly; but, as loving goes, is overtopped by her more stolid squire.
the story of the housewife
in the year of grace 1326, upon walburga’s eve, some three hours after sunset (thus nicolas begins), had you visited a certain garden on the outskirts of valenciennes, you might there have stumbled upon a big, handsome boy, prone on the turf, where by turns he groaned and vented himself in sullen curses. his profanity had its palliation. heir to england though he was, you must know that this boy’s father in the flesh had hounded him from england, as more recently had the lad’s uncle charles the handsome driven him from france. now had this boy and his mother (the same queen ysabeau about whom i have told you in the preceding tale) come as suppliants to the court of that stalwart nobleman sire william (count of hainault, holland, and zealand, and lord of friesland), where their arrival had evoked the suggestion that they depart at their earliest convenience. to-morrow, then, these footsore royalties, the queen of england and the prince of wales, would be thrust out-of-doors to resume the weary beggarship, to knock again upon the obdurate gates of this unsympathizing king or that deaf emperor.
accordingly the boy aspersed his destiny. at hand a nightingale carolled as though an exiled prince were the blithest spectacle the moon knew.
there came through the garden a tall girl, running, stumbling in her haste. “hail, king of england!” she said.
“do not mock me, philippa!” the boy half-sobbed. sulkily he rose to his feet.
“no mockery here, my fair sweet friend. no, i have told my father all which happened yesterday. i pleaded for you. he questioned me very closely. and when i had ended, he stroked his beard, and presently struck one hand upon the table. ‘out of the mouth of babes!’ he said. then he said: ‘my dear, i believe for certain that this lady and her son have been driven from their kingdom wrongfully. if it be for the good of god to comfort the afflicted, how much more is it commendable to help and succor one who is the daughter of a king, descended from royal lineage, and to whose blood we ourselves are related!’ and accordingly he and your mother have their heads together yonder, planning an invasion of england, no less, and the dethronement of your wicked father, my edward. and accordingly—hail, king of england!” the girl clapped her hands gleefully. the nightingale sang.
but the boy kept momentary silence. not even in youth were the men of his race handicapped by excessively tender hearts; yesterday in the shrubbery the boy had kissed this daughter of count william, in part because she was a healthy and handsome person, and partly because great benefit might come of an alliance with her father. well! the prince had found chance-taking not unfortunate. with the episode as foundation, count william had already builded up the future queenship of england. the strong count could do—and, as it seemed, was now in train to do—indomitable deeds to serve his son-in-law; and now the beggar of five minutes since foresaw himself, with this girl’s love as ladder, mounting to the high habitations of the king of england, the lord of ireland, and the duke of aquitaine. thus they would herald him.
so he embraced the girl. “hail, queen of england!” said the prince; and then, “if i forget—” his voice broke awkwardly. “my dear, if ever i forget—!” their lips met now. the nightingale discoursed as if on a wager.
presently was mingled with the bird’s descant another kind of singing. beyond the yew-hedge as these two stood silent, breast to breast, passed young jehan kuypelant, one of the pages, fitting to the accompaniment of a lute his paraphrase of the song which archilochus of sicyon very anciently made in honor of venus melaenis, the tender venus of the dark.
at a gap in the hedge the young brabanter paused. his singing ended, gulped. these two, who stood heart hammering against heart, saw for an instant jehan kuypelant’s lean face silvered by the moonlight, his mouth a tiny abyss. followed the beat of lessening footfalls, while the nightingale improvised an envoi.
but earlier jehan kuypelant also had sung, as though in rivalry with the bird.
sang jehan kuypelant:
“hearken and heed, melaenis!
for all that the litany ceased
when time had pilfered the victim,
and flouted thy pale-lipped priest,
and set astir in the temple
where burned the fires of thy shrine
the owls and wolves of the desert—
yet hearken, (the issue is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!
“for i have followed, nor faltered—
adrift in a land of dreams
where laughter and pity and terror
commingle as confluent streams,
i have seen and adored the sidonian,
implacable, fair and divine—
and bending low, have implored thee
to hearken, (the issue is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!”
it is time, however, that we quit this subject and speak of other matters. just twenty years later, on one august day in the year of grace 1346, master john copeland—as men now called jehan kuypelant, now secretary to the queen of england,—brought his mistress the unhandsome tidings that david bruce had invaded her realm with forty thousand scots to back him. the brabanter found plump queen philippa with the kingdom’s arbitress—dame catherine de salisbury, whom king edward, third of that name to reign in britain, and now warring in france, very notoriously adored and obeyed.
this king, indeed, had been despatched into france chiefly, they narrate, to release the countess’ husband, william de montacute, from the french prison of the châtelet. you may appraise her dominion by this fact: chaste and shrewd, she had denied all to king edward, and in consequence he could deny her nothing; so she sent him to fetch back her husband, whom she almost loved. that armament had sailed from southampton on saint george’s day.
these two women, then, shared the brabanter’s execrable news. already northumberland, westmoreland, and durham were the broken meats of king david.
the countess presently exclaimed: “let them weep for this that must! my place is not here.”
philippa said, half hopefully, “do you forsake sire edward, catherine?”
“madame and queen,” the countess answered, “in this world every man must scratch his own back. my lord has entrusted to me his castle of wark, his fiefs in northumberland. these, i hear, are being laid waste. were there a thousand men-at-arms left in england i would say fight. as it is, our men are yonder in france and the island is defenceless. accordingly i ride for the north to make what terms i may with the king of scots.”
now you might have seen the queen’s eye brighten. “undoubtedly,” said she, “in her lord’s absence it is the wife’s part to defend his belongings. and my lord’s fief is england. i bid you god-speed, catherine.” and when the countess was gone, philippa turned, her round face somewhat dazed and flushed. “she betrays him! she compounds with the scot! mother of christ, let me not fail!”
“a ship must be despatched to bid sire edward return,” said the secretary. “otherwise all england is lost.”
“not so, john copeland! we must let sire edward complete his overrunning of france, if such be the trinity’s will. you know perfectly well that he has always had a fancy to conquer france; and if i bade him return now he would be vexed.”
“the disappointment of the king,” john copeland considered, “is a smaller evil than allowing all of us to be butchered.”
“not to me, john copeland,” the queen said.
now came many lords into the chamber, seeking madame philippa. “we must make peace with the scottish rascal!—england is lost!—a ship must be sent entreating succor of sire edward!” so they shouted.
“messieurs,” said queen philippa, “who commands here? am i, then, some woman of the town?”
ensued a sudden silence. john copeland, standing by the seaward window, had picked up a lute and was fingering the instrument half-idly. now the marquess of hastings stepped from the throng. “pardon, highness. but the occasion is urgent.”
“the occasion is very urgent, my lord,” the queen assented, deep in meditation.
john copeland flung back his head and without prelude began to carol lustily.
sang john copeland:
“there are taller lads than atys,
and many are wiser than he,—
how should i heed them?—whose fate is
ever to serve and to be
ever the lover of atys,
and die that atys may dine,
live if he need me—then heed me,
and speed me, (the moment is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!
“fair is the form unbeholden,
and golden the glory of thee
whose voice is the voice of a vision
whose face is the foam of the sea,
and the fall of whose feet is the flutter
of breezes in birches and pine,
when thou drawest near me, to hear me,
and cheer me, (the moment is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!”
i must tell you that the queen shivered, as if with extreme cold. she gazed toward john copeland wonderingly. the secretary was fretting at his lutestrings, with his head downcast. then in a while the queen turned to hastings.
“the occasion is very urgent, my lord,” the queen assented. “therefore it is my will that to-morrow one and all your men be mustered at blackheath. we will take the field without delay against the king of scots.”
the riot began anew. “madness!” they shouted; “lunar madness! we can do nothing until our king returns with our army!”
“in his absence,” the queen said, “i command here.”
“you are not regent,” the marquess answered. then he cried, “this is the regent’s affair!”
“let the regent be fetched,” dame philippa said, very quietly. they brought in her son, messire lionel, now a boy of eight years, and, in the king’s absence, regent of england.
both the queen and the marquess held papers. “highness,” lord hastings began, “for reasons of state which i lack time to explain, this document requires your signature. it is an order that a ship be despatched to ask the king’s return. your highness may remember the pony you admired yesterday?” the marquess smiled ingratiatingly. “just here, your highness—a crossmark.”
“the dappled one?” said the regent; “and all for making a little mark?” the boy jumped for the pen.
“lionel,” said the queen, “you are regent of england, but you are also my son. if you sign that paper you will beyond doubt get the pony, but you will not, i think, care to ride him. you will not care to sit down at all, lionel.”
the regent considered. “thank you very much, my lord,” he said in the ultimate, “but i do not like ponies any more. do i sign here, mother?”
philippa handed the marquess a subscribed order to muster the english forces at blackheath; then another, closing the english ports. “my lords,” the queen said, “this boy is the king’s vicar. in defying him, you defy the king. yes, lionel, you have fairly earned a pot of jam for supper.”
then hastings went away without speaking. that night assembled at his lodgings, by appointment, viscount heringaud, adam frere, the marquess of orme, lord stourton, the earls of neville and gage, and sir thomas rokeby. these seven found a long table there littered with pens and parchment; to the rear of it, with a lackey behind him, sat the marquess of hastings, meditative over a cup of bordeaux.
presently hastings said: “my friends, in creating our womankind the maker of us all was beyond doubt actuated by laudable and cogent reasons; so that i can merely lament my inability to fathom these reasons. i shall obey the queen faithfully, since if i did otherwise sire edward would have my head off within a day of his return. in consequence, i do not consider it convenient to oppose his vicar. to-morrow i shall assemble the tatters of troops which remain to us, and to-morrow we march northward to inevitable defeat. to-night i am sending a courier into northumberland. he is an obliging person, and would convey—to cite an instance—eight letters quite as blithely as one.”
each man glanced furtively about. england was in a panic by this, and knew itself to lie before the bruce defenceless. the all-powerful countess of salisbury had compounded with king david; now hastings, too, their generalissimo, compounded. what the devil! loyalty was a sonorous word, and so was patriotism, but, after all, one had estates in the north.
the seven wrote in silence. i must tell you that when they had ended, hastings gathered the letters into a heap, and without glancing at the superscriptures, handed all these letters to the attendant lackey. “for the courier,” he said.
the fellow left the apartment. presently you heard a departing clatter of hoofs, and hastings rose. he was a gaunt, terrible old man, gray-bearded, and having high eyebrows that twitched and jerked.
“we have saved our precious skins,” said he. “hey, you fidgeters, you ferments of sour offal! i commend your common-sense, messieurs, and i request you to withdraw. even a damned rogue such as i has need of a cleaner atmosphere in order to breathe comfortably.” the seven went away without further speech.
they narrate that next day the troops marched for durham, where the queen took up her quarters. the bruce had pillaged and burned his way to a place called beaurepair, within three miles of the city. he sent word to the queen that if her men were willing to come forth from the town he would abide and give them battle.
she replied that she accepted his offer, and that the barons would gladly risk their lives for the realm of their lord the king. the bruce grinned and kept silence, since he had in his pocket letters from most of them protesting they would do nothing of the sort.
here is comedy. on one side you have a horde of half-naked savages, a shrewd master holding them in leash till the moment be auspicious; on the other, a housewife at the head of a tiny force lieutenanted by perjurers, by men already purchased. god knows what dreams she had of miraculous victories, while her barons trafficked in secret with the bruce. it is recorded that, on the saturday before michaelmas, when the opposing armies marshalled in the bishop’s park, at auckland, not a captain on either side believed the day to be pregnant with battle. there would be a decent counterfeit of resistance; afterward the little english army would vanish pell-mell, and the bruce would be master of the island. the farce was prearranged, the actors therein were letter-perfect.
that morning at daybreak john copeland came to the queen’s tent, and informed her quite explicitly how matters stood. he had been drinking overnight with adam frere and the earl of gage, and after the third bottle had found them candid. “madame and queen, we are betrayed. the marquess of hastings, our commander, is inexplicably smitten with a fever. he will not fight to-day. not one of your lords will fight to-day.” master copeland laid bare such part of the scheme as yesterday’s conviviality had made familiar. “therefore i counsel retreat. let the king be summoned out of france.”
queen philippa shook her head, as she cut up squares of toast and dipped them in milk for the regent’s breakfast. “sire edward would be vexed. he has always wanted to conquer france. i shall visit the marquess as soon as lionel is fed,—do you know, john copeland, i am anxious about lionel; he is irritable and coughed five times during the night,—and then i will attend to this affair.”
she found the marquess in bed, groaning, the coverlet pulled up to his chin. “pardon, highness,” said lord hastings, “but i am an ill man. i cannot rise from this couch.”
“i do not question the gravity of your disorder,” the queen retorted, “since it is well known that the same illness brought about the death of iscariot. nevertheless, i bid you get up and lead our troops against the scot.”
now the hand of the marquess veiled his countenance. “i am an ill man,” he muttered, doggedly. “i cannot rise from this couch.”
there was a silence.
“my lord,” the queen presently began, “without is an army prepared—yes, and quite able—to defend our england. the one requirement of this army is a leader. afford them that, my lord—ah, i know that our peers are sold to the bruce, yet our yeomen at least are honest. give them, then, a leader, and they cannot but conquer, since god also is honest and incorruptible. pardieu! a woman might lead these men, and lead them to victory!”
hastings answered: “i am ill. i cannot rise from this couch.”
“there is no man left in england,” said the queen, “since sire edward went into france. praise god, i am his wife!” she went away without flurry.
through the tent-flap hastings beheld all that which followed. the english force was marshalled in four divisions, each commanded by a bishop and a baron. you could see the men fidgeting, puzzled by the delay; as a wind goes about a corn-field, vague rumors were going about those wavering spears. toward them rode philippa, upon a white palfrey, alone and perfectly tranquil. her eight lieutenants were now gathered about her in voluble protestation, and she heard them out. afterward she spoke, without any particular violence, as one might order a strange cur from his room. then the queen rode on, as though these eight declaiming persons had ceased to be of interest. she reined up before her standard-bearer, and took the standard in her hand. she began again to speak, and immediately the army was in an uproar; the barons were clustering behind her, in stealthy groups of two or three whisperers each; all were in the greatest amazement and knew not what to do; but the army was shouting the queen’s name.
“now is england shamed,” said hastings, “since a woman alone dares to encounter the scot. she will lead them into battle—and by god! there is no braver person under heaven than yonder dutch frau! friend david, i perceive that your venture is lost, for those men would follow her to storm hell if she desired it.”
he meditated, and shrugged. “and so would i,” said hastings.
a little afterward a gaunt and haggard old man, bareheaded and very hastily dressed, reined his horse by the queen’s side. “madame and queen,” said hastings, “i rejoice that my recent illness is departed. i shall, by god’s grace, on this day drive the bruce from england.”
philippa was not given to verbiage. doubtless she had her emotions, but none was visible upon the honest face. she rested one plump hand upon the big-veined hand of hastings. that was all. “i welcome back the gallant gentleman of yesterday. i was about to lead your army, my friend, since there was no one else to do it, but i was hideously afraid. at bottom every woman is a coward.”
“you were afraid to do it,” said the marquess, “but you were going to do it, because there was no one else to do it! ho, madame! had i an army of such cowards i would drive the scot not past the border but beyond the orkneys.”
the queen then said, “but you are unarmed.”
“highness,” he replied, “it is surely apparent that i, who have played the traitor to two monarchs within the same day, cannot with either decency or comfort survive that day.” he turned upon the lords and bishops twittering about his horse’s tail. “you merchandise, get back to your stations, and if there was ever an honest woman in any of your families, the which i doubt, contrive to get yourselves killed this day, as i mean to do, in the cause of the honestest and bravest woman our time has known.” immediately the english forces marched toward merrington.
philippa returned to her pavilion and inquired for john copeland. she was informed that he had ridden off, armed, in company with five of her immediate retainers. she considered this strange, but made no comment.
you picture her, perhaps, as spending the morning in prayer, in beatings upon her breast, and in lamentations. philippa did nothing of the sort. she considered her cause to be so clamantly just that to expatiate to the holy father upon its merits would be an impertinence; it was not conceivable that he would fail her; and in any event, she had in hand a deal of sewing which required immediate attention. accordingly she settled down to her needlework, while the regent of england leaned his head against her knee, and his mother told him that ageless tale of lord huon, who in a wood near babylon encountered the king of faëry, and subsequently bereaved an atrocious emir of his beard and daughter. all this the industrious woman narrated in a low and pleasant voice, while the wide-eyed regent attended and at the proper intervals gulped his cough-mixture.
you must know that about noon master john copeland came into the tent. “we have conquered,” he said. “now, by the face!”—thus, scoffingly, he used her husband’s favorite oath,—“now, by the face! there was never a victory more complete! the scottish army is fled, it is as utterly dispersed from man’s seeing as are the sands which dried the letters king ahasuerus gave the admirable esther!”
“i rejoice,” the queen said, looking up from her sewing, “that we have conquered, though in nature i expected nothing else—oh, horrible!” she sprang to her feet with a cry of anguish. here in little you have the entire woman; the victory of her armament was to her a thing of course, since her cause was just, whereas the loss of two front teeth by john copeland was a calamity.
he drew her toward the tent-flap, which he opened. without was a mounted knight, in full panoply, his arms bound behind him, surrounded by the queen’s five retainers. “in the rout i took him,” said john copeland; “though, as my mouth witnesses, i did not find this david bruce a tractable prisoner.”
“is that, then, the king of scots?” philippa demanded, as she mixed salt and water for a mouthwash. “sire edward should be pleased, i think. will he not love me a little now, john copeland?”
john copeland lifted both plump hands toward his lips. “he could not choose,” john copeland said; “madame, he could no more choose but love you than i could choose.”
philippa sighed. afterward she bade john copeland rinse his gums and then take his prisoner to hastings. he told her the marquess was dead, slain by the knight of liddesdale. “that is a pity,” the queen said. she reflected a while, reached her decision. “there is left alive in england but one man to whom i dare entrust the keeping of the king of scots. my barons are sold to him; if i retain messire david by me, one or another lord will engineer his escape within the week, and sire edward will be vexed. yet listen, john—” she unfolded her plan.
“i have long known,” he said, when she had done, “that in all the world there was no lady more lovable. twenty years i have loved you, my queen, and yet it is only to-day i perceive that in all the world there is no lady more wise than you.”
philippa touched his cheek, maternally. “foolish boy! you tell me the king of scots has an arrow-wound in his nose? i think a bread poultice would be best.” she told him how to make this poultice, and gave other instructions. then john copeland left the tent and presently rode away with his company.
philippa saw that the regent had his dinner, and afterward mounted her white palfrey and set out for the battle-field. there the earl of neville, as second in command, received her with great courtesy. god had shown to her majesty’s servants most singular favor: despite the calculations of reasonable men,—to which, she might remember, he had that morning taken the liberty to assent,—some fifteen thousand scots were slain. true, her gallant general was no longer extant, though this was scarcely astounding when one considered the fact that he had voluntarily entered the mêlée quite unarmed. a touch of age, perhaps; hastings was always an eccentric man: in any event, as epilogue, this neville congratulated the queen that—by blind luck, he was forced to concede,—her worthy secretary had made a prisoner of the scottish king. doubtless, master copeland was an estimable scribe, and yet—ah, yes, lord neville quite followed her majesty—beyond doubt, the wardage of a king was an honor not lightly to be conferred. oh, yes, he understood; her majesty desired that the office should be given some person of rank. and pardie! her majesty was in the right. eh? said the earl of neville.
intently gazing into the man’s shallow eyes, philippa assented. master copeland had acted unwarrantably in riding off with his captive. let him be sought at once. she dictated to neville’s secretary a letter, which informed john copeland that he had done what was not agreeable in purloining her prisoner. let him without delay deliver the king to her good friend the earl of neville.
to neville this was satisfactory, since he intended that once in his possession david bruce should escape forthwith. the letter, i repeat, suited this smirking gentleman in its tiniest syllable, and the single difficulty was to convey it to john copeland, for as to his whereabouts neither neville nor any one else had the least notion.
this was immaterial, however, for they narrate that next day a letter signed with john copeland’s name was found pinned to the front of neville’s tent. i cite a passage therefrom: “i will not give up my royal prisoner to a woman or a child, but only to my own lord, sire edward, for to him i have sworn allegiance, and not to any woman. yet you may tell the queen she may depend on my taking excellent care of king david. i have poulticed his nose, as she directed.”
here was a nonplus, not without its comical side. two great realms had met in battle, and the king of one of them had vanished like a soap-bubble. philippa was in a rage,—you could see that both by her demeanor and by the indignant letters she dictated; true, none of these letters could be delivered, since they were all addressed to john copeland. meanwhile, scotland was in despair, whereas the traitor english barons were in a frenzy, because they did not know what had become of their fatal letters to the bruce, or of him either. the circumstances were unique, and they remained unchanged for three feverish weeks.
we will now return to affairs in france, where on the day of the nativity, as night gathered about calais, john copeland came unheralded to the quarters of king edward, then besieging that city. master copeland entreated audience, and got it readily enough, since there was no man alive whom sire edward more cordially desired to lay his fingers upon.
a page brought master copeland to the king, that stupendous, blond and incredibly big person. with sire edward were that careful italian, almerigo di pavia, who afterward betrayed sire edward, and a lean soldier whom master copeland recognized as john chandos. these three were drawing up an account of the recent victory at créçi, to be forwarded to all mayors and sheriffs in england, with a cogent postscript as to the king’s incidental and immediate need of money.
now king edward sat leaning far back in his chair, a hand on either hip, and with his eyes narrowing as he regarded master copeland. had the brabanter flinched, the king would probably have hanged him within the next ten minutes; finding his gaze unwavering, the king was pleased. here was a novelty; most people blinked quite honestly under the scrutiny of those fierce big eyes, which were blue and cold and of an astounding lustre. the lid of the left eye drooped a little: this was count manuel’s legacy, they whispered.
the king rose with a jerk and took john copeland’s hand. “ha!” he grunted, “i welcome the squire who by his valor has captured the king of scots. and now, my man, what have you done with davie?”
john copeland answered: “highness, you may find him at your convenience safely locked in bamborough castle. meanwhile, i entreat you, sire, do not take it amiss if i did not surrender king david to the orders of my lady queen, for i hold my lands of you, and not of her, and my oath is to you, and not to her, unless indeed by choice.”
“john,” the king sternly replied, “the loyal service you have done us is considerable, whereas your excuse for kidnapping davie is a farce. hey, almerigo, do you and chandos avoid the chamber! i have something in private with this fellow.” when they had gone, the king sat down and composedly said, “now tell me the truth, john copeland.”
“sire,” copeland began, “it is necessary you first understand i bear a letter from madame philippa—”
“then read it,” said the king. “heart of god! have i an eternity to waste on you slow-dealing brabanters!”
john copeland read aloud, while the king trifled with a pen, half negligent, and in part attendant.
read john copeland:
“my dear lord,—recommend me to your lordship with soul and body and all my poor might, and with all this i thank you, as my dear lord, dearest and best beloved of all earthly lords i protest to me, and thank you, my dear lord, with all this as i say before. your comfortable letter came to me on saint gregory’s day, and i was never so glad as when i heard by your letter that ye were strong enough in ponthieu by the grace of god for to keep you from your enemies. among them i estimate madame catherine de salisbury, who would have betrayed you to the scot. and, dear lord, if it be pleasing to your high lordship that as soon as ye may that i might hear of your gracious speed, which may god almighty continue and increase, i shall be glad, and also if ye do continue each night to chafe your feet with a rag of woollen stuff, as your physician directed. and, my dear lord, if it like you for to know of my fare, john copeland will acquaint you concerning the bruce his capture, and the syrup he brings for our son lord edward’s cough, and the great malice-workers in these shires which would have so despitefully wrought to you, and of the manner of taking it after each meal. i am lately informed that madame catherine is now at stirling with robert stewart and has lost all her good looks through a fever. god is invariably gracious to his servants. farewell, my dear lord, and may the holy trinity keep you from your adversaries and ever send me comfortable tidings of you. written at york, in the castle, on saint gregory’s day last past, by your own poor
“philippa.
“to my true lord.”
“h’m!” said the king; “and now give me the entire story.”
john copeland obeyed. i must tell you that early in the narrative king edward arose and strode toward a window. “catherine!” he said. he remained motionless while master copeland went on without any manifest emotion. when he had ended, king edward said, “and where is madame de salisbury now?”
at this the brabanter went mad. as a leopard springs he leaped upon the king, and grasping him by each shoulder, shook that monarch as one punishing a child.
“now by the splendor of god—!” king edward began, very terrible in his wrath. he saw that john copeland held a dagger to his breast, and he shrugged. “well, my man, you perceive i am defenceless.”
“first you will hear me out,” john copeland said.
“it would appear,” the king retorted, “that i have little choice.”
at this time john copeland began: “sire, you are the mightiest monarch your race has known. england is yours, france is yours, conquered scotland lies prostrate at your feet. to-day there is no other man in all the world who possesses a tithe of your glory; yet twenty years ago madame philippa first beheld you and loved you, an outcast, an exiled, empty-pocketed prince. twenty years ago the love of madame philippa, great count william’s daughter, got for you the armament with which england was regained. twenty years ago but for madame philippa you had died naked in some ditch.”
“go on,” the king said presently.
“afterward you took a fancy to reign in france. you learned then that we brabanters are a frugal people: madame philippa was wealthy when she married you, and twenty years had quadrupled her private fortune. she gave you every penny of it that you might fit out this expedition; now her very crown is in pawn at ghent. in fine, the love of madame philippa gave you france as lightly as one might bestow a toy upon a child who whined for it.”
the king fiercely said, “go on.”
“eh, sire, i intend to. you left england undefended that you might posture a little in the eyes of europe. and meanwhile a woman preserves england, a woman gives you scotland as a gift, and in return asks nothing—god have mercy on us!—save that you nightly chafe your feet with a bit of woollen. you hear of it—and inquire, ‘where is madame de salisbury?’ here beyond doubt is the cock of aesop’s fable,” snarled john copeland, “who unearthed a gem and grumbled that his diamond was not a grain of corn.”
“you shall be hanged at dawn,” the king replied. “meanwhile spit out your venom.”
“i say to you, then,” john copeland continued, “that to-day you are master of europe. i say to you that, but for this woman whom for twenty years you have neglected, you would to-day be mouldering in some pauper’s grave. eh, without question, you most magnanimously loved that shrew of salisbury! because you fancied the color of her eyes, sire edward, and admired the angle between her nose and her forehead. minstrels unborn will sing of this great love of yours. meantime i say to you”—now the man’s rage was monstrous—“i say to you, go home to your too-tedious wife, the source of all your glory! sit at her feet! and let her teach you what love is!” he flung away the dagger. “there you have the truth. now summon your attendants, my très beau sire, and have me hanged.”
the king made no movement. “you have been bold—” he said at last.
“but you have been far bolder, sire. for twenty years you have dared to flout that love which is god’s noblest heritage to his children.”
king edward sat in meditation for a long while. the squinting of his left eye was now very noticeable. “i consider my wife’s clerk,” he drily said, “to discourse of love in somewhat too much the tone of a lover.” and a flush was his reward.
but when this copeland spoke he was like one transfigured. his voice was grave and very tender, and he said:
“as the fish have their life in the waters, so i have and always shall have mine in love. love made me choose and dare to emulate a lady, long ago, through whom i live contented, without expecting any other good. her purity is so inestimable that i cannot say whether i derive more pride or sorrow from its preeminence. she does not love me, and she will never love me. she would condemn me to be hewed in fragments sooner than permit her husband’s finger to be injured. yet she surpasses all others so utterly that i would rather hunger in her presence than enjoy from another all which a lover can devise.”
sire edward stroked the table through this while, with an inverted pen. he cleared his throat. he said, half-fretfully:
“now, by the face! it is not given every man to love precisely in this troubadourish fashion. even the most generous person cannot render to love any more than that person happens to possess. i have read in an old tale how the devil sat upon a cathedral spire and white doves flew about him. monks came and told him to begone. ‘do not the spires show you, o son of darkness’ they clamored, ‘that the place is holy?’ and satan (in this old tale) replied that these spires were capable of various interpretations. i speak of symbols, john. yet i also have loved, in my own fashion,—and, it would seem, i win the same reward as you.”
the king said more lately: “and so she is at stirling now? hobnob with my armed enemies, and cajoling that red lecher robert stewart?” he laughed, not overpleasantly. “eh, yes, it needed a bold person to bring all your tidings! but you brabanters are a very thorough-going people.”
the king rose and flung back his high head. “john, the loyal service you have done us and our esteem for your valor are so great that they may well serve you as an excuse. may shame fall on those who bear you any ill-will! you will now return home, and take your prisoner, the king of scotland, and deliver him to my wife, to do with as she may elect. you will convey to her my entreaty—not my orders, john,—that she come to me here at calais. as remuneration for this evening’s insolence, i assign lands as near your house as you can choose them to the value of £500 a year for you and for your heirs.”
you must know that john copeland fell upon his knees before king edward. “sire—” he stammered.
but the king raised him. “no, no,” he said, “you are the better man. were there any equity in fate, john copeland, your lady had loved you, not me. as it is, i must strive to prove not altogether unworthy of my fortune. but i make no large promises,” he added, squinting horribly, “because the most generous person cannot render to love any more than that person happens to possess. so be off with you, john copeland,—go, my squire, and bring me back my queen!”
presently he heard john copeland singing without. and through that instant, they say, his youth returned to edward plantagenet, and all the scents and shadows and faint sounds of valenciennes on that ancient night when a tall girl came to him, running, stumbling in her haste to bring him kingship. “she waddles now,” he thought forlornly. “still, i am blessed.” but copeland sang, and the brabanter’s heart was big with joy.
sang john copeland:
“long i besought thee, nor vainly,
daughter of water and air—
charis! idalia! hortensis!
hast thou not heard the prayer,
when the blood stood still with loving,
and the blood in me leapt like wine,
and i cried on thy name, melaenis?—
that heard me, (the glory is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!
“falsely they tell of thy dying,
thou that art older than death,
and never the hörselberg hid thee,
whatever the slanderer saith,
for the stars are as heralds forerunning,
when laughter and love combine
at twilight, in thy light, melaenis—
that heard me, (the glory is thine!)
and let the heart of atys,
at last, at last, be mine!”
the end of the fifth novel
