"Wait! the dawn is coming."
"But, if dawn comes, Comines will be seen."
"He will hide behind a tree."
"Would it not be much simpler, especially at such an hour, i.e. four o'clock in the morning, for him to re-read his Mémoires in his own home, in his study, with pen and ink at hand, in case he has anything to add; with his pen-knife and eraser close by, if he has something to delete?"
"Yes, certainly, it would be much simpler; but don't you see that the author needs Comines to do this particular business out of doors; so poor Comines must, of course, do what the author wishes!" Comines himself knows very well that he would be better elsewhere, and he has not come there of his own will. He does not hide from himself the danger he is incurring if they see him working at such a task, and if his manuscripts were to fall under the king's notice. But listen to him rather than to me—
"Mémoires de Comines! Ah! si les mains du roi
Déroulaient cet écrit, qui doit vivre après moi,
Où chacun de ses jours, recueillis par l'histoire,
Laisse un tribut durable et de honte et de gloire,
Tremblant on le verrait, par le titre arrêté,
Pâlir devant son règne à ses yeux présenté!"
I ask you what would have become of the historian who could have made Louis XI. turn pale! But, no doubt, Comines, who knew the rebels of the war of the Bien Public, the jailor of Cardinal la Balue and especially the murderer of Nemours,—since he calculated on marrying his daughter to the son of the victim,—absorbed in I know not what spirit of pre-occupation, reading his Mémoires in so dangerous a place as this, will keep one eye open whilst he reads his Mémoires with the other. Not a bit of it! You can judge whether or not this is what is meant by the stage-direction: Doctor Coitier passes at the back of the stage, looks at Comines and goes into Richard's cottage."
Thus, just as Louis XI. did not see Isabelle, though it was to his interest to see her, so Comines, who is anxious not to be seen, is seen and does not himself see. You tell me such absent-mindedness cannot last long on the part of such a man as Comines. Second mistake! Instead of waking out of his rêveries—"He remains absorbed in his reading." With this result, that Coitier comes out of the peasant's cottage and says—
"Rentrez, prenez courage:
Des fleurs que je prescris composez son breuvage;
Par vos mains exprimés, leurs sues adoucissants
Rafraîchiront sa plaie, et calmeront ses sens."