‘I think,’ said Esclairmonde, ‘that King Henry is one of the few men to whom the spectacle is a sermon. He laughs even while he lays a thing to heart.’
These few sentences had brought them to the concourse around the gateway of the great Hôtel de St. Pol, in whose crowded courtyard Esclairmonde had to dismount; and, after being handed through the hall by King James, to make her way to the ladies’ apartments, and there find out, what she was most anxious about, how Alice, who had been riding at some distance from her with her father, had fared under the alarm.
Alice ran up to her eagerly. ‘Ah, dear Clairette, and was he greatly hurt?’
‘Not much; he had only swooned for fright.’
‘Swooned! to be a prince, and not have the heart of a midge!’
‘And how was it with you, you very wyvern for courage?’
‘With me? Oh, I was somewhat appalled at first, when my father took hold of my rein, and bade me never fear; for I saw his face grow amazed. Sir Richard Nevil rode up on the other side, and said the hobgoblins should eat out his heart ere they hurt me; and I looked into his face as he said that, and liked it more than ever I thought to like any but yours, Clairette. I think my father was going to leave me to him and see whether the King needed some one to back him; but up came a French lord, and said ’twas all a mere show, and my father said he was glad I was a stout-hearted wench that had never cried out for fear; and then I was so pleased, that I never heeded the ugly sight any more. Ay, and when Sir Richard lifted me off my horse, he kissed my hand of his own accord.’
‘This is all he has ever said to you?’ said Esclairmonde, smiling. ‘It is like an Englishman—to the purpose.’
‘Yea, is it not? Oh! is it not better than all the fine speeches and compliments that Joan Beaufort gets from her Scottish king?’
‘They have truths in them too, child.’