Again she saw the brave lad who alone of all her father’s court, save she, had dared to face Count William’s lions; again the remembrance of how his daring had made him one of her heroes, filled her heart, and a dream of what might be possessed her. Her boy husband, the French Dauphin, was dead, and she was pledged by her dying father’s command to marry her cousin, whom she detested, Duke John of Brabant. But how much better, so she reasoned, that the name and might of her house as rulers of Holland should be upheld by a brave and fearless knight. On the impulse of this thought she summoned a loyal and trusted vassal to her aid.
“Von Leyenburg,” she said, “go you in haste and in secret to the Lord of Arkell, and bear from me this message for his ear alone. Thus says the Lady of Holland: ‘Were it not better, Otto of Arkell, that we join hands in marriage before the altar, than that we spill the blood of faithful followers and vassals in a cruel fight?’”
It was a singular, and perhaps, to our modern ears, a most unladylike proposal; but it shows how, even in the heart of a sovereign countess and a girl general, warlike desires may give place to gentler thoughts.
To the Lord Arkell, however, this unexpected proposition came as an indication of weakness.
“My lady countess fears to face my determined followers,” he thought. “Let me but force this fight and the victory is mine. In that is greater glory and more of power than being husband to the Lady of Holland.”
And so he returned a most ungracious answer:
“Tell the Countess Jacqueline,” he said to the knight of Leyenburg, “that the honor of her hand I cannot accept. I am her foe, and would rather die than marry her.”
All the hot blood of her ancestors flamed in wrath as young Jacqueline heard this reply of the rebel lord.
“Crush we these rebel curs, von Brederode,” she cried, pointing to the banner of Arkell; “for by my father’s memory, they shall have neither mercy nor life from me.”
Fast upon the curt refusal of the Lord of Arkell came his message of defiance.