"But why say you, that you trust not to see him on the throne?" asked the Count of Armagnac, evading the part of Woodville's reply which he would have found difficult to answer. "He is surely a noble and courteous gentleman, full of high virtues."
"Far inferior in all to his royal cousin," answered the knight; "but it is not on that account alone I say so, but for many reasons. We Englishmen believe that our crown is held by somewhat different rights from yours of France. At the coronations of our kings, we by our free voices confirm them on their throne. The people of England have a say in the question of a monarch's title; and without that recognition they are not kings of England. To our present sovereign, the nobles of the land offered their homage ere the crown was placed upon his brow; but he, as wise in this as in all else, would receive none till he was proclaimed King, not by a herald's trumpet, but by the tongues of Englishmen. Besides, I say, I trust I shall never see the Earl of March wearing the English crown, because I hope never to see an honourable nobleman forget his oath, nor a perjured monarch on the throne."
"And yet your fourth Harry forgot his," said the Duke of Orleans.
"Not till intolerable wrongs and base injustice drove him to it," answered the knight; "not till the monarch so far forgot his compact with the subject, as to free him from remembrance of his part of the obligation. Besides, I was then a boy; I found a sovereign reigning by the voice of the people; to him I pledged my first oath of fealty. I have since pledged it to his son; and I will keep it."
The two Counts and the Duke looked at each other with a significant glance; and after a moment's consideration, the Count of Vaudemont changed the subject, saying, "Well, good knight, such are your thoughts. We may judge differently. But say, how have you fared lately? I heard that our worthy Châtelain here had been somewhat harsh with you, resolving that you should not play him such a trick as the boy of Croy; and I ordered that such treatment should be amended. Has it been done? I would not have you used unworthily."
"It has been done in some points, my lord," replied Richard of Woodville, "but not in all."
"Nay, good faith, with warning from your own lips that you sought to escape," answered the Count, "he was right not to relax on all points."
"But some he might have relaxed, yet held me safe," rejoined the young knight. "I have been cut off from all means of holding any communion with my friends, though it was most needful that I should urge them to offer what terms might find favour for my liberation. I have been kept more like some felon subject of this land, than a fair prisoner of war."
"Nay, that must be changed," said the Duke of Orleans; "such was not your intention, I am sure, De Vaudemont?"
"By no means, noble Duke," answered the Count. "I will take order that it be so no more. You shall have liberty to write to whom you will, sir knight; and, indeed, having a courier going soon to England, you will have the means right soon, if you will, of sending letters. I have heard," he added with a laugh, "that there is a certain noble gentleman of the name of Grey, with whom you have some dear relations--much in King Henry's confidence, if I mistake not. Perchance, were he to use his influence with that Prince, something might be done to mitigate the Dauphin's sternness. We are still negotiating with England, though, by my faith, these preparations at Southampton, and this purchase of vessels from the Hollanders, looks more warlike than one might have wished."