"I will willingly take the lead," said Trimouille; "for his majesty's intentions are kind and generous. First, however, it is necessary to state how matters stand, in order to show that it is by no compulsion the king acts, but merely from his gracious disposition. Here are three noblemen, two of them closely allied to the blood royal, take arms against their sovereign at a time when disunion is likely to be fatal to the state. The two I have mentioned, his majesty believes to have been misled by the third, an imperious, violent man, overestimating both his services and his abilities--"
"Nay, nay," cried the Count La Marche.
"Hear me out," said La Trimouille; "a man who pretends to dictate to the king who shall be his ministers, and publicly boasts of placing and displacing them at his pleasure. These three noblemen actually seize upon a royal city, and besiege the royal garrison in the citadel. The king, judging it necessary to check such proceedings at once, marches against them as rebels--and in great force. To speak plainly, my lords, you have five thousand men in and about Bourges; he has ten thousand men between you and Paris, five thousand more arrived an hour ago at La Vallée, and a large force under La Hire is marching up from Chateauroux."
He paused, and the countenances of the constable's party fell immensely. However, the Count of Clermont replied, with his usual sarcastic smile, "A perilous situation as you represent it, my good lord; but methinks I have heard an old fable which shows that men and lions may paint pictures differently."
"You will find my picture the true one, Clermont," said La Trimouille, coolly. "I have I taken care not to exaggerate it in the least, and both the generosity with which the king treats you, and the firmness with which his majesty will adhere to his determinations, will prove to you that he is convinced of these facts likewise. He is desirous, however, that Frenchmen should never be seen shedding Frenchmen's blood, and therefore he proposes, in mitigation of all griefs, real or supposed, and also as a mark of his love and regard for his good cousin, the Count of La Marche, to bestow upon him the fief of Besançon. To you, Monsieur De Clermont, he offers to give the small town of Montbrison, or some other at your choice, of equal value. To the other noblemen and gentlemen I see around you, and whose names were furnished to me this morning, each a benefice, the list of which I have here; and all this upon the sole condition that they return to their loyalty, and serve the crown against the common enemy, with zeal, fidelity, and obedience."
"And the Count of Richmond," said La Marche. I
"What for the constable?" asked the Count of Clermont.
A heavy frown came upon La Trimouille's brow. He had remarked keenly the effect produced upon the constable's companions by the offers made, and saw that the faction was in reality broken up; and he replied, in a slow, stern tone, "Permission for him to retire unmolested to Parthenay, and live in peace and privacy."
A dead silence pervaded all the tent, which was first broken by Jean Charost, who saw both peril and injustice in the partiality just shown, and attributed it rightly to La Trimouille's personal enmity toward his former friend.
"Nay, my good lord," he exclaimed. "Surely his majesty will be moved to some less strict dealing with the lord constable."