“At length there was an end put to their sufferings; for the King, although he had consented to their imprisonment, for reasons which had been given him,[Pg 105] granted them this pardon, deferring further enquiry into what had been laid to their charge until a future opportunity, and when he should be more fully informed. All his lands and castles were restored to the Lord de la Riviere; and, in the first instance, the beautiful castle of Auneau, near Chartres, on the borders of Beauce; but he was ordered thither, and never to recross the river Seine, unless recalled by the King’s own mouth.
“Sir John le Mercier returned to his fine house of Noviant, of which he bore the title as Lord, in the Laonnois; and he had similar orders not to repass the rivers Seine, Marne or Oise, unless specially commanded by the King.
“They also bound themselves to go to whatever prison they might hereafter be ordered to by the King or his commissioners.
“The two Lords thankfully accepted this grace, and were rejoiced to be delivered from the Châtelet. On gaining their liberty, they thought they should be allowed to see the King, and thank him for his mercy; but it was not so: they were forced to quit Paris instantly, and set out for their different estates.
“They, however, gained their liberty, to the great joy of all who were attached to them.”
Among the figures in this illumination, that of the jailor is extremely characteristic; it is a happy impersonation of the jailor of all times, and might serve nearly as well for the representative of Dickens’s well-known Dennis, the hangman, with his knotted stick, as for the jailor of the Lord de la Riviere, near five centuries ago.[Pg 106]
The Coronation of Henry IV.