What was his mission to my Lord none could guess. But as one day followed another and yet he tarried, my Lady’s tirewoman could hold her tongue no longer, and out the secret came. Never could I bide that woman! ’Twas always touch and go between us.
“Knave,” quoth she, and “Jade,” say I, till the ill-favoured wench would to my Lady Eleonore in tears.
Now the secret that she blabbed was this,—that the Seigneur de la Rivière had come to ask for the hand of my little mistress at the suit of the Duc de Berry!
It seems that the King laughed when he heard that his uncle the Duc, who had seen a round fifty years and had sons who were men grown, wished to take to wife “une fillette,” as he calleth her, of twelve years. But the Duc held fast to his cause, and the King was but a lad of sixteen himself with a wife two years younger, and many of the court were of scarce greater age. So the Duc had persevered in his wishes, and the Seigneur de la Rivière had come to treat with my master, the Comte de Foix, who did not wish to give up his young cousin to one so much her elder. So he put off the Seigneur, saying,—
“The child is too young. Let the marriage wait till she grows up.”
These days I saw little of my mistress. The flowers and the dogs were all forgot, and she was housed with that tirewoman all the bright days. One morning there was an exceeding bustle and rushing hither and yon. Then was I bidden to put on my bravest suit and attend my mistress to the great hall. It took me far less time than it took my Lady to put on all her fine gear, and when we came into the hall, there sat my Lord, and beside him sat the stranger lord, while all around them were many score of knights and lances.
My Lord cometh forward, and taking my mistress by the hand, he leadeth her to a seat in the great oak chair beside him, whilst I stood but a step behind her. My Lord looked at her kindly, and then quoth he,—
“Knowest why I sent for thee, child?”
My mistress drew up her head quite proud, and answered bravely, though her cheeks were like poppy buds,—
“In truth I do, Cousin.”