"We will have the ban taken off, friend Oliver," continued the King, in the same tone; "the Imperial Chamber will hear reason."
"And admitting him to be of noble birth," said Oliver, "he hath the manners, the face, and the outward form, as well as the heart, of a Flemish butcher – She will never accept of him."
"His mode of wooing, if I mistake him not," said Louis, "will render it difficult for her to make a choice."
"I was far wrong indeed, when I taxed your Majesty with being over scrupulous," said the counsellor. "On my life, the crimes of Adolphus are but virtues to those of De la Marck! – And then how is he to meet with his bride? – Your Majesty knows he dare not stir far from his own Forest of Ardennes."
"That must be cared for," said the King; "and, in the first place, the two ladies must be acquainted privately that they can be no longer maintained at this Court, except at the expense of a war between France and Burgundy, and that, unwilling to deliver them up to my fair cousin of Burgundy, I am desirous they should secretly depart from my dominions."
"They will demand to be conveyed to England," said Oliver; "and we shall have her return to Flanders with an island lord, having a round fair face, long brown hair, and three thousand archers at his back."
"No – no," replied the King; "we dare not (you understand me) so far offend our fair cousin of Burgundy as to let her pass to England – It would bring his displeasure as certainly as our maintaining her here. No, no – to the safety of the Church alone we will venture to commit her; and the utmost we can do is to connive at the Ladies Hameline and Isabelle de Croye departing in disguise, and with a small retinue, to take refuge with the Bishop of Liege, who will place the fair Isabelle for the time, under the safeguard of a convent."
"And if that convent protect her from William de la Marck, when he knows of your Majesty's favourable intentions, I have mistaken the man."
"Why, yes," answered the King, "thanks to our secret supplies of money, De la Marck hath together a handsome handful of as unscrupulous soldiery as ever were outlawed; with which he contrives to maintain himself among the woods, in such a condition as makes him formidable both to the Duke of Burgundy and the Bishop of Liege. He lacks nothing but some territory which he may call his own; and this being so fair an opportunity to establish himself by marriage, I think that, Pasquesdieu! he will find means to win and wed, without more than a hint on our part. The Duke of Burgundy will then have such a thorn in his side, as no lancet of our time will easily cut out from his flesh. The Boar of Ardennes, whom he has already outlawed, strengthened by the possession of that fair lady's lands, castles, and seigniory, with the discontented Liegeois to boot, who, by my faith, will not be in that case unwilling to choose him for their captain and leader – let Charles then think of wars with France when he will, or rather let him bless his stars if she war not with him. – How dost thou like the scheme, Oliver, ha?"
"Rarely," said Oliver, "save and except the doom which confers that lady on the Wild Boar of Ardennes. – By my halidome, saving in a little outward show of gallantry, Tristan, the Provost-Marshal, were the more proper bridegroom of the two."