“They were both under arrest in the Castle of Loches, that delightful place of retirement for the French nobility,” said D'Hymbercourt, “but Louis has released them, in order to bring them with him—perhaps because he cared not to leave Orleans behind. For his other attendants, faith, I think his gossip, the Hangman Marshal, with two or three of his retinue, and Oliver, his barber, may be the most considerable—and the whole bevy so poorly arrayed, that, by my honour, the King resembles most an old usurer, going to collect desperate debts, attended by a body of catchpolls.”
“And where is he lodged?” said Crevecoeur.
“Nay, that,” replied the Comines, “is the most marvellous of all. Our Duke offered to let the King's Archer Guard have a gate of the town, and a bridge of boats over the Somme, and to have assigned to Louis himself the adjoining house, belonging to a wealthy burgess, Giles Orthen, but, in going thither, the King espied the banners of De Lau and Pencil de Riviere, whom he had banished from France, and scared, as it would seem, with the thought of lodging so near refugees and malcontents of his own making, he craved to be quartered in the castle of Peronne, and there he hath his abode accordingly.”
“Why, God ha' mercy!” exclaimed Crevecoeur, “this is not only not being content with venturing into the lion's den, but thrusting his head into his very jaws.—Nothing less than the very bottom of the rat trap would serve the crafty old politician!”
“Nay,” said Comines, “D'Hymbercourt hath not told you the speech of Le Glorieux [the jester of Charles of Burgundy of whom more hereafter. S.]—which, in my mind, was the shrewdest opinion that was given.”
“And what said his most illustrious wisdom?” asked the Count.
“As the Duke,” replied Comines, “was hastily ordering some vessels and ornaments of plate and the like, to be prepared as presents for the King and his retinue, by way of welcome on his arrival:
“'Trouble not thy small brain about it, my friend Charles,' said Le Glorieux, 'I will give thy cousin Louis a nobler and a fitter gift than thou canst, and that is my cap and bells, and my bauble to boot, for, by the mass, he is a greater fool than I am, for putting himself in thy power.'
“'But if I give him no reason to repent it, sirrah, how thou?' said the Duke.
“'Then, truly, Charles, thou shalt have cap and bauble thyself, as the greatest fool of the three of us.'