the
country. Our Lord have you in His care. Given at Bracon, the thirteenth
day of August." What a quaint and yet dignified and kindly letter is
this, showing us at once the great feudal lady and the woman really
grateful for kindly sympathy.

Another episode, immediately preceding her triumphant reentry into
Artois, reveals again the feminine nature, and we are rather surprised
to find that this energetic, courageous Mahaut can be, at need, such a
very woman. The royal troops had restored order in Artois, and the
vassals of Mahaut, leagued against her authority, had been reduced to
submission and had consented to a peaceful settlement of their alleged
grievances and to the return of their lawful countess. On July 3, 1319,
the royal commissioners came to her mansion in Paris to read her the
treaty, in the presence of her counsellors. She protested that the
treaty violated her privileges, and declared she would not listen to the
reading of an agreement in which she could not alter a word. Tears
flowed, and the excited lady now would, now would not, listen to the
reading; and that, too, when she admitted that she, like the nobles of
the league, had sworn to submit their differences to the arbitration of
the king, and that she would keep her oath! Summoning her notary to draw
up a formal act of protest,--"all that she might say or swear would be
said or sworn against her will and her conscience, and in the fear of
losing her county of Artois,"--she hurried to Longchamp, into the
presence of the king. Philippe assured her that all had been done in
good faith to safeguard her rights, and that it was merely for form's
sake that he would require her to swear to observe the treaty. Presto!
the doubts and the tears disappear: "I swear it!" And the countess went
out in apparent peace of mind. But now she was met by two of her
relatives, her nephew and her cousin, who pointed out to her that her
oath was insufficient, because she had not specified exactly what it was
that she swore; an oath so vague might have serious consequences, and so
they implored her to return to the presence. More tears, more angry
refusals to swear at all, and finally the countess once more yielded and
went before the king. The chancellor held out the Bible for her to swear
that she would observe the stipulations of the treaty; Mahaut turned
toward the king: "Sire, do you wish me to take this oath?" "I advise you
to do so." "Sire, I will swear, provided y