the
public good, and to aid in their country's defence, instead of
allowing themselves to be engrossed with their private affairs. Then,
whilst acknowledging that as he has not the strength to bear arms, it
is only with his pen and his speech that he can serve his country, he
reminds them that it was the historian's pen and the orator's
harangue, just as much as the warrior's lance, that made the glory of
the Romans.

Louis the Dauphin, come to man's estate, and self-seeking and
treacherous, was no friend to Agnes, who had incurred his hatred by
her fearless disclosure to the king from time to time of conspiracies
against his person, in which Louis was the prime mover. After repeated
reconciliations, the king in despair finally banished him to his
domain of Dauphine. The traitor, quitting the royal presence for what
he deemed exile, swore to be avenged on those who had driven him
forth, and if some of the records of the time speak truly, four years
later his opportunity came, and he kept his oath.

The last scene of Agnes's life was pathetically interesting. Her end
came almost suddenly. The king, listening to advice, had resolved to
continue the war in Normandy,[42] and, at the instigation of Agnes, if
we may believe the words of a courtly writer of the time, had himself
gone to the front. Rouen was taken, and Charles entered in triumph.
The streets were decked with flowers and branches, and the houses hung
with rich draperies, and everywhere the leopards and quarterings of
England had been replaced by the fleur-de-lis. Charles, preceded by a
gorgeous procession of archers, each company arrayed in the livery of
its lord, and carrying his special banner, followed, under a canopy,
on a horse caparisoned to the ground with blue cloth sprinkled with
fleurs-de-lis of gold, surrounded by princes and the principal
captains and officers of the Crown. With his wonted observance of
religious duty, slowly he made his way to the cathedral through the
shouting multitude, and to the sound of many fiddles and the fanfare
of trumpets. There he descended, kissed the relics as he knelt beneath
the great portal, and then entered its hushed and solemn dimness to
return thanks. But scarce had the air ceased to ring with the plaudits
of the people, when the report of a plot against the king, devised by
the Dauphin, is said to have come to the ears of Agnes, and she
hastened to the king at Jumieges, whither he had retired for a short
res