s a fool," said the King, with much composure. "Does the hot
headed Hainaulter think it any penance for a man of sense to remain for
twenty-four hours quiet within the walls of his Castle, when he hath the
affairs of a kingdom to occupy him? These impatient coxcombs think
that all men, like themselves, are miserable, save when in saddle and
stirrup. Let the dogs be put up, and well looked to, gentle Dunois.--We
will hold council today, instead of hunting."

"My Liege," answered Dunois, "you will not thus rid yourself of
Crevecoeur; for his master's instructions are, that if he hath not this
audience which he demands, he shall nail his gauntlet to the palisade
before the Castle in token of mortal defiance on the part of his master,
shall renounce the Duke's fealty to France, and declare instant war."

"Ay," said Louis without any perceptible alteration of voice, but
frowning until his piercing dark eyes became almost invisible under
his shaggy eyebrows, "is it even so? will our ancient vassal prove so
masterful--our dear cousin treat us thus unkindly?--Nay, then, Dunois,
we must unfold the Oriflamme, and cry Dennis Montjoye!"

[Montjoie St. Denis, a former war cry of the French soldiers. Saint
Denis was a patron saint of France who suffered martyrdom in the third
century. Montjoie (mont and joie) may be the name of the hill where the
saint met his death; or it may signify that any such place is a "hill of
joy."]

"Marry and amen, and in a most happy hour!" said the martial Dunois; and
the guards in the hall, unable to resist the same impulse, stirred each
upon his post, so as to produce a low but distinct sound of clashing
arms. The King cast his eye proudly round, and, for a moment, thought
and looked like his heroic father.

But the excitement of the moment presently gave way to the host of
political considerations, which, at that conjuncture, rendered an open
breach with Burgundy so peculiarly perilous. Edward IV, a brave and
victorious king, who had in his own person fought thirty battles, was
now established on the throne of England, was brother to the Duchess of
Burgundy, and, it might well be supposed, waited but a rupture between
his near connexion and Louis, to carry into France, through the ever
open gate of Calais, those arms which had been triumphant in the English
civil wars, and to obliterate the recollection of internal dissensions
by that most popular of all occupations amongst the English, an invasio