part of
the building than that of which Louis had been the tenant, and, though
in disrepair, had been hastily arranged for the solemnity of a public
council. Two chairs of state were erected under the same canopy, that
for the King being raised two steps higher than the one which the Duke
was to occupy; about twenty of the chief nobility sat, arranged in due
order, on either hand of the chair of state; and thus, when both the
Princes were seated, the person for whose trial, as it might be called,
the council was summoned, held the highest place, and appeared to
preside in it.

It was perhaps to get rid of this inconsistency, and the scruples which
might have been inspired by it, that Duke Charles, having bowed slightly
to the royal chair, bluntly opened the sitting with the following
words--

"My good vassals and councillors, it is not unknown to you what
disturbances have arisen in our territories, both in our father's time
and in our own, from the rebellion of vassals against superiors, and
subjects against their princes. And lately we have had the most dreadful
proof of the height to which these evils have arrived in our case, by
the scandalous flight of the Countess Isabelle of Croye, and her
aunt the Lady Hameline, to take refuge with a foreign power, thereby
renouncing their fealty to us, and inferring the forfeiture of their
fiefs; and in another more dreadful and deplorable instance, by the
sacrilegious and bloody murder of our beloved brother and ally, the
Bishop of Liege, and the rebellion of that treacherous city, which was
but too mildly punished for the last insurrection. We have been informed
that these sad events may be traced, not merely to the inconstancy and
folly of women, and the presumption of pampered citizens, but to the
agency of foreign power, and the interference of a mighty neighbour,
from whom, if good deeds could merit any return in kind, Burgundy could
have expected nothing but the most sincere and devoted friendship. If
this should prove truth," said the Duke, setting his teeth and pressing
his heel against the ground, "what consideration shall withhold
us--the means being in our power--from taking such measures as shall
effectually, and at the very source, close up the main spring from which
these evils have yearly flowed on us?"

The Duke had begun his speech with some calmness, but he elevated his
voice at the conclusion; and the last sentence was spoken in a tone
which made all the