e a lively recollection of his injury, and
keep up the native hue of resolution. He had gems engraved with
appropriate legends, hortatory or threatening: "_Dieu le scet_", God
knows it; or "_Souvenez-vous de_--" Remember![24] It is only towards the
end that the two stories begin to differ; and in some points the
historical version is the more tragic. Hamlet only stabbed a silly old
councillor behind the arras; Charles of Orleans trampled France for five
years under the hoofs of his banditti. The miscarriage of Hamlet's
vengeance was confined, at widest, to the palace; the ruin wrought by
Charles of Orleans was as broad as France.

Yet the first act of the young duke is worthy of honourable mention.
Prodigal Louis had made enormous debts; and there is a story extant, to
illustrate how lightly he himself regarded these commercial obligations.
It appears that Louis, after a narrow escape he made in a thunderstorm,
had a smart access of penitence, and announced he would pay his debts on
the following Sunday. More than eight hundred creditors presented
themselves, but by that time the devil was well again, and they were
shown the door with more gaiety than politeness. A time when such
cynical dishonesty was possible for a man of culture is not, it will be
granted, a fortunate epoch for creditors. When the original debtor was
so lax, we may imagine how an heir would deal with the incumbrances of
his inheritance. On the death of Philip the Forward, father of that John
the Fearless whom we have seen at work, the widow went through the
ceremony of a public renunciation of goods; taking off her purse and
girdle, she left them on the grave, and thus, by one notable act,
cancelled her husband's debts and defamed his honour. The conduct of
young Charles of Orleans was very different. To meet the joint
liabilities of his father and mother (for Valentina also was lavish), he
had to sell or pledge a quantity of jewels; and yet he would not take
advantage of a pretext, even legally valid, to diminish the amount.
Thus, one Godefroi Lefevre, having disbursed many odd sums for the late
duke, and received or kept no vouchers, Charles ordered that he should
be believed upon his oath.[25] To a modern mind this seems as honourable
to his father's memory as if John the Fearless had been hanged as high
as Haman. And as things fell out, except a recantation from the
University of Paris, which had justified the murder out of party
feeling, and var