The Court Jester Part 7

"But why should the King of France plot against me, since I am to be the queen and my provinces will one day belong to him?" replied her little mistress.

"Who can account for the strange schemes of great nations?" asked Cunegunda. "Perhaps your marriage with the King of France is about to be broken off and he and the d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany will hold you as a hostage to extract a large sum from the emperor, your grandfather."

"It would be cruel to demand a large sum from that old and stingy man,"

remarked Le Glorieux. "The gold of Frederick is as hard to dig out of his coffers as if it were a thousand feet under ground."

"We shall not need his money for that purpose," said the princess. "My dear d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany will never betray me, nor will Charles of France, who is too good and kind to seek to injure me."

"The King is under the influence of his sister, who has no thought but for her own schemes," replied the woman firmly. "We must leave here at once! We can escape to-night unseen and remain in some quiet village until we shall be able to communicate with Austria."

Le Glorieux sat down on the floor and pressed his hands to his head.

"This matter is enough to puzzle a wise man, to say nothing of a fool,"

said he dolefully. "Now, let us look at it as it really is and try to straighten it all out." Holding his left hand out in front of him and gesticulating with his right, he went on. "This thumb is Mademoiselle of Austria; this forefinger is the d.u.c.h.ess Anne; the second finger is the King of France, and the third is the King of the Romans. Now, Anne is going to marry the King of the Romans, whose daughter is going to marry the King of France. But what must Anne be at but engaged in a plot against the daughter of the man she is going to marry in order to make things fine and pleasant for her by the time she arrives in Austria.

This plot, so far as I can see, is one which the King of France has no reason in this world to have a finger in, but which he takes all the trouble to come in secret to help carry out!"

"Do not sit there tapping first one finger and then the other like a great b.o.o.by, but help us to get away from here," said Cunegunda angrily.

"Here is money to bribe the groom to keep silent. See that our mules are brought out----"

"Stop!" said Marguerite, in a tone of calm authority. "I have told the d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany that I would trust her, and intend to do so. I shall remain here until she goes."

"Remain here with your life in danger?" cried Cunegunda, aghast.

"My life is not in danger. I know not of what she was speaking to the King of France, nor how Le Glorieux may have misunderstood her, but whatever it is, my life is not in peril while I am beneath the roof of Anne of Brittany. Therefore I will not steal away in the night like a criminal. She has said that not one hair of my head shall be touched, and she will not be faithless to her promise. There is nothing for us to do but to keep silent and wait."

"And those two are the hardest things in this world to do," said the fool. "To wait is worse than the toothache, to keep silent is worse than the plague, but put the two together and they are enough to destroy life and reason."

At supper the question of the significance of dreams came up, all discussing it in an animated manner save the Lady Anne, who toyed with her winegla.s.s, often gazing down into it as if trying to read her future in its ruby depths. Le Glorieux sat on a low stool at her side, making a remark when he felt so inclined, and studying her face when he was not talking.

"There are dreams which always come true for _me_," said the Lady Clotilde in the tone of one whose word can not be disputed. "A dream of the dead is one of great importance, as every one knows. When I dream of my father something of moment always happens. He always addresses me as 'My sweet and amiable child.'"

"All kinds of love are blind," remarked the jester. "I had a dream myself last night that is of great importance," he went on with his eyes fixed on the Lady Anne's face. "I thought the affairs of Brittany, Austria, and France were a pack of cards, all arranged smoothly, with the proper kings and queens together and the knaves at the bottom of the pack. Then I could see the knaves grow restless and begin to flutter, and lo! the whole pack went spinning in the air, whirling about like dead leaves in the mistral. And when they came together again the wrong kings and queens were mated; for instance, the Queen of Diamonds was paired with the King of Clubs!"

A wave of color swept over the fair face of the d.u.c.h.ess, but she said calmly, "It is said that dreams go by contraries, Fool; therefore yours signifies that the kings will find their proper queens."

But the Lady Clotilde, as the jester afterward said, "pinned him with her eye," and later she said in his ear, "I heard a 'fluttering' behind the armor this afternoon that was not cards, for with it was a faint jingle of bells."

"It must have been a dream, Cousin Clotilde," he returned boldly, but he gnashed his teeth as he thought, "Those wretched bells have betrayed me, though I put up my hands and m.u.f.fled them."

It was late on the following morning when the watchman blew his horn, and when the Lady Marguerite woke it seemed to her that the palace was unusually quiet. She threw her arms over her head and smiled happily as one who has pleasant antic.i.p.ations, for a new game in the courtyard had been promised and it was of that she had thought upon wakening.

The Lady Clotilde entered, followed by a tiring woman. "Her Grace, the d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany, bade me tell your Highness that she was obliged to depart early this morning for reasons which she can not at present explain," said Lady Clotilde. "A proper escort has been provided for you. I shall take charge of you, and in two days we shall start for Amboise."

"The d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany has gone to join my father without a word of farewell to me?" cried the princess, in astonishment. "And she promised so faithfully that I should accompany her as far as possible on her journey!"

"A change of circ.u.mstances sometimes necessitates a change of plans, and one is often compelled to break a promise made in good faith. Her Grace bade me a.s.sure you upon her honor that no harm shall come to you, and that you shall return to Amboise in safety, and also that neither you nor your nurse shall be reproached for your escapade. And now the mind of your Highness should be at rest. Moreover, she bade me say that since the jester, Le Glorieux, is so devoted to your Highness she has given him to you. And permit me to say upon my own account, that as the singing of the page Antoine la Fitte affords your Highness so much pleasure I shall feel highly honored if you will deign to accept his services and keep him as your own."

"I thank you," replied the princess. "I shall be delighted to have in my service two servitors who amuse me so much, and who will be as faithful to me as I am sure the Burgundians will be. And I feel that I can safely trust in the promise of the Lady Anne."

"I begin to think that my dream about the cards is likely to come true,"

said Le Glorieux later to the Lady Clotilde.

"And I think that for you a tongue well behind the teeth is the safest att.i.tude to a.s.sume in this case," she returned with a frown.

"That is a strange piece of advice to give, Cousin Clotilde," he replied. "Do you usually talk with your tongue in front of your teeth? I never do."

"You know quite well what I mean," snapped the lady.

The journey from Rennes to Amboise was not a pleasant one, for the fine weather had been succeeded by chill winds, but the litter of Mademoiselle of Austria was furnished with rich furs to protect her from the cold, and with her train of guards and attendants she traveled in a style befitting a princess.

News traveled very slowly in the fifteenth century, and it was not until they had reached Amboise that the mystery which had so puzzled Marguerite and her friends was explained.

The little Lady Marguerite was received in great state at the palace of Amboise by Anne of Beaujeu, d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon. This princess was a tall, handsome, and resolute woman. Louis the Eleventh said of her when he named her Regent of France, "She is the least foolish of women," for, being crabbed and disagreeable, he thought all women more or less foolish, but that this stately daughter was the most sensible of her s.e.x.

The clandestine journey of the little princess and her woman was not alluded to by the d.u.c.h.ess of Bourbon, and one would have thought that the escapade of a princess disguised as a peasant was an event of common occurrence.

"And now, Madame," said Marguerite, "perhaps you can tell me why the city of Amboise is draped in cloth of gorgeous colors, and why everywhere is the air of a festival which I can not think is caused by my return."

"Madame," replied Anne of Beaujeu in even tones, "a matter has been kept from you for some days, for to me was a.s.signed the duty of acquainting you with a certain piece of news. It has been deemed best that the marriages between the houses of Austria and France and Austria and Brittany should be broken off, although both France and Brittany have appreciated the honor of the alliance. Therefore, a marriage has taken place between the King of France and the d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany."

"The King of France and the d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany!" exclaimed Marguerite, with flashing eyes. "The King of France was solemnly betrothed to _me_!

Has the treaty of Arras been forgotten? And the King of the Romans, my father, too, has been insulted! Oh, I _hate_ France, I hate every inch of it! And the Lady Anne! Why, she told me that she was to marry my father, that she had accepted safe conduct to Austria! And her eyes were so truthful when she said it. Why should she have deceived me when I trusted her, when I--I--loved her so!"

The wound to her heart was greater than that to her pride, and, covering her face with her hands, the little princess wept.

"The d.u.c.h.ess of Brittany expected to be married to Maximilian of Austria when she talked of the matter to you," said Anne of Beaujeu. "It was but a few days before the marriage that she agreed to accept the King of France, an alliance which she was convinced was for the best interests of her people."

"And what is to become of me?" asked Marguerite.

"You shall be sent in the state suited to your rank back to Austria. I beg your Highness to take the matter more philosophically. I greatly deplore the fact that you should have been thus wounded, but in the great affairs of nations personal concerns must take a second place."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The little Princess continued to sob]

The little princess continued to sob, and all withdrew save the jester, who, kneeling at her feet, said gently, "Little Cousin, when the daughter of Austria is ready to wed, the prince of a greater nation than France may be found for her." Then, a.s.suming a lighter tone, he went on, "And a handsomer husband can be easily found than this stunted king. And think of it, little lady, you will shortly see your father!"

"Ah!" cried Marguerite, dashing away her tears and springing to her feet, while a smile dimpled the corners of her mouth, "I had not thought of that! At last I shall see my father! Happy as a peasant child I shall live under his roof! After all, the good G.o.d has been gracious to me and has granted my wish."

"And Antoine and I will go with you, leaving the Lady Clotilde carefully behind," cried Le Glorieux. "The Lady Anne has give me to you, and you see I am still, in another way, the Lady Anne's present!"

CHAPTER V

THE WONDERFUL WISDOM OF PITTACUS

To go away at that moment, to leave the hated soil of France forevermore, was now the ardent desire of the little princess, but even royal ladies can not always do as they would like, and she was made to realize that some days must elapse before it would be possible for her to set out for her own country, where her father and her brother would be waiting for her.