H. C. Bailey

“ Stand up, man, stand, never fawn on me. How are you come here?"
"Na, na, cousin. I am not here. Bran is not here. Here is only old Gilles, the Queen of France's fool. I am he and he is on a journey or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awakened," he giggled.
"See then, here is you, a fair lady in her prime held in a lonely castle and my saintly lord King Louis your husband looks down his nose and goes to prayers and all the world whispers. What shall come of it, Cousin Eleanor?"
"No good to the man that does me ill." ”

“ To make me his, me and my lands?"
"God have mercy, God have mercy, will you be judged by what lies in the dark of your mind? I think you will go down to hell, cousin. No, faith, what we do is ill enough to answer. And brother Henry, he set you free and free you ride."
"And he might have borne me away at his will." She laughed. "The more fool he."
"Yea, yea," Bran looked at her. "Fools are we all, whatever we do."
"Why then, what is in your mind that you give up your lord to ride with the strange woman?" ”

“ But in a little while and before Count Thibaut was come, "Why, God be good!" said Bran. "Here is another band coming out of the west. Whose men be these?" Each riding hard, the two companies drew near. "By the rood, I see the yellow! Planta genesta, ptanta genesta," Bran cried. "They wear the broom, cousin. It is Henry, my brother."
"Ay, it is Henry of Anjou," she said. "Be still, fool, be still. Who knows what will come of it?"
The two bands halted under the hill and challenged and the leaders rode out alone. "What do you here, Henry of Anjou?"
"And you, Thibaut of Blois?" ”

“ It was plain that the queen was riding upon danger. King Louis was not, she swore, capable of thinking. "How should a fish guess that I want air?" said she. But the nearer they came to Beaugency the more folk would be upon the road. They might ride into the king's own train, they might meet some loyal lord who would snap her up for his master. "And back goes cousin Eleanor to the cupboard," said Bran. "Yea, yea. It is like enough. But you should have thought of that before you cast off my little brother Henry." ”

“ Give me your hand, Eleanor."
"Why then?" she said, but gave it.
"There is a man in me would kiss it," said he, and he held it to his cheek a moment and laughed and shuffled out.
THE queen sat smiling. She was comforted. She found her world had not passed away. Still she commanded the allegiance of men. Henry of Anjou would serve. The boy was heir to Normandy and England. With him to her champion there was trouble coming on good King Louis. Caution, caution. A boy with a name must still be a boy and all turned on a boy's wit and a fool's. Who should trust them? ”

“ Lord bishops and lord abbots on the road, a holy company. Join we with them, and they dare not deny you, and under the mantle of the Church safe we come to Beaugency."
And so they did and in a village on the Cosson came upon the cavalcade of the Bishop of Nevers, who, good man, was much embarrassed to meet his queen in such a plight and yet more to be her escort. But the fool knew his world. The queen who quarreled with her king was a sore trial to his lordship, but a woman and a wife who claimed to be heard for the right of her marriage could not be cast off by Holy Church. ”

“ You see them in the noon sunlight, the woman stately and schooled, the man jerking all his broad inches in his haste. She was the taller. There was the assurance of power in her dignity and the regular composed beauty of her face spoke subtlety and passion. ”