by her name of Marie, her
dress was white and blue, turquoise forget-me-nots bound the little lace
veil on her dark chestnut hair, the bosom of her white satin dress was
sprinkled with the same azure jewel, and turquoises bordered every seam
of the sweeping skirt with a train befitting a count's daughter, and
meandered in gorgeous constellations round the hem. The little thing
lisped her own vows forth without much notion of their sense, and indeed
was sometimes prompted by her bridesmaid cousin, a pretty little girl
a year older, who thrust in her assistance so glibly that the King, as
well as others of the spectators, laughed, and observed that she would
get herself married to the boy instead of her cousin.

There was, however, to be no doubt nor mistake about Beranger and
Eustacie de Ribaumont being man and wife. Every ceremony, religious or
domestic, that could render a marriage valid, was gone through with real
earnestness, although with infinite gaiety, on the part of the court.
Much depended on their union, and the reconcilement of the two branches
of the family had long been a favourite scheme of King Henri II.

Both alike were descended from Anselme de Ribaumont, renowned in the
first Crusade, and from the brave Picard who had received the pearls;
but, in the miserable anarchy of Charles VI.'s reign, the elder brother
had been on the Burgundian side--like most of the other nobles of
Picardy--and had thus been brought into the English camp, where,
regarding Henry V. as lawfully appointed to the succession, and much
admiring him and his brother Nedford, he had become an ardent supporter
of the English claim. He had married an English lady, and had received
the grant if the castle of Leurre in Normandy by way of compensation for
his ancestral one of Ribaumont in Picardy, which had been declared to be
forfeited by his treason, and seized by his brother.

This brother had always been an Armagnac, and had risen and thriven with
his party,--before the final peace between France and England obliged
the elder line to submit to Charles VII. Since that time there had been
a perpetual contention as to the restitution of Chateau Ribaumont, a
strife which under Louis XI. had become an endless lawsuit; and in
the days of dueling had occasioned a good many insults and private
encounters. The younger branch, or Black Ribaumonts, had received a
grant from Louis XI. of the lands of Nid-de-Merle, belonging to an
unfortunate Ange