e of these princely
younger sons, who, like Beaufort at home, took ecclesiastical preferments
as their natural provision, and as a footing whence they might become
statesmen. He was a great admirer of Henry's genius, and, as the chief
French prelate who was heartily on the English side, enjoyed a much
greater prominence than he could have done at either the French or
Burgundian Court. He and his brother of St. Pol were Esclairmonde's
nearest kinsmen--'oncles a la mode de Bretagne,' as they call the
relationship which is here sometimes termed Welsh uncle, or first cousins
once removed--and from him James had obtained much more complete
information about Esclairmonde than he could ever get from the flighty
Duchess.

Her mother, a beautiful Walloon, had been heiress to wide domains in
Hainault, her father to great estates in Flanders, all which were at
present managed by the politic Bishop. Like most of the
statesman-secular-clergy, the Bishop hated nothing so much as the
monastic orders, and had made no small haste to remove his fair niece
from the convent at Dijon, where she had been educated, lest the
Cistercians should become possessed of her lands. He had one scheme for
her marriage; but his brother, the Count, had wished to give her to his
own second son, who was almost an infant; and the Duke of Burgundy had
designs on her for his half-brother Boemond; and among these various
disputants, Esclairmonde had never failed to find support against
whichever proposal was forced upon her, until the coalition between the
Dukes of Burgundy and Brabant becoming too strong, she had availed
herself of Countess Jaqueline's discontent to evade them both.

The family had, of course, been much angered, and had fully expected that
her estates would go to some great English abbey, or to some English lord
whose haughty reserve and insularity would be insupportable. It was
therefore a relief to Monseigneur de Therouenne to hear James's designs;
and when the King further added, that he would be willing to let the
claims on the Hainault part of her estates be purchased by the Count de
St. Pol, and those in Flanders by the Duke of Burgundy, the Bishop was
delighted, and declared that, rather than such a negotiation should fail,
he would himself advance the sum to his brother; but that the Duke of
Burgundy's consent was more doubtful, only could they not do without it?

And he honoured Malcolm with a few words of passing notice from t