d King Harry will
interfere; and we _will_ have your hospital; ay, we _will_. How can you
talk so lightly of abandoning it?'

'I only would know what is human pride, and what God's will,' sighed
Esclairmonde.

The Duke arrived with his two sisters, his wife being left at home in bad
health, and took up his abode at the Hotel de Bourgogne, whence he came
at once to pay his respects to the King of England; the poor King of
France, at the Hotel de St. Pol, being quite neglected.

Esclairmonde and Alice stood at a window, and watched the arrival of the
magnificent cavalcade, attended by a multitude, ecstatically shouting,
'Noel Noel! Long live Philippe le Bon! Blessings on the mighty Duke!'
While seated on a tall charger, whose great dappled head, jewelled and
beplumed, could alone be seen amid his sweeping housings, bowing right
and left, waving his embroidered gloved hand in courtesy, was seen the
stately Duke, in the prime of life, handsome-faced, brilliantly coloured,
dazzlingly arrayed in gemmed robes, so that Alice drew a long breath of
wonder and exclaimed, 'This Duke is a goodly man; he looks like the
emperor of us all!'

But when he had entered the hall, conducted by John of Bedford and Edmund
of March, had made his obeisance to Henry, and had been presented by him
to King James, Alice, standing close behind her queen, recollected that
she had once heard Esclairmonde say, 'Till I came to England I deemed
chivalry a mere gaudy illusion.'

Duke Philippe would not bear close inspection; the striking features and
full red lips, that had made so effective an appearance in the gay
procession seen from a distance, seemed harsh, haughty, and sensual near
at hand, and when brought into close contact with the strange bright
stern purity, now refined into hectic transparency, of King Henry's face,
the grand and melancholy majesty of the royal Stewart's, or even the
spare, keen, irregular visage of John of Bedford. And while his robes
were infinitely more costly than--and his ornaments tenfold
outnumbered--all that the three island princes wore, yet no critical eye
could take him for their superior, even though his tone in addressing an
inferior was elaborately affable and condescending, and theirs was always
the frankness of an equal. Where they gave the sense of pure gold, he
seemed like some ruder metal gilt and decorated; as if theirs were
reality, his the imitation; theirs the truth, his the display.

But in r