you prevailed with him to stay?"

"To stay for twenty-four hours; and in the meanwhile to receive again
his gage of defiance," said the Cardinal; "he has dismounted at the
Fleur de Lys."

"See that he be nobly attended and cared for, at our charges," said
the King; "such a servant is a jewel in a prince's crown. Twenty-four
hours?" he added, muttering to himself, and looking as if he were
stretching his eyes to see into futurity; "twenty-four hours? It is of
the shortest. Yet twenty-four hours, ably and skilfully employed, may be
worth a year in the hand of indolent or incapable agents.--Well--to the
forest--to the forest, my gallant lords!--Orleans, my fair kinsman, lay
aside that modesty, though it becomes you; mind not my Joan's coyness.
The Loire may as soon avoid mingling with the Cher, as she from
favouring your suit, or you from preferring it," he added, as the
unhappy prince moved slowly on after his betrothed bride. "And now for
your boar spears, gentlemen--for Allegre, my pricker, hath harboured one
that will try both dog and man.--Dunois, lend me your spear--take mine,
it is too weighty for me; but when did you complain of such a fault in
your lance?--To horse--to horse, gentlemen."

And all the chase rode on.

CHAPTER IX: THE BOAR HUNT

I will converse with unrespective boys
And iron witted fools. None are for me
that look into me with suspicious eyes.

KING RICHARD

All the experience which the Cardinal had been able to collect of his
master's disposition, did not, upon the present occasion, prevent his
falling into a great error of policy. His vanity induced him to think
that he had been more successful in prevailing upon the Count of
Crevecoeur to remain at Tours, than any other moderator whom the King
might have employed, would, in all probability, have been. And as he was
well aware of the importance which Louis attached to the postponement
of a war with the Duke of Burgundy, he could not help showing that
he conceived himself to have rendered the King great and acceptable
service. He pressed nearer to the King's person than he was wont to
do, and endeavoured to engage him in conversation on the events of the
morning.

This was injudicious in more respects than one, for princes love not to
see their subjects approach them with an air conscious of deserving, and
thereby seeming desirous to extort, acknowledgment and recompense for
their services; and Louis, the most