f I mistake him not," said Louis, "will render it
difficult for her to make a choice."

"I was far wrong indeed, when I taxed your Majesty with being over
scrupulous," said the counsellor. "On my life, the crimes of Adolphus
are but virtues to those of De la Marck!--And then how is he to meet
with his bride? Your Majesty knows he dare not stir far from his own
forest of Ardennes."

"That must be cared for," said the King; "and, in the first place,
the two ladies must be acquainted privately that they can be no longer
maintained at this Court, except at the expense of a war between France
and Burgundy, and that, unwilling to deliver them up to my fair
cousin of Burgundy, I am desirous they should secretly depart from my
dominions."

"They will demand to be conveyed to England," said Oliver "and we shall
have her return to Flanders with an island lord, having a round, fair
face, long brown hair, and three thousand archers at his back."

"No--no," replied the king; "we dare not (you understand me) so far
offend our fair cousin of Burgundy as to let her pass to England. It
would bring his displeasure as certainly as our maintaining her here.
No, no--to the safety of the Church alone we will venture to commit
her; and the utmost we can do is to connive at the Ladies Hameline and
Isabelle de Croye departing in disguise, and with a small retinue, to
take refuge with the Bishop of Liege, who will place the fair Isabelle
for the time under the safeguard of a convent."

"And if that convent protect her from William de la Marck, when he knows
of your Majesty's favourable intentions, I have mistaken the man."

"Why, yes," answered the King, "thanks to our secret supplies of money,
De la Marck hath together a handsome handful of as unscrupulous soldiery
as ever were outlawed; with which he contrives to maintain himself among
the woods, in such a condition as makes him formidable both to the Duke
of Burgundy and the Bishop of Liege. He lacks nothing but some territory
which he may call his own; and this being so fair an opportunity to
establish himself by marriage, I think that, Pasques dieu! he will find
means to win and wed, without more than a hint on our part. The Duke
of Burgundy will then have such a thorn in his side as no lancet of our
time will easily cut out from his flesh. The Boar of Ardennes, whom he
has already outlawed, strengthened by the possession of that fair lady's
lands, castles, and seigniory, with the dis