! for the kind and generous Prelate, to be
murdered on the hearth where he so often entertained the stranger with
Christian charity and princely bounty--and that by a wretch, a monster!
a portentous growth of blood and cruelty!--bred up in the very hall
where he has imbrued his hands in his benefactor's blood! But I know not
Charles of Burgundy--nay, I should doubt of the justice of Heaven, if
vengeance be not as sharp, and sudden, and severe, as this villainy
has been unexampled in atrocity. And, if no other shall pursue the
murderer"--here he paused, grasped his sword, then quitting his bridle,
struck both gauntleted hands upon his breast, until his corselet
clattered, and finally held them up to heaven, as he solemnly
continued,--"I--I, Philip Crevecoeur of Cordes, make a vow to God, Saint
Lambert, and the Three Kings of Cologne, that small shall be my thought
of other earthly concerns, till I take full revenge on the murderers of
the good Louis of Bourbon, whether I find them in forest or field, in
city or in country, in hill or in plain, in King's Court or in God's
Church! and thereto I pledge hands and living, friends and followers,
life and honour. So help me God, and Saint Lambert of Liege, and the
Three Kings of Cologne!"

When the Count of Crevecoeur had made his vow, his mind seemed in some
sort relieved from the overwhelming grief and astonishment with which
he had heard the fatal tragedy that had been acted at Schonwaldt, and he
proceeded to question Durward more minutely concerning the particulars
of that disastrous affair, which the Scot, nowise desirous to abate
the spirit of revenge which the Count entertained against William de la
Marck, gave him at full length.

"But those blind, unsteady, faithless, fickle beasts, the Liegeois,"
said the Count, "that they should have combined themselves with this
inexorable robber and murderer, to put to death their lawful Prince!"

Durward here informed the enraged Burgundian that the Liegeois, or at
least the better class of them, however rashly they had run into the
rebellion against their Bishop, had no design, so far as appeared to
him, to aid in the execrable deed of De la Marck but, on the contrary,
would have prevented it if they had had the means, and were struck with
horror when they beheld it.

"Speak not of the faithless, inconstant plebeian rabble!" said
Crevecoeur. "When they took arms against a Prince who had no fault, save
that he was too kind and