e you this knavish quip touched the Duke closely--I saw him
change colour and bite his lip. And now, our news are told, noble
Crevecoeur, and what think you they resemble?"

"A mine full charged with gunpowder," answered Crevecoeur, "to which,
I fear, it is my fate to bring the kindled linstock. Your news and mine
are like flax and fire, which cannot meet without bursting into flame,
or like certain chemical substances which cannot be mingled without an
explosion. Friends--gentlemen--ride close by my rein, and when I tell
you what has chanced in the bishopric of Liege, I think you will be of
opinion that King Louis might as safely have undertaken a pilgrimage to
the infernal regions as this ill timed visit to Peronne."

The two nobles drew up close on either hand of the Count, and listened,
with half suppressed exclamations, and gestures of the deepest
wonder and interest, to his account of the transactions at Liege
and Schonwaldt. Quentin was then called forward, and examined and
re-examined on the particulars of the Bishop's death, until at length
he refused to answer any farther interrogatories, not knowing wherefore
they were asked, or what use might be made of his replies.

They now reached the rich and level banks of the Somme, and the ancient
walls of the little town of Peronne la Pucelle, and the deep green
meadows adjoining, now whitened with the numerous tents of the Duke of
Burgundy's army, amounting to about fifteen thousand men.

CHAPTER XXVI: THE INTERVIEW

When Princes meet, Astrologers may mark it
An ominous conjunction, full of boding,
Like that of Mars with Saturn.

OLD PLAY

One hardly knows whether to term it a privilege or a penalty annexed to
the quality of princes, that, in their intercourse with each other, they
are required by the respect which is due to their own rank and dignity,
to regulate their feelings and expressions by a severe etiquette, which
precludes all violent and avowed display of passion, and which, but that
the whole world are aware that this assumed complaisance is a matter of
ceremony, might justly pass for profound dissimulation. It is no less
certain, however, that the overstepping of these bounds of ceremonial,
for the purpose of giving more direct vent to their angry passions, has
the effect of compromising their dignity with the world in general;
as was particularly noted when those distinguished rivals, Francis the
First and the Emperor