reign. Louis had
spoken not a word either to Orleans or Dunois since they were
liberated from restraint at the Castle of Loches, if it could be termed
liberation, to be dragged in King Louis's train, objects of suspicion
evidently, rather than of respect and regard; but, nevertheless, the
voice of Dunois was first heard above the tumult, addressing himself to
the Duke of Burgundy.

"Sir Duke, you have forgotten that you are a vassal of France, and that
we, your guests, are Frenchmen. If you lift a hand against our Monarch,
prepare to sustain the utmost effects of our despair; for, credit me, we
shall feast as high with the blood of Burgundy as we have done with its
wine.--Courage, my Lord of Orleans--and you, gentlemen of France, form
yourselves round Dunois, and do as he does."

It was in that moment when a King might see upon what tempers he could
certainly rely. The few independent nobles and knights who attended
Louis, most of whom had only received from him frowns or discountenance,
unappalled by the display of infinitely superior force, and the
certainty of destruction in case they came to blows, hastened to array
themselves around Dunois, and, led by him, to press towards the head of
the table where the contending Princes were seated.

On the contrary, the tools and agents whom Louis had dragged forward out
of their fitting and natural places into importance which was not due
to them, showed cowardice and cold heart, and, remaining still in their
seats, seemed resolved not to provoke their fate by intermeddling,
whatever might become of their benefactor.

The first of the more generous party was the venerable Lord Crawford,
who, with an agility which no one would have expected at his years,
forced his way through all opposition (which was the less violent, as
many of the Burgundians, either from a point of honour, or a secret
inclination to prevent Louis's impending fate, gave way to him), and
threw himself boldly between the King and the Duke. He then placed his
bonnet, from which his white hair escaped in dishevelled tresses, upon
one side of his head--his pale cheek and withered brow coloured, and his
aged eye lightened with all the fire of a gallant who is about to dare
some desperate action. His cloak was flung over one shoulder, and his
action intimated his readiness to wrap it about his left arm, while he
unsheathed his sword with his right.

"I have fought for his father and his grandsire," that was