Sovereign; but let that pass too."

"A suitable and independent appanage for your illustrious brother, the
ally and friend of my master--Normandy or Champagne. The Duke loves your
father's house, my Liege."

"So well," answered Louis, "that, mort Dieu! he's about to make them all
kings.--Is your budget of hints yet emptied?"

"Not entirely," answered the counsellor: "it will certainly be required
that your Majesty will forbear molesting, as you have done of late, the
Duke de Bretagne, and that you will no longer contest the right which
he and other grand feudatories have, to strike money, to term themselves
dukes and princes by the grace of God--"

"In a word, to make so many kings of my vassals. Sir Philip, would you
make a fratricide of me?--You remember well my brother Charles--he was
no sooner Duke of Guyenne, than he died.--And what will be left to the
descendant and representative of Charlemagne, after giving away these
rich provinces, save to be smeared with oil [a king, priest, or prophet
was consecrated by means of oil] at Rheims, and to eat their dinner
under a high canopy?"

"We will diminish your Majesty's concern on that score, by giving you
a companion in that solitary exaltation," said Philip de Comines.
"The Duke of Burgundy, though he claims not at present the title of an
independent king, desires nevertheless to be freed in future from the
abject marks of subjection required of him to the crown of France--it
is his purpose to close his ducal coronet with an imperial arch, and
surmount it with a globe, in emblem that his dominions are independent."

"And how dares the Duke of Burgundy, the sworn vassal of France,"
exclaimed Louis, starting up, and showing an unwonted degree of emotion,
"how dares he propose such terms to his Sovereign, as, by every law of
Europe, should infer a forfeiture of his fief?"

"The doom of forfeiture it would in this case be difficult to enforce,"
answered De Comines calmly. "Your Majesty is aware that the strict
interpretation of the feudal law is becoming obsolete even in the
Empire, and that superior and vassal endeavour to mend their situation
in regard to each other, as they have power and opportunity.

"Your Majesty's interferences with the Duke's vassals in Flanders will
prove an exculpation of my master's conduct, supposing him to insist
that, by enlarging his independence, France should in future be debarred
from any pretext of doing so."

"Comines, Comines!