htest (though it might
pass, since it has amused two Princes), which hath gone farther than a
thousand reasons of state to prevent a war between France and Burgundy."

Such was the inference of Le Glorieux, when, in consequence of the
reconciliation of which we gave the particulars in the last chapter, the
Burgundian guards were withdrawn from the Castle of Peronne, the abode
of the King removed from the ominous Tower of Count Herbert, and, to the
great joy both of French and Burgundians, an outward show at least of
confidence and friendship seemed so established between Duke Charles
and his liege lord. Yet still the latter, though treated with ceremonial
observance, was sufficiently aware that he continued to be the object of
suspicion, though he prudently affected to overlook it, and appeared to
consider himself as entirely at his ease.

Meanwhile, as frequently happens in such cases, whilst the principal
parties concerned had so far made up their differences, one of the
subaltern agents concerned in their intrigues was bitterly experiencing
the truth of the political maxim that if the great have frequent need
of base tools, they make amends to society by abandoning them to their
fate, so soon as they find them no longer useful.

Thus was Hayraddin Maugrabin, who, surrendered by the Duke's officers
to the King's Provost Marshal, was by him placed in the hands of his two
trusty aides de camp, Trois Eschelles and Petit Andre, to be dispatched
without loss of time. One on either side of him, and followed by a few
guards and a multitude of rabble--this playing the Allegro, that the
Penseroso, [the mirthful and the serious. Cf. Milton's poems by these
names.]--he was marched off (to use a modern comparison, like Garrick
between Tragedy and Comedy) to the neighbouring forest; where, to
save all farther trouble and ceremonial of a gibbet, and so forth, the
disposers of his fate proposed to knit him up to the first sufficient
tree.

They were not long in finding an oak, as Petit Andre facetiously
expressed it, fit to bear such an acorn; and placing the wretched
criminal on a bank, under a sufficient guard, they began their
extemporaneous preparations for the final catastrophe. At that moment,
Hayraddin, gazing on the crowd, encountered the eyes of Quentin Durward,
who, thinking he recognized the countenance of his faithless guide in
that of the detected impostor, had followed with the crowd to witness
the execution, and a