pon Saint
Richard's day the next ensuing was, at Eltham, as proxy of Jehane,
married in his own person to the bloat King of England. First had Sire
Henry placed the ring on Riczi's finger, and then spoke Antoine Riczi,
very loud and clear:

"I, Antoine Riczi--in the name of my worshipful lady, Dame Jehane, the
daughter of Messire Charles until lately King of Navarre, the Duchess
of Brittany and the Countess of Rougemont--do take you, Sire Henry of
Lancaster, King of England and in title of France, and Lord of Ireland,
to be my husband; and thereto I, Antoine Riczi, in the spirit of my
said lady"--he paused here to regard the gross hulk of masculinity
before him, and then smiled very sadly--"in precisely the spirit of my
said lady, I plight you my troth."

Afterward the King made him presents of some rich garments of scarlet
trimmed with costly furs, and of four silk belts studded with silver
and gold, and with valuable clasps, whereof the recipient might well be
proud, and Riczi returned to Lyonnois. "Depardieux!" his uncle said;
"so you return alone!"

"As Prince Troilus did," said Riczi--"to boast to you of liberal
entertainment in the tent of Diomede."

"You are certainly an inveterate fool," the Vicomte considered after a
prolonged appraisal of his face, "since there is always a deal of other
pink-and-white flesh as yet unmortgaged-- Boy with my brother's eyes!"
the Vicomte said, and in another voice; "I would that I were God to
punish as is fitting! Nay, come home, my lad!--come home!"

So these two abode together at Montbrison for a long time, and in the
purlieus of that place hunted and hawked, and made sonnets once in a
while, and read aloud from old romances some five days out of the
seven. The verses of Riczi were in the year of grace 1410 made public,
and not without acclamation; and thereafter the stripling Comte de
Charolais, future heir to all Burgundy and a zealous patron of rhyme,
was much at Montbrison, and there conceived for Antoine Riczi such
admiration as was possible to a very young man only.

In the year of grace 1412 the Vicomte, being then bedridden, died
without any disease and of no malady save the inherencies of his age.
"I entreat of you, my nephew," he said at last, "that always you use as
touchstone the brave deed you did at Eltham. It is necessary a man
serve his lady according to her commandments, but you have performed
the most absurd and the cruelest task which any woman e