"O faint-spirited man-at-arms!"cried Charlotte,blushing,and laughing as if some exquisite jest were abroad."Do you so terribly dread your mistress's anger?Nay,be of good cheer!Me she will never forgive while the world stands;for have I not been your nurse,and won you back to life and to her service?And has she not seen us twain together in one place,and happy,because of the coming of the Maid?She will pardon me never,because,also for my sake,she has been wroth with you,and shown you her wrath,and all without a cause.Therefore she will be ashamed,and all the more cruel.Nay,nor would I forgive her,in the same case,if it befell me,for we women are all alike,hearts of wolves when we love!Hast thou never marked a cat that had kittens,or a brachet that had whelps,how they will fly at man or horse that draws near their brood,even unwittingly.And so,when we love,are we all,and the best of us are then the worst.Verily the friendship of you and me is over and done;but for your part be glad,not sorry,for with all her heart and soul she loves you.Else she had not been angered.""You must not speak,nor I hear,such words of my lady,"I said;"it is not seemly.""Such words of your lady,and of Aymeric's lady,and of Giles's lady,and of myself were I any man's lady,as I am no man's lady,Iwill think and speak,"said Charlotte,"for my words are true,and we maids are,at best,pretty fools,and God willed us to be so for a while,and then to be wiser than the rest of you.For,were we not pretty,would you wed us?and were we not fools,would we wed you?and where would God's world be then?But now you have heard enough of my wisdom:for I love no man,being very wise;or you have heard enough of my folly that my mirth bids me speak,as you shall deem it.And now,we must consider how this great feud may be closed,and the foes set at one again.""Shall I find out her lodgings,and be carried thither straightway in a litter?Her heart may be softened when she sees that I cannot walk or mount a horse?""Now,let me think what I should deem,if I had ridden by,unlooked for,and spied my lover with a maid,not unfriendly,or perchance uncomely,sitting smiling in a gallant balcony.Would I be appeased when he came straight to seek me,borne in a litter?Would I--?"And she mused,her finger at her mouth,and her brow puckered,but with a smile on her lips and in her eyes.
Then I,seeing her so fair,yet by me so undesired;and beholding her so merry,while my heart was amazed with the worst sorrow,and considering,too,that but for her all this would never have been,but I sitting happy by my lady's side,--thinking on all this,I say,I turned from her angrily,as if I would leave the balcony.
"Nay,wait,"she cried,"for I must see all the show out,and here come the Scots Guard,thy friends,and I need time to take counsel with my wisdom on this weighty matter.See,they know you";and,indeed,many a man in that gallant array waved his hand to me merrily,as they filed past under their banners--the Douglas's bloody heart,the Crescent moon of Harden,the Napier's sheaf of spears,the blazons of Lindsays and Leslies,Homes,and Hepburns,and Stuarts.It was a sight to put life into the dying breast of a Scot in a strange country,and all were strong men and young,ruddy and brown of cheek,high of heart and heavy of hand.And most beckoned to me,and pointed onwards to that way whither they were bound,in chase of fame and fortune.All this might have made a sick man whole,but my spirit was dead within me,so that I could scarce beckon back to them,or even remember their faces.
"Would I forgive you,"said Charlotte,after she had thrown the remnant of her roses to her friends among the Scots,"if you hurried to me,pale,and borne in a litter?Nay,methinks not,or not for long;and then I should lay it on you never to see her face again;--she is I,you know,for the nonce.But if you waited and did not come,then my pride might yield at length,and I send for you.But then,if so,methinks I would hate her (that is,me)more than ever.
Oh,it is a hard case when maids are angry!""You speak of yourself,how you would do this or that;but my lady is other than you,and pitiful.Did she not come all these leagues at a word from me,hearing that I was sick?""At a word from you,good youth!Nay,at a word from me!Did you speak of me in your letter to her father?""Nay!"said I.
"You did well.And therefore it was that I wrote,for I knew she would move heaven and earth and the Maid or she would come when she heard of another lass being in your company.Nay,trust me,we women understand each other,and she would ask the Maid,who lodged here with us,what manner of lass I was to look upon,and the Maid's answer would bring her.""You have been kind,"I said."And to you and the saints I owe it that I yet live to carry a sore heart and be tormented with your ill tongue.""And had you heard that a fair young knight,and renowned in arms,lay sick at your lady's house,she nursing him,would you not have cast about for ways of coming to her?"To this I answered nothing,but,with a very sour countenance,was rising to go,when my name was called in the street.
Looking down,I saw my master,who doffed his cap to the daughter of the house,and begging leave to come up,fastened his horse's bridle to the ring in the wall,by the door.
Up he came,whom Charlotte welcomed very demurely,and so left us,saying that she must go about her household business;but as she departed she cast a look back at me,making a "moue,"as the French say,with her red lips.
"Well,my son,"cried my master,taking my hand,"why so pale?Sure thou hast had a sore bout,but thou art mending."I could but stammer my lady's name -"Elliot--shall I see her soon?"He scratched his rough head and pulled his russet beard,and so laughed shamefacedly.
"Why,lad,to that very end she came,and now--St.Anthony's fire take me if I well know why--she will none of it.The Maid brought us in her company,for,as you know,she will ever have young lasses with her when she may,and as far as Orleans the roads are safe.
