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THE COURT JESTER
"I am Marguerite of Hapsburg!"--_Page 51_]
THE COURT JESTER
_By_CORNELIA BAKER
_Author of_The Queen's PageYoung People in Old Places, etc.
_With Illustrations by_MARGARET ELY WEBB_and_MARGARET H. DEVENEAU
INDIANAPOLISTHE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANYPUBLISHERS
COPYRIGHT 1906THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
DEDICATED TO MYDEAR EUGENIA F. F.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I LE GLORIEUX HEARS GOOD NEWS 1 II A FESTIVAL AT THE INN 13 III AN EXCITING DAY AND EVENING 33 IV BROKEN PROMISES 61 V THE WONDERFUL WISDOM OF PITTACUS 76 VI LADY CLOTILDE'S MOONSTONE PENDANT 98 VII A PLEASANT SURPRISE FOR THE PRINCESS 124 VIII A ROYAL ALCHEMIST 153 IX PHILIBERT IN DANGER 167 X A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE 194 XI THE LADY MARGUERITE IS VERY BRAVE 214 XII AN AUSTRIAN PRINCESS AT THE SPANISH COURT 230 XIII TRIPPING THE MEASURES OF THE EGG-DANCE 249
THE COURT JESTER
CHAPTER I
LE GLORIEUX HEARS GOOD NEWS
The old duchess was talking of the past, while behind her chair LeGlorieux was silently and joyously turning handsprings. I wish I mightgive him another name, for that one is certainly a mouthful, but as hereally lived, and that was what he was called, we must manage it as bestwe can.
You may think, and with reason, that turning handsprings was not arespectful thing to do when a lady, and above all a duchess, wastalking. But Le Glorieux was the court jester, the fool, who whenCharles the Bold, son of the duchess, was living, was wont to make hismaster laugh. Therefore his conduct and conversation as a rule were notwhat one could expect of a sedate and dignified member of society.
In the presence of his late master, Le Glorieux could have turnedhandsprings in plain view, but the dowager duchess was old and querulousand resented such performances. She was the widow of Philip the Good,Duke of Burgundy, and she looked very much like a fairy godmother inher quaint costume of the time of Charles the Seventh. She had beenlady in waiting at the court of the French king, and she still clung tothe high headdress, towering some twenty inches above her brow, and itslong veil, which seemed to be boiling in filmy folds, like foam, fromits pointed top. By her side was an ebony crutch, not for the purpose ofturning pumpkins into coaches for the convenience of neglectedCinderellas, but to support the weight of the owner when she cared tomove about; for rheumatism, which was up and doing even so long ago asthe fifteenth century, had no more respect for a duchess than for ascullery maid, and had spitefully attacked her Grace of Burgundy.
The windows were veiled by heavy curtains that excluded the sunshine,and the only light in the long dim room came from the brazier at thefeet of the duchess, who required artificial heat even in this warmautumn weather. Outside--Le Glorieux knew--the birds were singing andthe butterflies were dipping in and out among the roses nodding in thesoft breeze; but to-day the beauties of nature did not attract him sostrongly as did the unusual degree of excitement going on in the castle.The Lady Clotilde had been sent for by her cousin, the young DuchessAnne of Brittany, and so, bag and baggage and servants, she was to setout on the following morning. Throughout the castle was felt the buzzand bustle of preparation, maids running in and out, and pages spinningup and down the staircases, for the Lady Clotilde liked to keepeverybody busy. Le Glorieux longed to see what was going on, for, thougha grown man, he possessed the heart of a rollicking boy and was highlyentertained by a hubbub.
There had been plenty of diversion while Charles the Bold was living, afact of which you will be convinced when you read your history ofFrance, and he had once taken Le Glorieux with him to the wars, wherethe latter had shown himself to be brave and fearless, and when Charleswas not planning campaigns against the neighboring countries, or engagedin carrying out his plans, he liked, while sipping the red or the whitewine of his province, to listen to the drolleries of his jester. Inthose days, you see, there were no newspapers, no printed jokes, and itwas necessary for even a fierce and warlike duke to laugh at times. Butafter the duke's death nobody cared much for the jester's jokes, and hisprincipal duty seemed to be to listen to the dowager duchess talk, andas she was in the habit of repeating the same story a good many times aday, her conversation was usually extremely wearisome.
"I remember it well"]
"Yes," said she, holding her wax-like hands out to the brazier andrubbing them thoughtfully, "I remember it as well as if it had happenedyesterday. I do not know whether I ever mentioned to you, Le Glorieux,that I was lady in waiting to her Highness, Marguerite of Scotland, thenDauphiness of France?"
With the agility of a cat the jester, who at this moment was standing onhis head, regained his feet and stood respectfully before her Grace."Never, Cousin," replied he gravely; "or at least not more than fivethousand times."
"I thought not," she returned, for being somewhat deaf she had notcaught the latter part of the sentence. "Yes, I was in the train of thatdear and beauteous lady whom I loved so much that I still wear thecostume chosen by her, this cap and veil and these shoes."
The old lady thrust out a foot shod in a shoe having a sharp point aslong again as her foot, remarking contentedly, "This is a fine style ofa shoe, do you not think so, Le Glorieux?"
"Yes, Cousin, and one calculated to encourage an ambitious great toethat is anxious to keep on growing," replied the fool, whose own shoeswere pointed, but in a style far less exaggerated than those of herGrace.
"As I was saying," she went on, "I remember it as well as if it hadhappened yesterday. The dauphiness was fond of learning, and shecomposed verses of no small merit. I too caught the contagion andcomposed verses. I wish that I could remember some of them to repeat toyou."
"Do not trouble yourself, Cousin," said the jester hastily; "I amnothing but a fool, you know, and I must deny myself many pleasures."
"At the court," she resumed, "lived at the time the great poet AlainChartier, who was a wonderfully gifted man, though very plain. One daywhen the dauphiness and her ladies--I was among them, Le Glorieux--werecrossing the courtyard we found Alain Chartier asleep on a bench. Muchto our surprise her Highness gathered up her long train so that itsrustle would not awaken him, and tripping softly toward the sleepingpoet she kissed him on the lips. Yes, Le Glorieux, that great princessconsort of the dauphin--afterward Louis the Eleventh--deigned to kiss ahumble poet with her own lips! Was it not wonderful?"
"Not so wonderful as if she had tried to kiss him with somebody else'slips," replied the fool, adding, "but it was unfair to Chartier."
"Why unfair?"
"Because she had no right to take him unawares and unarmed."
Her Grace frowned darkly as she replied, "Le Glorieux, you are nothingbut a fool and you can not understand what an honor it was for a humblepoet to be kissed by a great princess. But one of the courtiers said,'Madame, why did you kiss that extremely unprepossessing man?' Thedauphiness replied, 'I did not kiss the man----'"
"How could she say that," broke in the jester, "when you all saw her doit?"
"Do not interrupt me, Fool. The dauphiness said, 'I did not kiss theman----'"
"That is what you said befo
re," interrupted the fool again, "and I sayshe must have been a very silly little woman."
"Fool, do you not know that you are daring to criticise a princess ofScotland, daughter of James the Second of that country?"
"I do not care if she was the daughter of his present Majesty, Henry theSeventh of England; it was foolish of her to try to make people doubtthe evidence of their own eyes."
"Will you let me finish, you great gawk?" Then raising her voice andspeaking very rapidly the duchess went on, "The dauphiness said, 'I didnot kiss the man, but that precious mouth from which has come so manynoble and virtuous words.'"
"I call that a very slipshod way to get out of it," replied the fool."Let us take an example. Suppose I had gone to the court of France andhad cut off the late king's head. The soldiers arrest me and I say, 'Idid not kill the man, I simply sliced off that head which has hatched upso many horrible schemes.' Would they apologize and let me go? Not a bitof it!"
"But this, you see, was figurative."
"I do not care what you call it. She kissed his lips, did she not?"
"Yes."
"And was not the man behind them at the time?"
"Of course, but you see----"
"Then there is nothing more to say about it," went on the fool.
The duchess reflected seriously for a moment and then seemed to arriveat the conclusion that it would not pay her to continue the argument.Besides, she was somewhat muddled herself. She continued, "Was it awonder that so gracious a lady should have been misunderstood at such acourt? And she died mysteriously, Le Glorieux, when she was butone-and-twenty, and in her illness she said, 'Fie upon this life; let noone talk more of it to me!'"
"I am not surprised that she felt that way," said the jester. "Now thatLouis is dead, they say that he was not cruel, but firm. For my part, Ido not like the kind of firmness that wants to hang or drown half thepeople in the kingdom, though it may be that I am too particular."
"Yes, I remember that day as well as if it had been yesterday," went onthe duchess, with her dull eyes fixed dreamily upon the red coals of thebrazier, and the fool again glided behind her chair and resumed thehandsprings.
At last, attracted in the midst of her recollections by the incessantringing of the little bells on the jester's cap, which his livelymotions kept a-tinkle, the old lady craned her neck and glancing behindher chair caught him in the very act of standing on his head!
Indignant at his inattention and forgetting the license accorded courtfools, she seized her crutch and hit him a swift rap across the calvesof the legs which caused him to reverse himself with a howl.
"How dare you treat me with such disrespect, and not only me, but thegracious princess of whom I was talking!" she cried angrily. "You shallleave the court. I have no need of a fool!" Then a sudden and pleasantthought seemed to come into her mind, for she said, "I know what I willdo. I feel that I should send Anne of Brittany a present, and I wasgoing to send her an emerald. I will not part with the gem; I will sendyou, Le Glorieux, instead, with a letter saying that I am presenting herwith the most precious possession of the late Duke of Burgundy, to cheerher in the various trials brought about by the reign of one so young.Yes, that will be fine, and I shall keep the emerald. You may leave me,Fool, and prepare for your departure while I think over the wording ofmy letter."
Le Glorieux was so overcome with joy at this sudden and unexpected turnof affairs that he forgot his abused calves, and his feet scarce touchedthe steps as he mounted to his little tower chamber, for you must knowthat a fool was a kind of slave, and although having many privilegeswithin the palace, was not allowed to leave it even for a night withoutspecial permission.
On the landing of the staircase stood a boy of eleven or twelve years ofage, looking sadly out of the mullioned window. He was a pretty youthand he wore a fine suit, to say nothing of a cap with a curling plume,but he did not look happy.
"Cheer up, Antoine," said the jester, slapping him on the back; "betterdays are in store for me."
"What will your better days avail me?" asked the boy, with a shrug.
"Well answered," said the jester reflectively. "Yet when things aregoing well with us we are surprised that the world does not smile withus, while we expect it to boohoo when we are sad. But I have been givenpermission to go to Brittany. Think of that! Try to overcome yourindifference, and think what a joy it will be to me to live where Ishall no longer hear the story of the princess who kissed the poet. Andshe has just hit me a blow on the legs that has raised lumps as big asplovers' eggs. Did it with her crutch, too!"
"She struck me across the shoulders with it because I could not find herneedle, and she held the needle in her fingers all the time," said thepage mournfully.
"Knowing her little ways, you should have looked in her fingers first,"said the fool, adding blithely, "but she will never strike me again,because I am going away."
"You need not continually flaunt that in my face," returned the boy, inan injured tone, continuing with the mournful pleasure that many of ustake in predicting misfortune for people whom we envy; "there may beworse things in store for you than to be struck by an ill-natured woman.I heard of a youth who went to a strange court with great glee and thevery next day both of his ears were cut off."
"I do not think I should like a thing of that kind to happen to me,"said the fool gravely. "Of course, the loss of my ears would never benoticed, because my cap covers them, but at the same time I think Ishould miss them myself, having always had them, you know. But I do notthink you quite understand just why I am going away. Our mistress issending me as a present, a pretty, dainty present, to the young Duchessof Brittany, and you know it would not be good taste to ill-treat apresent."
"You are a strange present to send to a young lady," remarked the pagesourly. "I warrant she will not be overjoyed with her packet when itmeets her gaze."
"Oh, yes she will," returned Le Glorieux easily. "You see it isnecessary for her to be cheered, for not only have there been frequentturmoils in her duchy, but there has been a perfect fever of excitementabout her matrimonial arrangements from the day she was born. First theywanted her to marry one of the little princes of England afterwardsmothered by his affectionate Uncle Richard; then it was the Infante ofSpain, and though it now seems settled that she is to marry Maximilianof Austria, still she must be nervous and unsettled. At any rate, ourmistress wants to do something gracious, and being more than a trifleclose, and not wishing to send a valuable jewel, she sends me in thecare of the Lady Clotilde as the most valuable jewel of her possession."
"Oh, Le Glorieux, take me with you!" pleaded Antoine, forgetting hissarcasm in his anxiety to share his friend's good fortune. "If you onlywill I shall be your debtor for life."
"That would be impossible, my lad. You must remain here to find herGrace's needle when she drops it, and to lead the life of a nice, tamepussy-cat."
"I will not!" cried the boy, dashing the tears from his bright eyes. "Myfather, who, as you know, died in battle, never intended that I shouldgrow up thus tamely. Take me with you, oh, Le Glorieux, do!"
"I should like to," replied the jester thoughtfully. "You could ridebeside me and you should fetch your lute and you could sing to me alongthe way to make the birds ashamed of themselves. But even if you shouldrun away, the Lady Clotilde would not let you go with us, for you knowwhat she is. If she were a peasant woman she would be called sour anddisagreeable, but being a great lady she is simply dignified and firm."
But there are times when we are enabled to get that for which we verymuch wish, and it so happened that the Lady Clotilde wanted the boy inher suite and begged him of the duchess, who willingly acquiesced, forcaring not at all for his musical talent and his handsome face, he wasno more to her than any other page.
So there were not two lighter hearts in the good duchy of Burgundy thanwere those of the page and the jester as they set about making theirpreparations for departure. They were pleased to leave the court wherelife had grown so monotonous, and
they were delighted that they were togo in each other's company, for though there was a difference of somefifteen years in their respective ages, Le Glorieux and Antoine werevery fond of each other.