CHAPTER LXXI
"As is the race of leaves so is that of men." And a great man buddedunnoticed in a tailor's house at Rotterdam this year, and a large mandropped to earth with great eclat.
Philip, Duke of Burgundy, Earl of Holland, etc., etc., lay sick atBruges. Now paupers got sick and got well as Nature pleased; but woebetided the rich in an age when, for one Mr. Malady killed three fell byDr. Remedy.
The Duke's complaint, nameless then, is now diphtheria. It is, and was,a very weakening malady, and the Duke was old; so altogether Dr. Remedybled him.
The Duke turned very cold: wonderful!
Then Dr. Remedy had recourse to the arcana of science.
"Ho! This is grave. Flay me an ape incontinent, and clap him to theDuke's breast!"
Officers of state ran septemvious, seeking an ape, to counteract thebloodthirsty tomfoolery of the human species.
Perdition! The duke was out of apes. There were buffaloes, lizards,Turks, leopards; any unreasonable beast but the right one.
"Why, there used to be an ape about," said one. "If I stand here I sawhim."
So there used; but the mastiff had mangled the sprightly creature forstealing his supper; and so fulfilled the human precept, "Soyez de votresiecle!"
In this emergency the seneschal cast his despairing eyes around; and notin vain. A hopeful light shot into them.
"Here is this," said he, sotto voce. "Surely this will serve: 'tisaltogether apelike, doublet and hose apart."
"Nay," said the chancellor peevishly, "the Princess Marie would hang us.She doteth on this."
Now this was our friend Giles, strutting, all unconscious, in cloth ofgold.
Then Dr. Remedy grew impatient, and bade flay a dog.
"A dog is next best to an ape; only it must be a dog all of one colour."
So they flayed a liver-coloured dog, and clapped it, yet palpitating, totheir sovereign's breast and he died.
Philip the Good, thus scientifically disposed of, left thirty-onechildren: of whom one, somehow or another, was legitimate; and reignedin his stead.
The good duke provided for nineteen out of the other thirty; the restshifted for themselves.
According to the Flemish chronicle the deceased prince was descendedfrom the kings of Troy through Thierry of Aquitaine, and Chilperic,Pharamond, etc., the old kings of Franconia.
But this in reality was no distinction. Not a prince of his day haveI been able to discover who did not come down from Troy. "Priam" wasmediaeval for "Adam."
The good duke's, body was carried into Burgundy, and laid in a noblemausoleum of black marble at Dijon.
Holland rang with his death; and little dreamed that anything asfamous was born in her territory that year. That judgment has been longreversed. Men gaze at the tailor's house, here the great birth of thefifteenth century took place. In what house the good duke died "no oneknows and no one cares," as the song says.
And why?
Dukes Philip the Good come and go, and leave mankind not a halfpennywiser, nor better, nor other than they found it.
But when, once in three hundred years, such a child is born to the worldas Margaret's son, lo! a human torch lighted by fire from heaven; and"FIAT LUX" thunder's from pole to pole.