The Strangled Queen (7 page)

He spoke with a certain relish, as if of a fine roast or a dish with an exquisite sauce.

Monseigneur of Valois spread out his ring-laden hands.

"Of what use is an annulment to you, Louis," he said, "so long as you have not chosen the
new woman you wish to marry?
Don't be so anxious about your annulment; a Sovereign can always obtain one in the end. What you need to do at once is to set about finding the `wife who will make' a suitable figure as queen beside you and give you a fine posterity."

Monseigneur of Valois had' the habit, when an obstacle presented itself, of glancing at it contemptuously and of immediately leaping forward to the next step; in war he disregarded islands of resistance, by-passed them and went on to attack the next, fortress.

"Brother," said the prudent Count of
Evreux, "
the matter is not as easy as all that, considering the position
our nephew
occupies, if he does not wish the wife he chooses to be of inferior rank."

"Nonsense! I know ten princesses in Europe who would overlook a great many things to wear the
crown of, France. For instance
- without having to look further, there's my niece Clemence of Hungary," said Valois, as if the idea, had only just occurred to him, when in fact he had been considering it for the last three days.

He waited for the effect of his suggestion. No one uttered a
word. But The Hutin
raised his head in interest.

"She is of our blood, since she is an Anjou," went on Valois. "Her father, Carlo-Martello, who renounced the throne of Naples-Sicily
to
lay claim to that of Hungary, is dead long
ago; that, no doubt, is why she has not
yet made a match. But her brother, Caroberto, is now reigning in Hungary and her uncle is King of Naples. Of course, she is a litt
le past the age of marriage'

"How old is she?" asked Louis X anxiously.

"Twenty-two. But is not that better than these little girls who are brought to wed when they are still playing with their dolls, and when they grow up reveal themselves to be full of vice, lies

and debauchery? Moreover, Nephew, it s not as if you
. were making a first marriage!"

"All this sounds too good to be true; there must be a fly in the ointment," thought The Hutin. "This Clemence must be one
-
eyed or hunchbacked."

"And what is she like, good-looking, " he enquired.

"Nephew, I can tell you that she is the most beautiful woman in Na
ples and that the painters, so
I am assured, try to reproduce
her features, when they paint images of the Virgin, Mary in the churches. I remember that even in childhood she promised remarkable beauty, and from everything I hear she has fulfilled that promise."

It certainly seems that she is very beautiful indee
d said Monseigneur of Evreux.

"And virt
uous," added Charles of Valois.
I feel sure that she has all those qualities which were her
dear aunts, who
was my
first wife, ma
y
God keep
her,
d
o
not forget that Louis of Anjou, her other uncle, my, brother-in-law therefore, having relinquished the throne in order to take holy orders, was that saintly Bishop, of Toulouse at whose tomb-miracles are performed."

"Thus we shall have a second Saint Louis," remarked Robert of Artois."

"Your idea seems to me a, happy one, Uncle, said Louis X. "Daughter of a kin
g, sister of a king, niece of a
king and of a s
aint, beautiful and virtuous.'

He seemed; to be dreaming for a moment, and then suddenly cried aloud, "Oh, I hope, at least that she is not dark like Margueri
te, for then I could not do it!
"

"No no," Valois replied
quickly: Have no fear, Nephew; she is fair, of sound Frankish stock."

"And do you think Uncle Charles
that the proposal would be
agreeable to her and her family."

Monseigneur of Valois swelled up like a turkey cock.

"I have served my relations of Anjou well enough for them to refuse me nothing," he replied. "Queen Marie, who in the past held it an honour to give me one
of her daughters, will most cer
tainly grant me her granddaughter for the dearest of my
nephews, and that she may be queen of the finest kingdom in the world. I shall manage it."

"Then don't waste time, Uncle," said Louis. "Send an embassy to
Naples at once.
' What do you think of the idea, Robert? And you, Uncle Louis-? "

Robert advanced a pace, his han
ds widespread as if he were
proposing to leave, at once for Italy. Louis of Evreux, who had sat down, replied that he approved the idea, but that the decision was as much a matter for the kingdom as for the family, and too important not to require consideration.

"It would seem to me
wise," he concluded, "that you should take the advice of your Council."

"So be it,"
replied Louis excitedly. "There
will be a Council
tomorrow therefore. I will send
to Messire de
Marigny telling him to convoke it."

"
Why Messire de Marigny? " said Valois, feigning surprise.- "I can very well take care of that myself. Marigny has too many duties and summons Councils in
haste merely to approve his pro
ceedings without looking into them too closely.. But we shall change all that, and I shall convene a Council more worthy to serve you. Moreover, this was your father's wish. He told me this privately during his last days."

By now their clothes were dry and they dressed.

Louis X gazed intently into the fire. "Beautiful and virtuous," he repeated to himself. "Beautiful and virtuous . . ." Then he was attacked by a fit of coughing and barely heard the others taking their leave.

"I know someone who will lie feverishly between the sheets tonight," said Artois, once they were outside in the corridor. -

"Robert," said Valois reproachfully, "don't forget that from now on you are speaking of the King."

"No, no, 'I don't forget it, and would never say anything like that before others. It doesn't alter the fact that you have put an idea into his head which is already exciting him physically. My God, you managed to sell him your niece Clemence all right! "

Monseigneur of Evreux was thinking of the
beautiful princess living in a
palace on the bay of Naples, whose fate had doubtless,
all unknown to her, been decided that day. Monseigneur of Evreux always marvelled at the mysterious, unforeseen ways in which human destinies were forged.

Because a great sovereign had died before his time, because a young king disliked leading a celibate life, because his uncle was impatient to satisfy his needs, because a name had been mentioned and remembered, a young fair-haired girl
who perhaps,
this very day, a thousand miles away, was beset with melancholy beside an eternally blue sea, thinking that nothing would ever happen to her, was suddenly fated to
become
the central preoccupation of the Court of France.

Monseigneur of Evreux had a sudden attack of conscience.

"Brother," he said to Valois, "do you really think that little Jeanne is a
bastard?
"

"I am not certain of it today, Brother," said Valois, placing a ringed hand upon his shoulder. "But I can assure you that before long all the world will know that she is!"

By this answer Monseigneur of Valois thought that he was momentarily serving his own interests; he did not know what the consequences of his attitude would be, that his, own son would owe to it the fact that one day he would become King of France.

If Monseigneur, of Evreux had been able to look into the future some fifteen years, he would have
found
further reason for reflection.

6. The Royal Bed

MONUMENTAL, sculptured with heavy-winged symbolical figures, the royal bed filled a third of the room. The canopy, draped in dark blue samite embroidered with golden lilies, resembled a portion of the nocturnal firmament; and the curtains draped about the dais were like sails
looped
from their yards.

The room, overwhelming in its silent, dark and reverential atmosphere, was lit only by an oil-burning night-light, placed in a rose-red lamp suspended by three chains from the ceiling;
10

beneath the glow, the counterpane of gold brocade fell in stiff folds to the floor and seemed to shine with a strange phosphorescent light.

For the last two hours Louis X had vainly sought sleep in the enormous bed which had been his father's. He felt stifled beneath the double fur, coverings, and shivered as soon as he dispensed, with them. Extreme fatigue causes insomnia, and insomnia
; is the cause of unhappiness.
Though, Philip the Fair had died at Fontainebleu, Louis felt as uneasy at finding himself in this bed as if he were aware of the presence of the corpse in it.

All the memories of the last few days, all the fears for the days, to come, were mingled in his mind. Someone shouted "Cuckold from the crowd'; Clemence of Hungary refused him, or perhaps was already affianced; the austere
features of Abbot Egidius bent
over the
tomb; "From now on we shall say
two prayers " "Do you know what she is counting on? She is hoping you will die before her!"

He suddenly got up, his heart beating like a crazy clock. The palace doctor, who had examined him before he went to bed, ha
d, assured him that his humours
were not too heated and that he would have a good night. But Louis had not told him of the two moments of faintness he had felt a
t Saint-Denis, the chill which
had seized upon his limbs, and the way the crowd about him had seemed to reel. Now the same disquiet, to which he could, give no precise name, came upon him once more. Tortured by his fears, The Hutin, in a long white nightshirt, which seemed to float about a formless body, walked without respite round the room as if pursued by a doppelganger, as, if he must die at the least cessation of movement.

Was he to die like his father, smitten in the head by the Hand of God? "I too," he thought aghast, "was prese
nt
when they burnt the Templars before the Palace." Can one ever know the night of one's death? Can one ever know the night one will go mad? And should he
succeed
in

surviving this abominable night, should he see the lagging winter dawn, in what an appalling state of exhaustion he would have to preside at his first Council upon the morrow! He would say to them, "Messires ..." But indeed
what words would he find to say to them? "Each one of us in his loneliness undergoes the moment of recognition of sin, and it is mere vanity to believe that there are riot moments like this in life."

"Ah, Uncle," said The Hutin aloud, "why did you, have to say that?"

H
is own voice seemed strange to him. He continued to hurry round the
great bed of oak and gold, gasping like a fish out of water.

It was the bed that terrified him. It was the bed that was accursed; he would never
be able to sleep in it. He had
been conceived it; it was therefore absurdly logical that he should die

to
in it. "Must;
I, spend all the nights of my reign walking
round and round so as not to die?," he wondered. But how could he go and sleep elsewhere, call servants to prepare him another room? Where cou
ld he find the courage to admit
"I can no longer sleep here because I am afraid," and appear before his equerries, chamberlains and the masters of his household discomfited, trembling and fearful.

He was a king and knew not how to reign; he was a man and knew not how, to live; he was married and had no w
ife. Even if Clemence of
Hungary accepted him, how ma
ny weeks, how many months, must
he wait before a human presence, came to reassure
his nights and help him sleep!
"And will this one love me? Or will she behave as the other did'?"

Suddenly he went and opened the door, awoke the First Chamberlain who was
si
tting fully clothed in the ante-chamber and
asked him, "
Does Dame Eudeline still look after the Palace

linen?"

"Yes, Sire,'' I think so, Sire," replied Mathi
eu de Trye. "Well, find out. An
d if she
does
send for her at once." Surprised an
d half asleep - Anyway, he seems
able to sleep!"
thought The Hutin with hatred
-
the Chamberlain asked whether
the King wished to have his sheets changed.

The Hutin made a gesture of impatience.

"Yes, that's what I wan
t. Go and find her, I tell you!
"

He went back into the bedroom and resumed his anxious pacing
to and fro, wondering,
"Does she still live i
n the Palace? Will she be found?
"

A few minutes
later Dame Eudeline appeared, carrying a pile of sheets. And at once Louis X had the feeling that he was no longer cold.

"Monseigneur Louis, I mean to say,
Sire!
" she cried, "I knew that I must not put new sheets on your bed. One always sleeps badly in them. It was Messire de Trye who ordered me
to do it
, He
said that it was the precedent.
Whereas I wanted to give you thin, well-washed sheets."

She was a b
ig fair merry woman,
large-breasted, with the comfortable look of
a
wet-nurse about her, giving an impression of peace, warmth and repose. She was thirty-two years old and her face seemed to preserve naturally a calm expression of youthful surprise whic
h was pleasant
and grateful to behold. From under her white nightca
p flowed long tresses of golden
hair which fell upon her shoulders. She had hastily put on a dressing-gown over her nightgown.

Louis looked at her a moment without speaking.

"It was not because of the sheets I sent for you," he said at length:

A sweet, modest blush suffused the linen-maid's cheeks.

"Oh, Monseigneur! Sire, I mean to say! Has returning to the Palace made you remember me?"

She had been h
is first mistress, and that was
ten years ago. The day upon which he had learnt
-
he was then fifteen
-
that he was soon t
o be married to a Princess of Burgundy. The Hutin had been consumed with an extraordinary frenzy to discover what love was, and at the same time was panic-stricken at the idea that he would not
know
how to behave towards his wif
e. While the marriage was being
negotiated, and Marigny was engaged with Philip the Fair in, weighing the territorial and military benefits of the alliance, the young prince could think of nothing else. At night he imagined all the ladies of the Court succumbing to the ardour of his desires, while during the day he was nervous and shy in their presence.

'And then one afternoon, in one of the Palace corridors, he had
suddenly run into this handsome girl, walking calmly in front of him, her hands full of linen. He had thrown himself upon her with violence and anger as if he owed her a grudge for the fear that troubled him. It must be her or no one, now or never. However, he had not raped her; his agitation, his anxiety, his clumsiness would have rendered him incapable of doing so. He, had demanded from Eudeline that she should
teach him love.
Lacking a man's assurance he intended to use the prerogatives of
a
prince. He had been lucky; Eudeline had not laughed at him, and had indeed evinced a certain pride at surrendering to the desires of a king's son, even allowing him to believe that she had found a certain pleasure in it. She had been so successful in this that for ever after he had felt himself, to: be a man in
her presence.

Louis always sent for her when he was dressing himself to hunt or
f
or the exercise, of arms and Eudeline had quickly realised that he particularly needed love when he was frightened. For several months before Marguerite came to Court, and even for some time afterwards, she had helped him, by the mere presence of her calm
and generous body, to overcome
his fears. And if The Hutin was capab
le of. any hidden capacity for
tenderness, he owed it to this
handsome woman.

"Where is your daughter?
" he asked.

"She is with my mother, who is bringing her up. I didn't want her to stay here
with me; she looks too like her father," replied Eudeline with a half-smile.

"At least," Louis said, "I believe she is mine."

"Oh, but of course,, Monseigneur, she is certainly yours Sire, I mean to say. Every day her looks becam
e more like yours. And it could
only embarrass you to let her be seen by the Palace people."

Because, indeed, a child, who was to be baptised Eudeline like her
mother, had resulted from his
hasty love-making. Any woman with a gift for intrigue would have assured her fortune by her pregnancy, and founded a line of barons. But The Hutin was so afraid of revealing; the event to his father, that Eudeline had taken pity on him once again and remained silent. Her husband, who was clerk to Messire de Nogaret, had had some difficulty in
accepting the fact that her pregnancy was due to a miracle which had, curiously enough, taken, place while he was accompanying the Justiciar along the roads of Provence.. He had protested so
much that Eudeline had at
last
admitted the facts.
The same kind of men are always attracted to the same kind of women. The clerk was not very courageous, and as soon as he knew from whom the gift came, his fear overwhelmed his anger as rain allays the wind. He too kept silent and arranged matters so that he
might
be absent from Paris as much
as possible. He had, more
over died soon afterwards, less from sorrow than
from dysentery.

And Dame Eudeline had continued to manage the Palace washing, at the rate of fivepence per hundred pieces washed. She had become first linen-maid, which in the royal household was a position of middling importance.

During all this period the little Eudeline was growing up in that peculiar, insolence common to bastards, that they bear upon their features the characteristics of their il
legitimacy. But very few people
knew about it.

Dame Eudeline always said to herself that one day The Hutin would remember. He had made so many promises, so solemnly sworn that when he became king he would lavish wealth and titles upon her daughter, and that she had everything to gain by waiting till that day!

She now thought that she had be
en right to believe, him, sur
prised that he was so promptly fulfilling his promises. He really has a certain kindness of heart,"
she thought. "He is eccentric,
but not ill-natured."

Moved by her memories, by the thought of times past, by the strangeness of fate, she gazed at this sovereign who had found, in
her arms the first expression of his anxious virility, and
who w
as

now there before her, clothed in a nightshirt and sitting in an armchair, his hair falling to the level of his chin, his hands clasped about his knees. "Why did this happen to me?" she said to herself. "Why should it have happened to me?"

"How old is my daughter now"' he asked. "Nine, isn't she? "

"Just nine, Sire."

" I will give her the precedence of a princess as soon as she is old enough to marry. I wish it. And what can I do for you? "

He
needed her. It was now or never to ask for rewards. Discretion counts for nothing with the great ones of the earth, and one must quickly take advantage of their momentary disposition
to satisfy one's
ambition. Because, later on, they inevitably feel themselves freed
of their gratitude simply
by having made the offer, and they, forget to give. The Hutin would happily ha
ve spent the whole night discussi
ng the benefits he would lavish upon her, merely so that Eudeli
ne should keep him company till dawn. But, surprised
by his ques
tion, she was content to reply,
- "What you will, Sire.
"

And then, since he was never much
inclined to consider other
people, he began thinking only of himself again.

Oh Eudeline Eudeline!
"
he cried. "I
should, have sent for you earlier and got you to come to, the Hotel
de Nesle where I have been very
unhappy these many months."

"I know, Monseigneur Louis, that you have been very badly treated by your wife. But I would not have dared to come to you; I did not know whether you would have been glad or ashamed to see me again.

He was no longer listening
to her. He, too, had his vivid
memories. His, huge blue eyes, turned upon her, gleamed in the glow, of the night-light. Eudeline well knew what that look meant. He had had it at fifteen, and never would have other in a woman's presence.

"Lie
down, he said shortly.

"Do you mean there, Monseigneur, I mean to say, Sire?" she
murmured, somewhat afraid, indicating Philip the Fair's bed.

"Yes, there, that's what I do mean," replied The Hutin in a
hoarse voice.

Between what seemed to her sacrilege on the one hand and disobedience on the other, what could she do? After all, he was now
King, and the bed was his. She took off her night-cap, let her

dressing-gown and nightdress fall, and her golden tresses flowed
down her back. She was rather stouter than she had been, but
still had a beautifully curved waist, a broad and reassuring back,

a silken thigh upon which the light played. All her gestures were submissive, and it was precisely this submissiveness that The Hutin was in need of. He watched her mount the little oaken steps to get into bed and thought that, as a warming- pan
overcame
its chill, so this beautiful body would overcome the demons that haunted it:

A little anxious and bewildered, but above all submitting to her destiny, Eudeline had slipped beneath the golden counterpane.

"He was right," she thought
immediately; these new sheets
scratch! I knew it."

Louis had feverishly taken off h
is nightshirt; narrow of chest,
bony of shoulder, heavily clumsy, he threw himself upon her with a desperate haste, as if he could not risk deferring for one instant the opportunity that was now his.

A vain haste. In certain things kings are like other men, they
cannot control everything. The Hutin's desires were largely cerebral Clutching Eudeline's shoulders, as might a drowning man a lifebuoy, he strove with every feint to overcome an impotence which seemed beyond hope.
"Certainly, if he was unable to
honour Madame Marguerite with more satisfactory attentions than these," Eudeline said to herself, "one can see why she deceived him."