that very same Philip, to whom, but a few short months agone I gave a larger boon,my powerful suffrage, and aided to assume the crown with which proud Edward fain had girt his youthful brow.-Meseems he not remembers this, for never once hath he made mention of the service-It is to D'Artois,-to Robert," My fair cousin, my kind brother!" -it is to him he now thinks fit to lend all ear, and give his hand in friendship, and to laud, as though the fortunes of all France were guarded by his shield and buckler! For me!Why, it seemeth I am as nothing in his royal eye! such mighty matter doth he make of having striped these sorry dunghill-minded weavers!

"Then, too, his Grace dismisseth me with these most gracious words!" You have ruled your tradesfolk harshly!"-I'll rule them with a rod of iron, that will I, a stubborn race of low bred cullions!" Punish them as a father, not like a tyrant !"-I'll punish them as best it pleaseth me to punish factious slaves!—I'll card and comb them, so as but just to leave

them wherewithal, to pay for carding their own greasy wool!-I'll wring them dry!-they shall not have an idle crown within their coffers, to buy up arms and breed sedition!

Again," I might," quoth Philip, " demand a reimbursement of expenses;—but I'll not take wages from a vassal!"—" Vassal!-Why yes, 'tis true, I am his vassal!-I not deny it.But yet, not many months have passed since I did walk upon the same high footing of dignity, as he.-Philip was somewhat nearer to the throne, 'tis true,-but still I was his peer, -Ay, that was I!—I was as great, and am as good as he.

"All this to me.-Then cometh D'Artois.What saith he to him?-" Fair cousin,"—or, "kind cousin," or, " dear Robert," which of those was it?"-" Next unto God, it is to thee and to thy love that I owe victory. I thank thee for not leaving me within the clutches of the woolman, Zannecq."—" He oweth victory to Robert, doth he? How so, I wonder? Could Robert D'Artois, then, have trampled down those boors, without the aid and the

abetment of another Robert,-hight Robert de Cassel, my brother, who brought the cavalry just in the nick of time to crunch them. -Yet,-"Robert,"" Cousin Robert,”—and "Brother Robert," and so forth, is to have all the praise, and all the vantage due unto hisay! his betters.→

"Oh! D'Artois, D'Artois! poor is the language which my mother taught me, for it not lendeth to my tongue a word to speak a curse one tithe as big as is the hate my heart doth bear to thee!-Why gave she not her son to syllable those sounds, those magic sounds, wherewith Marigni caused the hearers to emaciate and die ?*-Wherefore may I not breathe upon and make thee fade, as fade the Alpine pinnacles of ice before the summer gale?-Why may mine eye not burn and blister thee, or melt thee into dew?-Thou

Enguerrard de Marigni was a gentleman-gentilhomme, -accused of having employed a magician to take away the King's life-Louis Hutin-by means of certain wax images placed before a fire.

art as odious in my sight as is the venomous and loathsome toad, which leaves its slimy trace on all it crawls o'er, rendering filthy what before was beautiful!-As an ill spirit hast thou watched my deeds, and marred their purpose.-Have I e'er had an object of pursuit, and, after days of travel, nights of watchfulness, deemed it within my reach, and thy most hated form not reared itself 'twixt it and me, and seized it from my gripe?-Didst thou not blight my early love, and snatch from it the maid I should have mated with ?-Ah me! yet true to this vain thought. Vain!-wherefore vain? chance not vain!—D'Artois! thou standest high in Philip's love,-in this hast thou outstripped me too!-keep thy station!-see thou slidest not thence!-He calls thee brother of Artois, but for thee it had been "brother of Flanders."-Thou hast wronged me-see to thyself!-Brother of Flanders!-ay! why not so yet?-Perchance!-Inez! not for thy sole profit did I cause the eye of Majesty to bend in love upon thee,-thou must be

per

mindful of thy patron,-and to him do service for the service he hath done to thee.D'Artois-again-I hate thee-look to thyself!—I'll weave the meshes of a web thy wit shall never teach thee to unravel, nor thy strength able thee to break.-I know thy passions-weaknesses-and wishes-all -look to thyself.-Each hath his turn; thine hath been.-But soft, we'll more of this anon!”