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And lately we have had the most dreadful proof of the height to which these evils have arrived in our case, by the scandalous flight of the Countess Isabelle of Croye, and her aunt the Lady Hameline, to take refuge with a foreign power, thereby renouncing their fealty to us, and inferring the forfeiture of their fiefs; and in another more dreadful and deplorable instance, by the sacrilegious and bloody murder of our beloved brother and ally, the Bishop of Liege, and the rebellion of that treacherous city, which was but too mildly punished for the last insurrection.
Hayraddin then turned round to the Countess Hameline, who had sunk down on the ground, between shame, fear, and disappointment. "Here has been a mistake," he said, "up, lady, and come with me I will provide you, ere morning comes, a gallanter husband than this smock faced boy, and if one will not serve, you shall have twenty."
She proved to be the youthful Countess Isabelle, heiress of the rich earldom of Croye, who had fled with her aunt, the Countess Hameline, from the overlordship of the Duke of Burgundy. Had death been the penalty Durward must needs have rendered to this beauty and her companion the same homage which he paid to royalty.
Her increasing paleness contradicted her words, and induced the Lady Hameline to call for assistance, as the Princess was about to faint.
As he was now again at the head of the little troop, and pursuing the road which had been pointed out to him, the Lady Hameline had an opportunity to say to him, "Methinks, fair sir, you regret the victory which your gallantry has attained in our behalf?" There was something in the question which sounded like irony, but Quentin had tact enough to answer simply and with sincerity.
"Wretch!" said Quentin, emphatically "but it is not shall not be too late I will back to rescue the Lady Hameline." "Hameline," whispered the lady, in a disturbed voice, "hangs on thy arm, to thank thee for her rescue." "Ha! what! How is this?" said Quentin, extricating himself from her hold, and with less gentleness than he would at any other time have used towards a female of any rank.
Deep and submissive was the reverence with which the Countess Hameline de Croye, so was the elder lady called, received the obliging offer of the Princess's protection.
Lowering his voice, perhaps from similar feelings of timidity, Quentin answered in the affirmative. "Then methinks, my cousin," said the Lady Isabelle, addressing the Lady Hameline, "we must be safe under this young gentleman's safeguard, he looks not, at least, like one to whom the execution of a plan of treacherous cruelty upon two helpless women could be with safety intrusted."
But the Count of Crevecoeur returned again and again to the subject questioned him on every particular of the surprise of Schonwaldt, and the death of the Bishop, and then suddenly, as if he had recollected something which had escaped his memory, demanded what had become of the Lady Hameline, and why she was not with her kinswoman?
He even lost all respect for Walter Scott on account of the oversights in his Quentin Durward. The murder of the Archbishop of Liège is anticipated by fifteen years. The wife of Robert de Lamarck was Jeanne d'Arschel and not Hameline de Croy.
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