United States or Cook Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
So far as he could judge, the Doomsmen could not be regarded as formidable through mere weight of numbers. Their available fighting force Constans estimated at two hundred, which would indicate a total population of a round thousand. Now Croye alone was a city of full fifteen hundred inhabitants, and the census of the West Inch should show twice that number.
Ah! had you but half the heart of your noble ancestry, you would find means at some court where ladies' love and fame in arms are still prized, to maintain a tournament at which your hand should be the prize, as was that of your great grandmother of blessed memory, at the spear running of Strasbourg, and thus should you gain the best lance in Europe, to maintain the rights of the House of Croye, both against the oppression of Burgundy and the policy of France."
In these words did King Louis XI give the first hint of the extraordinary resolution which he afterwards adopted in order to dupe his great rival, the subsequent execution of which had very nearly proved his own ruin. He parted with his counsellor, and presently afterwards went to the apartment of the Ladies of Croye.
It had been Constans's original plan to cross the river some miles above Croye, and so avoid attracting the attention of the Doomsmen should any of their parties be afield. The expedition would then move cautiously down the east bank in the hope of surprising the guard at the High Bridge, and so gain entrance to the city.
Calling himself Mortimer, and claiming to be a cousin of Richard, Duke of York, in 1450, at the head of twenty thousand men, he took formal possession of London. And now to business. I must determine the ladies of Croye to a speedy and secret flight, under sure guidance. This will be easily done we have but to hint the alternative of surrendering them to Burgundy.
He had a purpose in remaining here in Croye, almost within sight of Doom the Forbidden; he had not forgotten that therein dwelt one Quinton Edge. And now a new life began for the boy, and a hard one.
"Your Majesty," answered the counsellor, "may send these ladies of Croye back to Burgundy, and so make your peace with the Duke. Many might murmur at this as dishonourable; but if necessity demands the sacrifice " "If profit demanded the sacrifice, Oliver, the sacrifice should be made without hesitation," answered the King.
The Count consigned her, in a state of great exhaustion, to the care of the Abbess of the Cistercian convent in Charleroi, a noble lady, to whom both the families of Crevecoeur and Croye were related, and in whose prudence and kindness he could repose confidence.
"'Between the less-lee and the mair, He slew the Knight, and left him there." "There is then no help for it," said the Duke, "and the fairest and richest heiress in Burgundy must be the wife of a rude mercenary soldier like this, or die secluded in a convent and she the only child of our faithful Reginald de Croye! I have been too rash."
My own uncle and Councillor Primus of Croye," she concluded, hopefully. But Nanna was not to be so easily convinced. "But, Esmay, it is impossible," she exclaimed. "You could never escape from Doom." "But I will." "You cannot. The High Bridge to the north is always guarded, and on the other three sides of the city there is deep water." "I shall manage it," returned the girl, confidently.
Word Of The Day