But we were all young and hopeful still, and that
straight walk in the Cours de la Reine was a paradise to some of us,
if a fool's paradise. For look you! in these great States-General,
who but Clement Darpent the eloquent would make speeches, and win
honours that would give him a right to rewards for higher than the
hand of a poor exiled maiden, if I were still an exile? Though he
declared that I had been his inspiration, and helped to brace him for
the struggle, and far more truly, that my dear brother had shown him
what a nobleman, bred under English law, could be, when neither
ground down by the Crown, nor forced to do nothing but trample on his
vassals.
And Meg began to hope for her Gaspard. She told how the young King
was fond of him, and really seemed fired by some emulation at finding
that a boy so much younger than himself knew more than he did. Our
boy was reading Virgil and Plutarch's lives. He told the stories to
the young King, who delighted to listen, though the Duke of Anjou
thought everything dull except cards, tennis, and gossip. The King
was even beginning to read to himself. 'And,' said Clement, when he
heard it, 'let him be fired with the example of Agis or Clomenes, and
what may he not do for France?' Oh, yes! we were very happy, though
we talked of hardly anything but politics. It was the last happy day
we were to have for a good while to come.
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE BOEUF GRAS
(Annora's Narrative)
I said it was a fool's paradise, and it did not last long.
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