The Strangled Queen (10 page)

"What are you proposing to do with Madame Marguerite?" asked Pareilles.

"For the moment she is a hostage. She must not be allowed to communicate with anyone, and let her safety be well looked t
o. I need her alive, and for a
long time yet. If her way of life is
having a bad effect upon her health, let it be made easier. The second order I have for you is this: as soon as you come back from Normandy, you
will leave
for the south. You will have sent ahead of you three hundred men from the Paris reserves
to await
you at Orange. 'Arrived there, you will take command of them
and install them
in the fort of Villeneuve, opposite Avignon. I want you to make a considerable stir about taking possession of
the place. Make your
archers march six times round the ramparts. Seen from beyond the river, they will look as if they numbered two thousand. I want, the cardinals to shiver in their robes,
and
it's for their benefit I' am organising this masquerade. It will complement the trick I'm playing on them by other means. When you have done this, leave your men in position and return."

"By God, that suits me well, Messire Enguerrand," Alain de Pareilles. "To go and give that fool a piece of my mind and put the fear of God into those, red-clothed asses will be a pleasant

change from inspecting the Palace guard; and here . ." He stopped, hesitating to go on, and at last came out with what
he had upon his mind.

" .. and here, to tell you the truth, Enguerrand, there is an, atmosphere which I don't care for."

He sadly shook his iron-grey head.

"All the same, you must
stay here," replied Marigny. "I fear that the servants of King Philip will have much to suffer` in the days ahead. I need you in command of the Archers. You need not warn the Constable about the movement of troops I have ordered; I'll tell him myself. Goodbye, Alain."

The he went into his study where the justiciars he had sent for and some others as well, such as Briancon and Bourgenai,
who
had c
ome ,of their own accord at the news,, had gathered.
Their, familiar; voices fell silent at his entry. The walls of the room were furnished with carved desks equipped with ink-horns and writing
-
tablets from which depended weights to hold the parchments flat. Up
on swivelled reading-desks lay
files and documents. These furnishings made the room look
like a
chapel or a monastic library.

"Messires," said Enguerrand de Marigny,
gazing with emotion
upon his friends, "you were not done the honour of being summoned to the Council which I attended this morning. We shall now hold a very private Council among ourselves."

"We shall lack only King Philip," said Raoul de Presles with a melancholy smile.

"Let us pray that his soul will
come to our aid. He did not
doubt us," replied Marigny.

Then with renewed anger he cried, "I have been asked to submit my accounts to examination, Messires, and I have had the Treasury removed from my control. I therefore wish to produce a very accurate account. Issue orders to every bailiwick and seneschalship that all accounts must be paid, beginning with the smallest debts. Let all supplies be paid for, all work in progress, everything that has been
ordered in the name
of the crown. Let everything be paid till there is no gold left, even where delay is possible.

The others had already grasped the game he was playing. Enguerrand cracked his finger-joints as if he were in process of strangling someone. "Monseigneur of Constantinople wishes to take over the Treas
ury,' does he?" he cried. "Much
good may it do him ! He'll have to look elsewhere for the money to pay, for hi
s intrigues
"

3. Charles of Valois

IF the atmosphere were stormy on
the left bank at Monseigneur de
Marigny's, the contrary was true on the right bank at the Count of Valois's house.

A conscious sense of pride lay over the whole household. The most junior equerry felt that he had ministerial authority for rebuking the footmen, the women ordered people about more tyrannically than before, and the children screamed more loudly.

Everyone knew, or wished to show that he knew; everyone was sharing in advance in the events that were taking place, and in his
own way; there were widespread boasting, backstairs whisperings, much importunate flattery and general running to and fro; the baronial party was triumphant.

Seeing the number of people who, on the very first morning after the dramatic Council, crowded into the rooms to show that they were faithful supporters of the winning party, one might have thought that the real Court was not at the Palace of the Cite,, but at the Hotel de Valois.

Moreover, it was a kingl
y residence! There was no beam
in the ceilings that was not, carved, nor a hearth whose monumental chimney-piece was not decorated with the escutcheons of France and Constantinople. The stone floors were covered with oriental rugs, and the walls with Cyprian tapestries embroidered with gold. On tables and sideboards silver and carved silver-gilt stood side by side with enamels and precious stones.

Chamberlains, newly important, gravely passed each other instructions, and there was no one down to the last w
riting-clerk
wh
o did not endeavour to assume a
dignified air.

The ladies-in-waiting to the Countess of Valois gossiped in a group about Canon Etienne de Mornay who, after Monseigneur of Valois, was the man of the hour. A whole following, effervescent, busy, flattering, came and went, stood in the window embrasures and discussed public affairs. Everyone was there, making pretence of having
been summoned, for Monseigneur
of Valois was, in fact, holding consultations in his study.

Even the fabulous Sire de Joinville had been seen to arrive supporte
d by a white-beared equerry. A
phantom from another age, the years had turned him into a tottering skeleton. The ancient Seneschal of Champagne, who had accompanied Saint Louis upon the crusade of 1248, had been the principal witness at the proceedings which had led to his canonization, and had recently dictated his memoirs though his memory was now beginning to fail, was ninety-one years old. Half-blind, his eyes watery, his limbs trembling, and his understanding not very clear, though still flattered that he should be remembered, he brought to the Count of Valois, by his presence alone, the moral support of the ancient chivalry and of the old feudal world.

The smell of power was abroad in Paris and it seemed that everyone wished to sniff it.

But behind this facade of prestige there was a canker hidden: money, its hideous lack, its pursuit, which for years now Charles of Valois had ceaselessly; maintained. Remorselessly led, on by his temperament to wish to take first place, he had lived above his resources, accumulating debts till he was scarcely able to pay the interest upon them.

The luxury in which he lived was fabulously expensive. And then there was his numerous and terrible family. Mahaut de Chatillon, his third wife, loved the most extravagant clothes and could not have borne
that another
woman should be better dressed than herself. Philippe, his favourite son, since he had been knighted was continuously buying suits of
armour,
fine light English surcoats, Cordovan boots, lances of wood from the north, and German swords.

A prolific progenitor, Monseigneur of Valois had thirteen daughters by his three marriages! Those who were already married had caused Charles to get into debt so that their weddings might match in splendour the crowns with which they were allying themselves. As for the others, marriage portions had to be thought o
f if they were to find suitable
husbands.

As for the chamberlains, equerries, stewards and servants, they were both numerous and excessively rapacious. It was impossible to prevent their wasting everything, and stealing more. To feed the wh
ole crowd of them, meat arrived
on the scale
of whole carcasses at a
time, and
vegetables
and groceries by the cartload.

Not long before,
playing the liberal
by enfranchising the serfs of his estates
-
beca
use his brother had obliged him
to
-
against, compensation, Valois had been able to meet part
of his debts.
But serfs can only be liberated once; and if, with the change of reign, the King's uncle longed to take the affairs of the kingdom into his own hands, it was as much to restore his credit as to satisfy his lust for power.,

Some battles leave the conqueror as poor as the conquered. Monseigneur of Valois now had control of the royal treasury; but the treasury was empty.

And while on the ground floor the crowd was warming and refreshing itself at his expense, Valois, in his study, receiving visitor after visitor, was searching for some means of filling not only his own coffers, but also those of the State.

As he led the
redoubtable Count of Dreux, with whom he had been discussing the situation in the bailiwicks west of Paris, to the top of the stairca
se, he heard a commotion below,
mingled, with cries of surprise.

It was Robert of Artois who, in the centre of an admiring circle, was twisting a horseshoe in his hands. Someone had just said in his presence that. King Philip had been able to do it in his youth, and the giant wanted to demonstrate that this particular talent: was common in his family. The veins swelled in his temples with the effort but the iron bent and
men nodded their heads
with respect while th
e women uttered little cries of
wonder.

Monseigneur of Valois appeared upon a sort of interior balcony which overhung the Great
Hall.
At once all' those present raised their heads towards him like a nestful of young birds waiting to, be fed.

"A
rtois!" called Valois. "I would
like to have -a word, with you.

"I am at your disposal, Cousin," replied big Robert.

He threw the twisted horseshoe town equerry who very nearly received it on his head, and hastened to join the King's uncle in his study.

The room had th
e proportions of a cathedral, A
huge tapestry, embroidered in silver and gold, pictured upon the walls an embarkation, for a crusade. Ivory statues, pictures, thin carved shutters standin
g open, goblets encrusted with
gems, all gave the room an air of even greater luxury than the rest of the
house.
Upon a little table stood a chessboard of jasper and jade, mounted in silver and set with precious, stones; one set of pieces was of jasper and the other of rock-crystal.

"Well," cried Valois,"
do you think your man will come? He seems very dilatory.

Heavy, massive in appearance, his colour high, superbly dressed to the point of bad taste, he walked to and fro, his expression
anxious, among the treasures of w
hich most had not yet been paid
for.

"Well, Cousin, I sincerely hope he
does come!
" replied Artois. "I am no less anxious to see him than you are, I can assure you, because if he gives us a favourable
answer, I
propose making you a request."'

"What may that be?"

"Now that you have control of the royal treasury, could it not pay me some of what it owes me?"

Valois raised his arms towards the ceiling.

"Don't you realise, Cousin," Artois went on, "that for the last seven years I have not been paid the five thousand pounds of revenues from my county of Beaumont, which was graciously given me supposedly in recompense for having Artois taken away, though it already belonged to me! Just think what that means! Thirty-five thousand pounds due to me. What am I expected to live on?

Valois put his hand on Robert's arm with the protective gesture that was habitual to him.

"'Cousin,
" he said, "for the moment the great
urgency is to find the money to
send Bouville on his way. The King is hourly demanding it. After th
at, I promise you, your affairs
are the first I shall attend to."

But his face grew dark with anxiety. To how, many people had he
made the same promise since the
day before?

"The trick Marigny has pla
yed on us, emptying the coffers by making payments, will be
his last, I promise you," he cried. "I'll have him hanged, do you understand, Robert! I'll have him hanged! Where do you think the revenues from your county have gone? Into his pocket, my good Cous
in; into his pocket, I tell you!
"

Since he had succeeded in giving the Rector-General of the kingdom a first blow, there were no limits to Valois's rage, and
he continually found new causes for complaint against him.

In his eyes Marigny was responsible for everything. Had a burglary b
een committed in Paris? It was
Marigny's fault because his police were not properly organised, perhaps even
went shares with the bu
rglar. Had Parliament issued a
decree to the disadvantage of a great lord? Marigny had dictated it
,
Had a husband discovered his wife's misconduct? Again it was Marigny's fault, because of the incredible relaxation of morals that had taken place since he had been in
power. it