BOOK TENTH.
CHAPTER 5. THE RETREAT IN WHICH MONSIEUR LOUIS OF FRANCE SAYS HIS PRAYERS.
(continued)
"'Tis like that request in Latin from the gentlemen of
France, that we should re-establish what they call the grand
charges of the Crown! Charges in very deed! Charges which
crush! Ah! gentlemen! you say that we are not a king to
reign dapifero nullo, buticulario nullo! We will let you see,
pasque-Dieu! whether we are not a king!"
Here he smiled, in the consciousness of his power; this
softened his bad humor, and he turned towards the Flemings,--
"Do you see, Gossip Guillaume? the grand warden of the
keys, the grand butler, the grand chamberlain, the grand
seneschal are not worth the smallest valet. Remember this,
Gossip Coppenole. They serve no purpose, as they stand thus
useless round the king; they produce upon me the effect of the
four Evangelists who surround the face of the big clock of the
palace, and which Philippe Brille has just set in order afresh.
They are gilt, but they do not indicate the hour; and the
hands can get on without them."
He remained in thought for a moment, then added, shaking
his aged head,--
"Ho! ho! by our Lady, I am not Philippe Brille, and I
shall not gild the great vassals anew. Continue, Olivier."
The person whom he designated by this name, took the
papers into his hands again, and began to read aloud,--
"To Adam Tenon, clerk of the warden of the seals of the
provostship of Paris; for the silver, making, and engraving
of said seals, which have been made new because the others
preceding, by reason of their antiquity and their worn condition,
could no longer be successfully used, twelve livres parisis.
"To Guillaume Frère, the sum of four livres, four sols parisis,
for his trouble and salary, for having nourished and fed
the doves in the two dove-cots of the Hôtel des Tournelles,
during the months of January, February, and March of this
year; and for this he hath given seven sextiers of barley.
"To a gray friar for confessing a criminal, four sols parisis."
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