 the honeymoon
incognito at Deptford or Greenwich. I will not, therefore, tell more of this
matter, but will steal away from the wedding, as Ariosto from that of Angelica,
leaving it to whom it may please to add farther particulars, after the fashion
of their own imagination.
 
»Some better bard shall sing, in feudal state
How Braquemont's Castle op'd its Gothic gate,
When on the wand'ring Scot, its lovely heir
Bestow'd her beauty and an earldom fair.«71
 

                                     Notes

1 The heralds of the middle ages, like the feciales of the Romans, were invested
with a character which was held almost sacred. To strike a herald was a crime
which inferred a capital punishment; and to counterfeit the character of such an
august official was a degree of treason towards those men, who were accounted
the depositaries of the secrets of monarchs and the honour of nobles. Yet a
prince so unscrupulous as Louis XI. did not hesitate to practise such an
imposition, when he wished to enter into communication with Edward IV. of
England.
Exercising that knowledge of mankind for which he was so eminent, he selected,
as an agent fit for his purpose, a simple valet. This man, whose address had
been known to him, he disguised as a herald, with all the insignia of his
office, and sent him in that capacity to open a communication with the English
army. Two things are remarkable in this transaction. First, that the stratagem,
though of so fraudulent a nature, does not seem to have been necessarily called
for, since all that King Louis could gain by it would be, that he did not commit
himself by sending a more responsible messenger. The other circumstance worthy
of notice is, that Comines, though he mentions the affair at great length, is so
pleased with the King's shrewdness in selecting, and dexterity at
indoctrinating, his pseudo-herald, that he forgets all remark on the impudence
and fraud of the imposition, as well as the great risk of discovery. From both
which circumstances we are led to the conclusion, that the solemn character
which the heralds endeavoured to arrogate to themselves had already begun to
lose regard among statesmen and men of the great world.
Even Ferne, zealous enough for the dignity of the herald, seems to impute this
intrusion on their rights in some degree to necessity. »I have heard some,« he
says, »but with shame enough, allow of the action of Louis XI. of the kingdom of
France, who had so unknightly a regard both of his own honour
