obscured. Quentin
observed that the Duke studiously avoided even looking at the Royal Guards, and
when he returned their salute, that he kept his eyes bent on the ground, as if
he feared the King's jealousy might have construed that gesture of ordinary
courtesy, as arising from the purpose of establishing a separate and personal
interest among them.
    Very different was the conduct of the proud Cardinal and Prelate, John of
Balue, the favourite minister of Louis for the time, whose rise and character
bore as close a resemblance to that of Wolsey, as the difference betwixt the
crafty and politic Louis and the headlong and rash Henry VIII. of England would
permit. The former had raised his minister from the lowest rank, to the dignity,
or at least to the emoluments, of Grand Almoner of France, loaded him with
benefices, and obtained for him the hat of a cardinal; and although he was too
cautious to repose in the ambitious Balue the unbounded power and trust which
Henry placed in Wolsey, yet he was more influenced by him than by any other of
his avowed counsellors. The Cardinal, accordingly, had not escaped the error
incidental to those who are suddenly raised to power from an obscure situation,
for he entertained a strong persuasion, dazzled doubtless by the suddenness of
his elevation, that his capacity was equal to intermeddling with affairs of
every kind, even those most foreign to his profession and studies. Tall and
ungainly in his person, he affected gallantry and admiration of the fair sex,
although his manners rendered his pretensions absurd, and his profession marked
them as indecorous. Some male or female flatterer had, in evil hour, possessed
him with the idea that there was much beauty of contour in a pair of huge
substantial legs, which he had derived from his father, a car-man of Limoges,
or, according to other authorities, a miller of Verdun; and with this idea he
had become so infatuated, that he always had his cardinal's robes a little
looped up on one side, that the sturdy proportion of his limbs might not escape
observation. As he swept through the stately apartment in his crimson dress and
rich cope, he stooped repeatedly to look at the arms and appointments of the
cavaliers on guard, asked them several questions in an authoritative tone, and
took upon him to censure some of them for what he termed irregularities of
discipline, in language to which these experienced soldiers dared no reply,
although it was plain they listened to it with impatience and with contempt.
    »Is the King aware,« said Dunois to the Cardinal, »that the