the Three Kings of
Cologne, that small shall be my thought of other earthly concerns, till I take
full revenge on the murderers of the good Louis of Bourbon, whether I find them
in forest or field, in city or in country, in hill or in plain, in King's Court,
or in God's Church! and thereto I pledge lands and living, friends and
followers, life and honour. So help me God, and Saint Lambert of Liege, and the
Three Kings of Cologne!«
    When the Count of Crèvecoeur had made his vow, his mind seemed in some sort
relieved from the overwhelming grief and astonishment with which he had heard
the fatal tragedy that had been acted at Schonwaldt, and he proceeded to
question Durward more minutely concerning the particulars of that disastrous
affair, which the Scot, nowise desirous to abate the spirit of revenge which the
Count entertained against William de la Marck, gave him at full length.
    »But those blind, unsteady, faithless, fickle beasts, the Liegeois,« said
the Count, »that they should have combined themselves with this inexorable
robber and murderer, to put to death their lawful Prince!«
    Durward here informed the enraged Burgundian that the Liegeois, or at least
the better class of them, however rashly they had run into the rebellion against
their Bishop, had no design, so far as appeared to him, to aid in the execrable
deed of De la Marck; but, on the contrary, would have prevented it if they had
had the means, and were struck with horror when they beheld it.
    »Speak not of the faithless, inconstant plebeian rabble!« said Crèvecoeur.
»When they took arms against a Prince, who had no fault, save that he was too
kind and too good a master for such a set of ungrateful slaves - when they armed
against him, and broke into his peaceful house, what could there be in their
intention but murder? - when they banded themselves with the Wild Boar of
Ardennes, the greatest homicide in the marches of Flanders, what else could
there be in their purpose but murder, which is the very trade he lives by? And
again, was it not one of their own vile rabble who did the very deed, by thine
own account? - I hope to see their canals running blood by the light of their
burning houses. Oh, the kind, noble, generous lord, whom they have slaughtered!
- Other vassals have rebelled under the pressure of imposts and penury; but the
men of Liege in the fulness of insolence and plenty.«