allowing
a moment's consideration for the obstacles to be encountered. Yet the King hated
Charles even more than he contemned him, and his scorn and hatred were the more
intense, that they were mingled with fear; for he knew that the onset of the mad
bull, to whom he likened the Duke of Burgundy, must ever be formidable, though
the animal makes it with shut eyes. It was not alone the wealth of the
Burgundian provinces, the discipline of the warlike inhabitants, and the mass of
their crowded population, which the King dreaded, for the personal qualities of
their leader had also much in them that was dangerous. The very soul of bravery,
which he pushed to the verge of rashness, and beyond it - profuse in expenditure
- splendid in his court, his person, and his retinue, in all which he displayed
the hereditary magnificence of the house of Burgundy, Charles the Bold drew into
his service almost all the fiery spirits of the age whose tempers were
congenial; and Louis saw too clearly what might be attempted and executed by
such a train of resolute adventurers, following a leader of a character as
ungovernable as their own.
    There was yet another circumstance which increased the animosity of Louis
towards his overgrown vassal; he owed him favours which he never meant to repay,
and was under the frequent necessity of temporising with him, and even of
enduring bursts of petulant insolence, injurious to the regal dignity, without
being able to treat him otherwise than as his fair cousin of Burgundy.
    It was about the year 1468, when their feuds were at the highest, though a
dubious and hollow truce, as frequently happened, existed for the time betwixt
them, that the present narrative opens. The person first introduced on the stage
will be found indeed to be of a rank and condition, the illustration of whose
character scarcely called for a dissertation on the relative position of two
great princes; but the passions of the great, their quarrels, and their
reconciliations, involve the fortunes of all who approach them; and it will be
found, on proceeding farther in our story, that this preliminary Chapter is
necessary for comprehending the history of the individual whose adventures we
are about to relate.
 

                                 Chapter Second

                                 The Wanderer.

 Why then the world is my oyster, which I with sword will open.
                                                                 Ancient Pistol.
 
It was upon a delicious summer morning, before the sun had assumed its scorching
power, and while the dews yet cooled and perfumed the air, that a youth, coming
from the north-eastward, approached the ford of a small river, or rather a large
brook