at once to another and more furious mood, and traversed the
room hastily, uttering incoherent threats, and still more incoherent oaths of
vengeance, while, stamping with his foot, according to his customary action, he
invoked Saint George, Saint Andrew, and whomsoever else he held most holy, to
bear witness, that he would take bloody vengeance on De la Marck, on the people
of Liege, and on him who was the author of the whole. - These last threats,
uttered more obscurely than the others, obviously concerned the person of the
King; and at one time the Duke expressed his determination to send for the Duke
of Normandy, the brother of the King, and with whom Louis was on the worst
terms, in order to compel the captive monarch to surrender either the Crown
itself, or some of its most valuable rights and appanages.
    Another day and night passed in the same stormy and fitful deliberations, or
rather rapid transitions of passion; for the Duke scarcely ate or drank, never
changed his dress, and, altogether, demeaned himself like one in whom rage might
terminate in utter insanity. By degrees he became more composed, and began to
hold, from time to time, consultations with his ministers, in which much was
proposed, but nothing resolved on. Comines assures us, that at one time a
courier was mounted in readiness to depart for the purpose of summoning the Duke
of Normandy; and in that event, the prison of the French monarch would probably
have been found, as in similar cases, a brief road to his grave.
    At other times, when Charles had exhausted his fury, he sat with his
features fixed in stern and rigid immobility, like one who broods over some
desperate deed, to which he is as yet unable to work up his resolution. And
unquestionably it would have needed little more than an insidious hint from any
of the counsellors who attended, his person, to have pushed the Duke to some
very desperate action. But the nobles of Burgundy, from the sacred character
attached to the person of a King, and a Lord Paramount, and from a regard to the
public faith, as well as that of their Duke, which had been pledged when Louis
threw himself into their power, were almost unanimously inclined to recommend
moderate measures; and the arguments which D'Hymbercourt and Des Comines had now
and then ventured to insinuate during the night, were, in the cooler hours of
the next morning, advanced and urged by Crèvecoeur and others. Possibly their
zeal in behalf of the King might not be entirely disinterested. Many, as