He must unite such various qualities--a friend to your Majesty--an enemy to Burgundy--of policy enough to conciliate the Ghentois and Liegeois, and of valour sufficient to defend his little dominions against the power of Duke Charles--of noble birth besides--that your Highness insists upon; and of excellent and virtuous character to the boot of all." "Nay, Oliver," said the King, "I leaned not so much--that is so very much, on character; but methinks Isabelle's bridegroom should be something less publicly and generally abhorred than Adolphus of Gueldres.

For example, since I myself must suggest some one--why not William de la Marck ?" "On my halidome, Sire," said Oliver, "I cannot complain of your demanding too high a standard of moral excellence in the happy man, if the Wild Boar of Ardennes can serve your turn.

De la Marck!--why, he is the most notorious robber and murderer on all the frontiers--excommunicated by the Pope for a thousand crimes." "We will have him released from the sentence, friend Oliver--Holy Church is merciful." "Almost an outlaw," continued Oliver, "and under the ban of the Empire, by an ordinance of the Chamber at Ratisbon." [Ratisbon was the seat of the German Reichstag from 1663 to 1806.] "We will have the ban taken off, friend Oliver," continued the King, in the same tone; "the Imperial Chamber will hear reason." [A supreme court of appeals established in 1495 by Maximilian I: the first law court established in Germany.] "And admitting him to be of noble birth," said Oliver, "he hath the manners, the face, and the outward form, as well as the heart, of a Flemish butcher--she will never accept of him." "His mode of wooing, if I mistake him not," said Louis, "will render it difficult for her to make a choice." "I was far wrong indeed, when I taxed your Majesty with being over scrupulous," said the counsellor.

"On my life, the crimes of Adolphus are but virtues to those of De la Marck!--And then how is he to meet with his bride?
Your Majesty knows he dare not stir far from his own forest of Ardennes." "That must be cared for," said the King; "and, in the first place, the two ladies must be acquainted privately that they can be no longer maintained at this Court, except at the expense of a war between France and Burgundy, and that, unwilling to deliver them up to my fair cousin of Burgundy, I am desirous they should secretly depart from my dominions." "They will demand to be conveyed to England," said Oliver "and we shall have her return to Flanders with an island lord, having a round, fair face, long brown hair, and three thousand archers at his back." "No--no," replied the king; "we dare not (you understand me) so far offend our fair cousin of Burgundy as to let her pass to England.

It would bring his displeasure as certainly as our maintaining her here.
No, no--to the safety of the Church alone we will venture to commit her; and the utmost we can do is to connive at the Ladies Hameline and Isabelle de Croye departing in disguise, and with a small retinue, to take refuge with the Bishop of Liege, who will place the fair Isabelle for the time under the safeguard of a convent." "And if that convent protect her from William de la Marck, when he knows of your Majesty's favourable intentions, I have mistaken the man." "Why, yes," answered the King, "thanks to our secret supplies of money, De la Marck hath together a handsome handful of as unscrupulous soldiery as ever were outlawed; with which he contrives to maintain himself among the woods, in such a condition as makes him formidable both to the Duke of Burgundy and the Bishop of Liege.