"Everybody," he writes - I translate roughly - "everybody
should be much inclined to peace, for everybody has a deal to
gain by it." (2)
(1) IBID. 144.
(2) IBID. 158.
Charles made laudable endeavours to acquire English, and even
learned to write a rondel in that tongue of quite average
mediocrity. (1) He was for some time billeted on the unhappy
Suffolk, who received fourteen shillings and fourpence a day
for his expenses; and from the fact that Suffolk afterwards
visited Charles in France while he was negotiating the
marriage of Henry VI., as well as the terms of that
nobleman's impeachment, we may believe there was some not
unkindly intercourse between the prisoner and his gaoler: a
fact of considerable interest when we remember that Suffolk's
wife was the granddaughter of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. (2)
Apart from this, and a mere catalogue of dates and places,
only one thing seems evident in the story of Charles's
captivity. It seems evident that, as these five-and-twenty
years drew on, he became less and less resigned.
Circumstances were against the growth of such a feeling. One
after another of his fellow-prisoners was ransomed and went
home. More than once he was himself permitted to visit
France; where he worked on abortive treaties and showed
himself more eager for his own deliverance than for the
profit of his native land.
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