And yet further to the left, a cavalcade
defiles out of the tower; the duke is on his way at last
towards "the sunshine of France."
III.
During the five-and-twenty years of his captivity, Charles
had not lost in the esteem of his fellow-countrymen. For so
young a man, the head of so great a house, and so numerous a
party, to be taken prisoner as he rode in the vanguard of
France, and stereotyped for all men in this heroic attitude,
was to taste untimeously the honours of the grave. Of him,
as of the dead, it would be ungenerous to speak evil; what
little energy he had displayed would be remembered with
piety, when all that he had done amiss was courteously
forgotten. As English folk looked for Arthur; as Danes
awaited the coming of Ogier; as Somersetshire peasants or
sergeants of the Old Guard expected the return of Monmouth or
Napoleon; the countrymen of Charles of Orleans looked over
the straits towards his English prison with desire and
confidence. Events had so fallen out while he was rhyming
ballades, that he had become the type of all that was most
truly patriotic. The remnants of his old party had been the
chief defenders of the unity of France. His enemies of
Burgundy had been notoriously favourers and furtherers of
English domination. People forgot that his brother still lay
by the heels for an unpatriotic treaty with England, because
Charles himself had been taken prisoner patriotically
fighting against it.
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