And there, with some blushes, he may be said to have taken
farewell of the political stage. A feeble attempt on the
county of Asti is scarce worth the name of exception.
Thenceforward let Ambition wile whom she may into the turmoil
of events, our duke will walk cannily in his well-ordered
garden, or sit by the fire to touch the slender reed. (1)
(1) D'Hericault's MEMOIR, xl. xli. Vallet, CHARLES VI., ii.
435.
IV.
If it were given each of us to transplant his life wherever
he pleased in time or space, with all the ages and all the
countries of the world to choose from, there would be quite
an instructive diversity of taste. A certain sedentary
majority would prefer to remain where they were. Many would
choose the Renaissance; many some stately and simple period
of Grecian life; and still more elect to pass a few years
wandering among the villages of Palestine with an inspired
conductor. For some of our quaintly vicious contemporaries,
we have the decline of the Roman Empire and the reign of
Henry III. of France. But there are others not quite so
vicious, who yet cannot look upon the world with perfect
gravity, who have never taken the categorical imperative to
wife, and have more taste for what is comfortable than for
what is magnanimous and high; and I can imagine some of these
casting their lot in the Court of Blois during the last
twenty years of the life of Charles of Orleans.
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