Free The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon Page A

at his first Council upon the morrow! He would say to them, "Messires ..." But indeed what words would he find to say to them? "Each one of us in his loneliness undergoes the moment of recognition of sin, and it is mere vanity to believe that there are riot moments like this in life."
    "Ah, Uncle," said The Hutin aloud, "why did you, have to say that?"
    H is own voice seemed strange to him. He continued to hurry round the great bed of oak and gold, gasping like a fish out of water.
    It was the bed that terrified him. It was the bed that was accursed; he would never be able to sleep in it. He had been conceived it; it was therefore absurdly logical that he should die
    to in it. "Must; I, spend all the nights of my reign walking round and round so as not to die?," he wondered. But how could he go and sleep elsewhere, call servants to prepare him another room? Where cou ld he find the courage to admit "I can no longer sleep here because I am afraid," and appear before his equerries, chamberlains and the masters of his household discomfited, trembling and fearful.
    He was a king and knew not how to reign; he was a man and knew not how, to live; he was married and had no w ife. Even if Clemence of Hungary accepted him, how ma ny weeks, how many months, must he wait before a human presence, came to reassure his nights and help him sleep! "And will this one love me? Or will she behave as the other did'?"
    Suddenly he went and opened the door, awoke the First Chamberlain who was si tting fully clothed in the ante-chamber and asked him, " Does Dame Eudeline still look after the Palace
    linen?"
    "Yes, Sire,'' I think so, Sire," replied Mathi eu de Trye. "Well, find out. An d if she does send for her at once." Surprised an d half asleep - Anyway, he seems able to sleep!" thought The Hutin with hatred - the Chamberlain asked whether the King wished to have his sheets changed.
    The Hutin made a gesture of impatience.
    "Yes, that's what I wan t. Go and find her, I tell you! "
    He went back into the bedroom and resumed his anxious pacing to and fro, wondering, "Does she still live i n the Palace? Will she be found? "
    A few minutes later Dame Eudeline appeared, carrying a pile of sheets. And at once Louis X had the feeling that he was no longer cold.
    "Monseigneur Louis, I mean to say, Sire! " she cried, "I knew that I must not put new sheets on your bed. One always sleeps badly in them. It was Messire de Trye who ordered me to do it , He said that it was the precedent. Whereas I wanted to give you thin, well-washed sheets."
    She was a b ig fair merry woman, large-breasted, with the comfortable look of a wet-nurse about her, giving an impression of peace, warmth and repose. She was thirty-two years old and her face seemed to preserve naturally a calm expression of youthful surprise whic h was pleasant and grateful to behold. From under her white nightca p flowed long tresses of golden hair which fell upon her shoulders. She had hastily put on a dressing-gown over her nightgown.
    Louis looked at her a moment without speaking.
    "It was not because of the sheets I sent for you," he said at length:
    A sweet, modest blush suffused the linen-maid's cheeks.
    "Oh, Monseigneur! Sire, I mean to say! Has returning to the Palace made you remember me?"
    She had been h is first mistress, and that was ten years ago. The day upon which he had learnt - he was then fifteen - that he was soon t o be married to a Princess of Burgundy. The Hutin had been consumed with an extraordinary frenzy to discover what love was, and at the same time was panic-stricken at the idea that he would not know how to behave towards his wif e. While the marriage was being negotiated, and Marigny was engaged with Philip the Fair in, weighing the territorial and military benefits of the alliance, the young prince could think of nothing else. At night he imagined all the ladies of the Court succumbing to the ardour of his desires, while during the day he was nervous and shy in their