in their new dignity, which was quite natural. And Joan was glad it
had been conferred, when she saw how pleased they were. It was a
clever thought in the King to outflank her scruples by marching on
them under shelter of her love for her family and her kin.
Jean and Pierre sported their coats-of-arms right away; and their
society was courted by everybody, the nobles and commons alike.
The Standard-Bearer said, with some touch of bitterness, that he
could see that they just felt good to be alive, they were so soaked
with the comfort of their glory; and didn’t like to sleep at all,
because when they were asleep they didn’t know they were noble,
and so sleep was a clean loss of time. And then he said:
“They can’t take precedence of me in military functions and state
ceremonies, but when it comes to civil ones and society affairs I
judge they’ll cuddle coolly in behind you and the knights, and No‰l
and I will have to walk behind them–hey?”
“Yes,” I said, “I think you are right.”
“I was just afraid of it–just afraid of it,” said the Standard-Bearer,
with a sigh. “Afraid of it? I’m talking like a fool; of course I knew
it. Yes, I was talking like a fool.”
No‰l Rainguesson said, musingly:
“Yes, I noticed something natural about the tone of it.”
We others laughed.
“Oh, you did, did you? You think you are very clever, don’t you?
I’ll take and wring your neck for you one of these days, No‰l
Rainguesson.”
The Sieur de Metz said:
“Paladin, your fears haven’t reached the top notch. They are away
below the grand possibilities. Didn’t it occur to you that in civil
and society functions they will take precedence of all the rest of
the personal staff–every one of us?”
“Oh, come!”
“You’ll find it’s so. Look at their escutcheon. Its chiefest feature is
the lilies of France. It’s royal, man, royal–do you understand the
size of that? The lilies are there by authority of the King–do you
understand the size of that? Though not in detail and in entirety,
they do nevertheless substantially quarter the arms of France in
their coat. Imagine it! consider it! measure the magnitude of it! We
walk in front of those boys? Bless you, we’ve done that for the last
time. In my opinion there isn’t a lay lord in this whole region that
can walk in front of them, except the Duke d’Alen‡on, prince of
the blood.”
You could have knocked the Paladin down with a feather. He
seemed to actually turn pale. He worked his lips a moment without
getting anything out; then it came:
“I didn’t know that, nor the half of it; how could I? I’ve been an
idiot. I see it now–I’ve been an idiot. I met them this morning, and
sung out hello to themjust as I would to anybody. I didn’t mean to
be ill-mannered, but I didn’t know the half of this that you’ve been
telling. I’ve been an ass. Yes, that is all there is to it–I’ve been an
ass.”
No‰l Rainguesson said, in a kind of weary way:
“Yes, that is likely enough; but I don’t see why you should seem
surprised at it.”
“You don’t, don’t you? Well, why don’t you?”
“Because I don’t see any novelty about it. With some people it is a
condition which is present all the time. Now you take a condition
which is present all the time, and the results of that condition will
be uniform; this uniformity of result will in time become
monotonous; monotonousness, by the law of its being, is fatiguing.
If you had manifested fatigue upon noticing that you had been an
ass, that would have been logical, that would have been rational;
whereas it seems to me that to manifest surprise was to be again an
ass, because the condition of intellect that can enable a person to
be surprised and stirred by inert monotonousness is a–”
“Now that is enough, No‰l Rainguesson; stop where you are,
before you get yourself into trouble. And don’t bother me any more
for some days or a week an it please you, for I cannot abide your