The Strangled Queen by Maurice Druon Read Free Book Online Page B

few days ago, did nothing to reassure the Countess. And she was thinking that if the new King should catch a bad chill while burying his father, her affairs would come to fruition all the quicker.
    Surrounded by the justiciars of the Council, Monseigneur Enguerrand de Marigny, Coadjutor of the Sovereign they were burying, and Rector-General of the kingdom, wore a princely mourning. From time to time he exchanged glances with his younger brother, Jean de Marigny, Archbishop of Sens, who had officiated the day before at Notre-Dame and now, mitre on head, crozier in hand, was surrounded by the high clergy of the capital.
    For two middle-class Normans who, twenty years earlier, called themselves simply the brothers Le Portier, they had had prodigious careers and, the elder ever pushing the younger upwards, succeeded in sharing power successfully between them, one controlling the civil power, the other the ecclesiastical. Between them they had destroyed the Order of the Knights Templar.
    Enguerrand de Marigny was one of those rare men who have the certainty of being part of history while still alive , because they have made it. An d he needed to remember where he had started, and to what heights he had risen, in order at this moment to be able to bear the great sorrow which had come to him. "Sire Philip, my King," he thought as he gazed at the coffin, "I served you as well as I knew how, and you confided to me the highest tasks, as you conferred upon me the greatest honours and in numerable gifts. How many days did we work side by side? We thought alike in everything; we made mistakes, and we corrected; them. I swear that I shall defend the work we accomplished together and shall pursue it against those who are now making ready to destroy it. But how lonely I shall feel! " For this great politician had fervour,, and he thought, of the kingdom as might a second king.
    Egidius de Chambly, Abbot of Saint-Denis, on his, knees at the edge of the vault, made a last sign of the Cross. Then he rose to his feet, signalled to the sextons, and the heavy flat stone rolled into place above the tomb.
    Never again would Louis X hear his father's terrible voice saying, "Be quiet, Louis!
    And far from being relieved, he was seized with panic. He heard a voice beside him say, "Come on, Louis!'
    He started it was Charles of Valois who had spoken, telling; him to, move forward. Louis X turned towards his uncle and murmured, "You saw him become King. What did he say? What did, he do?"
    "He entered upon his responsibilities without hesitation," replied Charles of Valois.
    "He was eighteen, seven years younger than I am," thought' Louis X.' Feeling everyone's eyes upon him, he did his best to stand upright, and began to walk forward while the, procession formed behind him, monks, their heads bent, hands in sleeve s, singing a psalm. Since they had been singing continuously for twenty-four hours, their voices were beginning to grow hoarse.
    Thus they went from the basilica to the chapter house of the Abbey, where was laid the traditional repast which closed the funeral ceremony.
    "Sire," said Abbot Egidius, le ading Louis to his place, "we shall say two prayers from now on, one for the King God has taken from us, the other for him whom He has given us."
    "Thank you, Father," said Louis X in an uncertain voice.
    Then he sat down with a tired sigh and at once asked for a cup of water which he swallowed at one gulp. During the whole meal he remained silent, eating nothing, drinking a great deal of water. He felt feverish, physically and mentally ill.
    "One must be robust to be a king." It was one of the maxims Philip the Fair used to his sons when, before they were knights, they used sometimes to grumble at the exercises of arms or at the quintaine "One must be robust to be a king," Louis X repeated to himself during these first moments of his reign. He was one of those people whom fatigue makes irritable, and he thought irritably that when one is bequeathed