Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

MEN AND BOOKS
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 for-
got that his brother still lay by the heels for an
unpatriotic treaty with England, because Charles
himself had been taken prisoner patriotically fight-
ing against it. That Henry v. had left special
orders against his liberation served to increase the
wistful pity with which he was regarded. And
when, in defiance of all contemporary virtue, and
against express pledges, the English carried war
into their prisoner's fief, not only France, but all
thinking men in Christendom, were roused to in-
dignation against the oppressors, and sympathy with
the victim. It was little wonder if he came to
bulk somewhat largely in the imagination of the
best of those at home. Charles le Boutteillier, when
(as the story goes) he slew Clarence at Beauge, was
only seeking an exchange for Charles of Orleans.^
It was one of Joan of Arc's declared intentions to
deliver the captive duke. If there was no other
way, she meant to cross the seas and bring him
home by force. And she professed before her
1 Vallet's Cliarles VII., i. 251.
' 246