Quentin Durward

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France; For ere thou canst report I will be there. The thunder of my cannon shall be heard-- So, hence! be thou the trumpet of our wrath.

[The Bohemians: In... Guy Mannering the reader will find some remarks on the gipsies as they are found in Scotland. Their first appearance in Europe took place in the beginning...

If the night passed by Louis was carefully anxious and agitated, that spent by the Duke of Burgundy, who had at no time the same mastery over his passions, and, indeed, who perm...

One hardly knows whether to term it a privilege or a penalty annexed to the quality of princes, that, in their intercourse with each other, they are required by the respect whic...

We left our young stranger in France situated more comfortably than he had found himself since entering the territories of the ancient Gauls. The breakfast, as we hinted in the...

Forty men at arms, carrying alternately naked swords and blazing torches, served as the escort, or rather the guard, of King Louis, from the town hall of Peronne to the Castle;...

A dead silence soon reigned over that great host which lay in leaguer before Liege. For a long time the cries of the soldiers repeating their signals, and seeking to join their...

The preceding chapter, agreeably to its title, was designed as a retrospect which might enable the render fully to understand the terms upon which the King of France and the Duk...

In spite of a mixture of joy and fear, doubt, anxiety, and other agitating passions, the exhausting fatigues of the preceding day were powerful enough to throw the young Scot in...

Cade.--Where's Dick, the butcher of Ashford? Dick.--Here, sir. Cade.--They fell before thee like sheep and oxen, and thou behavedst thyself as if thou hadst been in thine own sl...

Quentin had hardly reached his little cabin, in order to make some necessary changes in his dress, when his worthy relation required to know the full particulars of all that had...

This is a lecturer, so skill'd in policy, That (no disparagement to Satan's cunning) He well might read a lesson to the devil, And teach the old seducer new temptations.

Separated from the Lady Isabelle, whose looks had been for so many days his loadstar, Quentin felt a strange vacancy and chillness of the heart, which he had not yet experienced...

While Quentin held the brief communication with the ladies necessary to assure them that this extraordinary addition to their party was the guide whom they were to expect on the...

The cavalier who awaited Quentin Durward's descent into the apartment where he had breakfasted, was one of those of whom Louis XI had long since said that they held in their han...

Me rather had my heart might feel your love, Than my displeased eye see your courtesy. Up, cousin, up--your heart is up, I know, Thus high at least--although your knee--

Justice of Peace.-- Here, hand me down the statute--read the articles-- Swear, kiss the book--subscribe, and be a hero; Drawing a portion from the public stock For deeds of valo...

I see thee yet, fair France--thou favour'd land Of art and nature--thou art still before me, Thy sons, to whom their labour is a sport, So well thy grateful soil returns its tri...

It was upon a delicious summer morning, before the sun had assumed its scorching power, and while the dews yet cooled and perfumed the air, that a youth, coming from the northea...

When the tables were drawn, the Chaplain, who seemed to have taken a sort of attachment to Quentin Durward's society, or who perhaps desired to extract from him farther informat...

Rescue or none, Sir Knight, I am your captive: Deal with me what your nobleness suggests-- Thinking the chance of war may one day place you Where I must now be reckon'd--I' the...

Few days had passed ere Louis had received, with a smile of gratified vengeance, the intelligence that his favourite and his councillor, the Cardinal Balue, was groaning within...

There was room made in the assembly, and no small curiosity evinced by those present to see the herald whom the insurgent Liegeois had ventured to send to so haughty a Prince as...

When many a many tale and many a song Cheer'd the rough road, we wish'd the rough road long. The rough road, then, returning in a round, Mock'd our enchanted steps, for all was...

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, In liberty of bloody hand shall range, With conscience wide as hell.

Painters show cupid blind--Hath Hymen eyes? Or is his sight warp'd by those spectacles which parents, guardians, and advisers, lent him, That he may look through them on lands a...

All the experience which the Cardinal had been able to collect of his master's disposition, did not, upon the present occasion, prevent his falling into a great error of policy....

When Quentin sallied from the convent, he could mark the precipitate retreat of the Bohemian, whose dark figure was seen in the far moonlight flying with the speed of a flogged...

Hold fast thy truth, young soldier.--Gentle maiden, Keep you your promise plight--leave age its subtleties, And gray hair'd policy its maze of falsehood, But be you candid as th...

Thy time is not yet out--the devil thou servest Has not as yet deserted thee. He aids The friends who drudge for him, as the blind man Was aided by the guide, who lent his shoul...

No human quality is so well wove In warp and woof, but there 's some flaw in it: I've known a brave man fly a shepherd's cur, A wise man so demean him, drivelling idiocy Had wel...

He was a son of Egypt, as he told me, And one descended from those dread magicians, Who waged rash war, when Israel dwelt in Goshen, With Israel and her Prophet--matching rod Wi...

Talk not of kings--I scorn the poor comparison; I am a sage and can command the elements-- At least men think I can; and on that thought I found unbounded empire.

Full in the midst a mighty pile arose, Where iron grated gates their strength oppose To each invading step--and strong and steep, The battled walls arose, the fosse sunk deep. S...

The latter part of the fifteenth century prepared a train of future events that ended by raising France to that state of formidable power which has ever since been from time to...

“Now God be praised, that gave us the power of laughing, and making others laugh, and shame to the dull cur who scorns the office of a jester! Here is a joke, and that none of t...

When Quentin Durward reached Peronne, a council was sitting, in the issue of which he was interested more deeply than he could have apprehended, and which, though held by person...