True man and true woman, to each
other's arms!"
And Katherine and Villon obeyed the king.
EPILOGUE
At about this point in his narrative, Dom Gregory, as those happy
few who are familiar with his manuscript in the Abbey of Bonne
Aventure are aware, diverges from the full current of his story to
indulge in some philosophical reflections upon the character of
Louis XI.
What, Dom Gregory asks in cautious interrogation, were the real
intentions of the monarch with regard to Fran?ois Villon and the
Lady Katherine de Vaucelles? His enemies no doubt assert that he
played with their destinies for a purely malignant purpose and was
only prevented from carrying his evil intentions into effect by the
storm of popular indignation that threatened him. Others, again, who
pretend to a more intimate acquaintance with the shifty character of
the king, insist that he did indeed purpose to send Master Villon to
the gallows, or at least and worse, into a beggar's exile, but that
lie was stayed by Master Villon's happy use of the phrase concerning
a star fallen from heaven, which words, harping upon the
superstitious wits of his majesty, made him believe that the dream
which had puzzled him was interpreted and fulfilled.
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