昆丁不难看出，要消除人们普遍相信的这样一个看法简直是不可能的事。非但如此，企图使固执己见的人们认识错误还会遭致个人危险。而眼下，他觉得惹这个祸毫无好处。因此他赶快决定先应付他们，再找出一个最好的脱身之计。这个决定是在他们簇拥着他去市政厅的路上作出的。列日城的显贵们已迅速聚集在那儿，准备聆听他理应带来的好消息，并设盛宴招待，表示对他的欢迎。
他周围挤满了捧场的人，使他深深感到一种不愉快的滋味。尽管他一再反对，他们却把它说成是他的谦逊。那两位担任商会会长（相当于市长）的朋友紧握着他的一双胳膊。他前面站着的是刚从屠宰场办公室召来的屠宰公会主席尼克尔•布洛克，正以白兰地才能激发出的勇气和优美姿势挥舞着他那还沾有猪血和猪脑的屠刀。后面站着的是那高大瘦削的铁匠公会主席克劳斯•汉默莱恩——一位烂醉如泥的爱国志士。他后面至少跟着一千个面孔乌黑的铁匠兄弟。纺织工、制钉工、制绳工以及各行各业的匠人从所有阴暗狭窄的街道涌了出来，参加欢迎的行列。要想逃跑简直是毫无希望。
在这进退维谷的处境中，昆丁只好求助于各拖着他一只胳膊的鲁斯拉尔和巴维翁。他们正拉着他走在想不到竟以他为主要欢呼对象的人群前面。他急忙告诉他们，他是因为他出发时带的那顶头盔出了毛病，才无意戴上了一顶苏格兰卫队的军帽的。他很遗憾，由于这一情况，再加上机灵的列日市民推断出他的身份和此行的目的，公众已发现了这两方面的真实情况。他还暗示说，要是现在把他拉到市政厅去，他很可能被迫向聚集在那儿的权贵们说出某些国王交待他只能向他最好的朋友——列日的鲁斯拉尔和巴维翁阁下私下面谈的要事。
后面这个暗示在这两位市民身上真是发挥了魔术般的作用，因为他们都是反叛的市民们最杰出的领袖，所以也像其他蛊惑人心的政客一样，总希望尽可能把一切都纳入他们的轨道。因此，他们马上同意昆丁暂时出城，晚上再回来。他们约他在靠近索思瓦尔德城堡对面那道城门的鲁斯拉尔家秘密会见。昆丁毫不犹豫地告诉他们，他目前住在主教的官邸，借口是法国宫廷派他来送公文，但他真正的使命，正如他们猜想的那样，是和列日市民接头。这种拐弯抹角的接头方式，再加上接头对象的地位和身份看来和路易王的性格表现十分一致，因此既没引起怀疑也没引起惊奇。
当他作出了这个解释之后，蜂拥的人群已拥着他们来到了巴维翁家的对面。他家的屋子坐落在一条大街上，后面就是马埃斯河，中间隔着一个花园和一大片鞣革工场及其他制革设施，因为我们这位具有爱国主义精神的市民本是个制革师或鞣皮匠。
既然来到他家，巴维翁自然要对这位假想的路易工特使尽东道主之谊，所以昆丁在他家门前停留并没有使群众感到惊奇。相反，当他们看到巴维翁阁下把贵客请进家时，他们都向他发出响亮的“万岁”声。昆丁马上把他那惹人注意的军帽搁在一边，而带上鞣皮匠的帽子，身上再披上一件斗篷。巴维翁给他找来了一张护照，使他既可以出城，也可以在他认为方便时，在夜晚或白天回城找他们。最后他把昆丁托付给他女儿，一个面带微笑的金发的弗兰德姑娘，交待她如何护送昆丁出城。他自己则急忙跑回去找他的同事，然后赶到市政厅，就路易王特使没有同来的原因向朋友们进行他所能想出的最好的解释。我们无法像话剧中的走卒说的那样，回忆起带头羊给自己的羊群进行解说的确切内容。要欺骗愚昧的群众是再容易不过的事，因为还没等欺骗者说话，他们自己强烈的偏见已解决了一半的问题。
那可敬的市民刚一走，他那丰满的女儿特鲁德珍便着手进行托付给她的任务。她脸上带着与她的樱桃小嘴十分相称的红晕和微笑；她有着含笑的蓝眼睛，以及白皙柔嫩的皮肤。她护送这位英俊的陌生人穿过巴维翁家花园中的幽径来到河边，亲自安排他平安地登上了一只小船。船夫是两个健壮的弗兰德人，戴着皮帽，穿着紧身裤和多钮扣的紧身衣。他们已经在他们低地人的性格所能容许的范围内尽快把船准备停当。
既然漂亮的特鲁德珍只会讲德语，昆丁——并非贬低他对克罗伊埃伯爵小姐的忠诚——只好吻吻她那樱桃小嘴来表示感谢。给予亲吻的人做得很潇洒，接受亲吻的人也充满了谦卑的感激，因为具有我们这位苏格兰射手的身材和相貌的英俊男子在列日市民中并不多见。
小船行驶在滞缓的马埃斯河上，最后穿过了城门。直到这时昆丁才有可能从容地思考，他回到索恩瓦尔德主教宫廷时，该如何汇报他在列日的经历。他既不愿出卖一个哪怕出于误解而信赖过他的人，也不想向殷勤好客的主教隐瞒他自己的首都所存在的反叛动向。所以他决定只作个一般的汇报，好使主教提高警惕，但又不谈及任何个人，以免他进行报复。
他在距城堡半英里的地方下了船，给了船夫一个盾的赏钱，使他们感到心满意足。虽然他离开索思瓦尔德时间不长，但城堡已敲钟准备开饭。昆丁发现他是朝着与正门相反的一面走向城堡的。要绕到正面会大大推迟他到达的时间。因此他直接朝靠近他的这一边走去，因为他发现这边有一道带有雉堞的墙壁，也许正是他见过的那堵小花园围墙。墙的旁侧有道门通向护城河，旁门边停着一只小船。他想，要是他打个招呼，也许这船能把他引渡过去。正当他走近护城河，打算通过这种方式进入城堡时，那旁门突然打开，有个男人走出来，跳进小船朝护城河这边划过来，然后用杆子一推把那小船推回原来的地方。当他走近时，昆丁才发现这正是那个波希米亚人。他很容易地避开了他，从另一条小道向列日走去，很快就看不见了。
现在他又碰到了一个新的思考题。如果说这个流浪的异教徒一直是呆在克罗伊埃仕女那儿，那么她们留他这么久是什么缘故呢？达威特为这个问题感到苦恼，决心找机会向她们作番解释；一方面是为了立即揭穿海拉丁的奸诈，同时也想告诉她们，由于列日城叛乱气氛很浓，给她们提供保护的主教已自身难保。
决定这样做以后，昆丁便从正门走进城堡。他看到在大厅里吃饭的一部分家臣，包括主教的侍从牧师、管家和略低于贵族等级的客人都已就座。但在主教家庭牧师旁边留有一个上座席位。那家庭牧师用一句古老的开玩笑的话Sero venientibus ossa来欢迎新来的客人。与此同时他着急地给他的碟子堆满了佳肴美食，以致把玩笑完全当了真，而在昆丁的祖国人们认为这会使得玩笑不成其为玩笑，或至多不过是个不高明的玩笑。
为了不使别人怀疑自己真是缺乏教养，昆丁简短地介绍了城里人发现他是路易王苏格兰卫队的射手之后爆发出的一场骚动。他为了竭力使自己的叙述带上一点滑稽可笑的味道，还补充说，多亏一个肥胖的列日市民及其漂亮的女儿的帮助，他才好不容易脱了身。
但在座的人对这故事都极为关心，无法领略他的玩笑。昆丁讲话时，人们都屏息静听，连饭也忘了吃。他讲完时出现了一阵沉寂。而打破这沉寂的是总管用他那低哑而伤感的声调说道：“上帝保佑，让那一百名勃艮第长矛手快些赶来吧！”
“您干吗把这事看得这么严重？”昆丁说道，“你们这儿卫士不少。他们的任务就是打仗。你们的对手只不过是一个骚动的城市里聚集的乌合之众；看见雄纠纠的武士们打着飘扬的旗幡走来，准会吓得一哄而散。”
“你不了解列日的市民，”那牧师说道，“甚至把根特的市民算在一起，他们也数得上是欧洲最凶狠、最不服管的一种人。由于他们一再反叛主教，公爵已给过他们两次惩罚。他曾两次对他们进行严酷的镇压；剥夺了他们的特权，没收了他们的旗幡，并为自己确定了以往不适用于帝国自由城市的权利和要求。上次又在圣特隆附近打败了他们，杀了他们许多人。被刀砍死的，逃跑时被淹死的列日市民将近六千之多。以后，为了使他们无法继续叛乱，查尔斯公爵又拒绝从他们交出来的任何一个城门进入市内，而是在削平一段四十腕尺长的城墙之后，脸罩面甲，手持长矛，在骑兵护卫下，摆出耀武扬威的征服者的架式通过他打开的城墙缺口进入市内。当时列日人都深信，要不是他父亲——善良的菲利普公爵说情，这位查尔斯公爵（当时称为夏荷洛伊丝伯爵）本会把他们的列日城抢个精光。然而，尽管记忆犹新，城墙缺口尚未修复，武库也尚未充实，一顶苏格兰射手的军帽已足够使他们重新骚动起来。上帝保佑啊！我担心这些凶狠的市民和那位暴躁的君主还会兵戎相见。但愿我善良而慈祥的主人能有个不像这么显要，却更为安全的教区。要知道，他戴的冠冕是以荆棘而不是以貂皮作衬垫的啊！我想奉劝这位作客的先生，要是您的差事不需要您在索恩瓦尔德久留的话，您应当意识到，这城堡可是每个头脑清醒的人都应当尽快离开的不祥之地。我担心您那两位仕女也是同样的看法，因为她们已经打发陪她们同来的一个马夫带信回法国宫廷，肯定是想告诉路易王，她们打算另觅一个较为安全的避难所。”
Chapter 20 The Billet
Go to -- thou art made, if thou desirest to be so. -- If not, let me see thee still the fellow of servants, and not fit to touch Fortune's fingers. --
TWELFTH NIGHT
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 information concerning the meeting of the morning, led him into a withdrawing apartment, the windows of which, on one side, projected into the garden, and as he saw his companion's eye gaze rather eagerly upon the spot, he proposed to Quentin to go down and take a view of the curious foreign shrubs with which the Bishop had enriched its parterres.
Quentin excused himself as unwilling to intrude, and therewithal communicated the check which he had received in the morning. The Chaplain smiled, and said that there was indeed some ancient prohibition respecting the Bishop's private garden.
"But this," he added, with a smile, "was when our reverend father was a princely young prelate of not more than thirty years of age, and when many fair ladies frequented the Castle for ghostly consolation. Need there was," he said with a downcast look, and a smile, half simple and half intelligent, "that these ladies, pained in conscience, who were ever lodged in the apartments now occupied by the noble Canoness, should have some space for taking the air, secure from the intrusion of the profane. But of late years," he added, "this prohibition, although not formally removed, has fallen entirely out of observance, and remains but as the superstition which lingers in the brain of a superannuated gentleman usher. If you please," he added, "we will presently descend, and try whether the place be haunted or no."
Nothing could have been more agreeable to Quentin than the prospect of a free entrance into the garden, through means of which, according to a chance which had hitherto attended his passion, he hoped to communicate with, or at least obtain sight of, the object of his affections, from some such turret or balcony window, or similar "coign of vantage," as at the hostelry of the Fleur de Lys, near Plessis, or the Dauphin's Tower, within that Castle itself. Isabelle seemed still destined, wherever she made her abode, to be the Lady of the Turret.
(Coign of vantage: an advantageous position for observation or action. Cf. 'no jutty, frieze, buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.' Macbeth, I, vi, 6.)
When Durward descended with his new friend into the garden, the latter seemed a terrestrial philosopher, entirely busied with the things of the earth, while the eyes of Quentin, if they did not seek the heavens, like those of an astrologer, ranged, at least, all around the windows, balconies, and especially the turrets, which projected on every part from the inner front of the old building, in order to discover that which was to be his cynosure.
While thus employed, the young lover heard with total neglect, if indeed he heard at all, the enumeration of plants, herbs, and shrubs which his reverend conductor pointed out to him, of which this was choice, because of prime use in medicine, and that more choice for yielding a rare flavour to pottage, and a third, choicest of all, because possessed of no merit but its extreme scarcity. Still it was necessary to preserve some semblance at least of attention, which the youth found so difficult, that he fairly wished at the devil the officious naturalist and the whole vegetable kingdom. He was relieved at length by the striking of a clock, which summoned the Chaplain to some official duty.
The reverend man made many unnecessary apologies for leaving his new friend, and concluded by giving him the agreeable assurance that he might walk in the garden till supper, without much risk of being disturbed.
"It is," said he, "the place where I always study my own homilies, as being most sequestered from the resort of strangers. I am now about to deliver one of them in the chapel, if you please to favour me with your audience. I have been thought to have some gift. -- But the glory be where it is due!"
Quentin excused himself for this evening, under pretence of a severe headache, which the open air was likely to prove the best cure for, and at length the well meaning, priest left him to himself.
It may be well imagined, that in the curious inspection which he now made, at more leisure, of every window or aperture which looked into the garden, those did not escape which were in the immediate neighbourhood of the small door by which he had seen Marthon admit Hayraddin, as he pretended, to the apartment of the Countesses. But nothing stirred or showed itself, which could either confute or confirm the tale which the Bohemian had told, until it was becoming dusky, and Quentin began to be sensible, he scarce knew why, that his sauntering so long in the garden might be subject of displeasure or suspicion. Just as he had resolved to depart, and was taking what he had destined for his last turn under the windows which had such attraction for him, he heard above him a slight and cautious sound, like that of a cough, as intended to call his attention, and to avoid the observation of others. As he looked up in joyful surprise, a casement opened, a female hand was seen to drop a billet, which fell into a rosemary bush that grew at the foot of the wall. The precaution used in dropping this letter prescribed equal prudence and secrecy in reading it. The garden, surrounded, as we have said, upon two sides, by the buildings of the palace, was commanded, of course, by the windows of many apartments, but there was a sort of grotto of rock work, which the Chaplain had shown Durward with much complacency. To snatch up the billet, thrust it into his bosom, and hie to this place of secrecy, was the work of a single minute. He there opened the precious scroll, and blessed, at the same time, the memory of the Monks of Aberbrothick, whose nurture had rendered him capable of deciphering its contents.
The first line contained the injunction, "Read this in secret," -- and the contents were as follows: "What your eyes have too boldly said, mine have perhaps too rashly understood. But unjust persecution makes its victims bold, and it were better to throw myself on the gratitude of one, than to remain the object of pursuit to many. Fortune has her throne upon a rock but brave men fear not to climb. If you dare do aught for one that hazards much, you need but pass into this garden at prime tomorrow, wearing in your cap a blue and white feather, but expect no farther communication. Your stars have, they say, destined you for greatness, and disposed you to gratitude. -- Farewell -- be faithful, prompt, and resolute, and doubt not thy fortune."
Within this letter was enclosed a ring with a table diamond, on which were cut, in form of a lozenge, the ancient arms of the House of Croye.
The first feeling of Quentin upon this occasion was unmingled ecstasy -- a pride and joy which seemed to raise him to the stars -- a determination to do or die, influenced by which he treated with scorn the thousand obstacles that placed themselves betwixt him and the goal of his wishes.
In this mood of rapture, and unable to endure any interruption which might withdraw his mind, were it but for a moment, from so ecstatic a subject of contemplation, Durward, retiring to the interior of the castle, hastily assigned his former pretext of a headache for not joining the household of the Bishop at the supper meal, and, lighting his lamp, betook himself to the chamber which had been assigned him, to read, and to read again and again, the precious billet, and to kiss a thousand times the no less precious ring.
But such high wrought feelings could not remain long in the same ecstatic tone. A thought pressed upon him, though he repelled it as ungrateful -- as even blasphemous -- that the frankness of the confession implied less delicacy on the part of her who made it, than was consistent with the high romantic feeling of adoration with which he had hitherto worshipped the Lady Isabelle. No sooner did this ungracious thought intrude itself, than he hastened to stifle it, as he would have stifled a hissing and hateful adder that had intruded itself into his couch. Was it for him -- him the Favoured -- on whose account she had stooped from her sphere, to ascribe blame to her for the very act of condescension, Without which he dared not have raised his eyes towards her? Did not her very dignity of birth and of condition reverse, in her case, the usual rules which impose silence on the lady until her lover shall have first spoken? To these arguments, which he boldly formed into syllogisms and avowed to himself, his vanity might possibly suggest one which he cared not to embody even mentally with the same frankness -- that the merit of the party beloved might perhaps warrant, on the part of the lady, some little departure from common rules, and, after all, as in the case of Malvolio (Olivia's steward in Twelfth Night), there was example for it in chronicle. The Squire of low degree, of whom he had just been reading, was, like himself, a gentleman void of land and living, and yet the generous Princess of Hungary bestowed on him, without scruple, more substantial marks of her affection than the billet he had just received:
"'Welcome,' she said, 'my swete Squyre, My heart's roots, my soul's desire, I will give thee kisses three, And als five hundrid poundis in fee.'"
And again the same faithful history made the King of Hongrie himself avouch --
"I have yknown many a page, Come to be Prince by marriage."
So that, upon the whole, Quentin generously and magnanimously reconciled himself to a line of conduct on the Countess's part by which he was likely to be so highly benefited.
But this scruple was succeeded by another doubt, harder of digestion. The traitor Hayraddin had been in the apartments of the ladies, for aught Quentin knew, for the space of four hours, and, considering the hints which he had thrown out of possessing an influence of the most interesting kind over the fortunes of Quentin Durward, what should assure him that this train was not of his laying? And if so, was it not probable that such a dissembling villain had set it on foot to conceal some new plan of treachery -- perhaps to seduce Isabelle out of the protection of the worthy Bishop? This was a matter to be closely looked into, for Quentin felt a repugnance to this individual proportioned to the unabashed impudence with which he had avowed his profligacy, and could not bring himself to hope that anything in which he was concerned could ever come to an honourable or happy conclusion.
These various thoughts rolled over Quentin's mind like misty clouds, to dash and obscure the fair landscape which his fancy had at first drawn, and his couch was that night a sleepless one. At the hour of prime -- ay, and an hour before it, was he in the castle garden, where no one now opposed either his entrance or his abode, with a feather of the assigned colour, as distinguished as he could by any means procure in such haste. No notice was taken of his appearance for nearly two hours, at length he heard a few notes of the lute, and presently the lattice opened right above the little postern door at which Marthon had admitted Hayraddin, and Isabelle, in maidenly beauty, appeared at the opening, greeted him half kindly, half shyly, coloured extremely at the deep and significant reverence with which he returned her courtesy -- shut the casement, and disappeared.
