The Vagabond King

Gray-Haired Noble:
If Louie lives, he will absorb our castles, lands, dukedoms.

Bearded Noble:
He would make one nation of France, and that nation his.

Charles:
Making nobles of peasants; peasants of nobles.

Charles:
One of my men will make himself known to you. He will call himself a lover of good wine. You will ask the color of wine and he will answer "The color of royal blood."

Bearded Noble:
To save the shedding of blood, might we not still parley with the spider?

Charles:
You do not parley with a spider, you squash him!

King Louis XI:
Once more the shadows darken Paris, and now Charles proposes to hang me from one of my own apple trees - no doubt from the very one I was saving for him.

Fran?ois Villon:
To skin your fox, first catch him.

Huguette:
I can tell by your shifty look that you have been untrue to me.

Fran?ois Villon:
And you?

Huguette:
I've been true as the stars in Heaven.

Fran?ois Villon:
I know where THEY spend their nights. I'm not sure where YOU do.

King's Aid:
Salmon do not swim back once they have slipped through your fingers.

King Louis XI:
Alas, your bird has flown, Brother Short-Life, but don't fret. I'll clip his wings for him in my own time.

King Louis XI:
Your fine-feathered suitor has been revealed in his true plumage.

King Louis XI:
Master Villon, you can render your country a great service before you die. You notice that I said "the country" and not "king?"

Fran?ois Villon:
Why the distinction, your majesty?

King Louis XI:
Because you seem to have the impression that the king is not as patriotic as you are.

Fran?ois Villon:
The fault is not mine, sire.

Thibault d'Aussigny:
Louis, self-styled king, my Lord Burgundy and the noble members of the public will, in solemn session, have deemed you unsound of mind and body, unworthy to carry on the glorious traditions of our country. You have neither the confidence of the nobility nor the confidence of the people. Hardly able to rule, barely able to reign, you cling to the throne with an old man's perversity to the detriment of a great nation. Louis, your cause is lost. The Duke of Burgundy bids you surrender up this city or pay forfeit with your life and the life of every man who raises arms against him.

Fran?ois Villon:
[finding Catherine bowing to him] What does THIS mean?

Catherine de Vaucelles:
It means, my lord, that at last a man of courage has come to the aid of France.

Fran?ois Villon:
You're judging me only by my words. Had you best not wait and judge me by my deeds?

Catherine de Vaucelles:
I see now that our king has been wiser than a woman's heart.