Suspicious and uneasy, Louis XI of France is wont to frequent the low haunts of Paris in disguise so that he may learn of any feeling against himself or of rumours about his courtiers. Thus it is that he finds himself one night at the Fir Cone Tavern, a disreputable place frequented by the city’s thieving rabble.
The presiding spirit of the tavern’s rough coterie is one Francois Villon, truly a vagabond yet possessing the soul of a poet, the fascination of a cavalier, and his own rough code of patriotism.
On this very night Francois, fresh from prison, returns to his companions. None welcomes him more fervently than the attractive Huguette du Hamel, but Francois is casual in his response to her greeting. He has met by chance Katherine de Vaucelles, a great lady of the Court, and in his romantic mind she has become a guiding star, though quite outside his world and beyond his aspirations.
But Katherine – first seen on the stage as a vision – is not so remote as Villon imagines. Some poetry he has written induces her to seek his help against the traitorous Grand Marshal, Thibaut d’Aussigny, who plots to aid the Burgundians’ advance on Paris. Francois most eagerly complies and wounds the traitor in a duel. He has, however, been openly critical of the King – has boasted of what he would do if he himself could be King for a day. When the tyrannical monarch reveals himself, Francois, holding manfully to his opinions, is offered a day’s authority as ruler of France in the now vacant post of Grand Marshal. At the end of the day, however, he must die.
The play now passes to a merry phase, for there are strange happenings at the Court of Louis, where the officials are much discomfited by the methods of their new overlord. There are surprises, too, for the gay rascal Tabarie, Villon’s chief henchman – who has arrived in a barrel looted by the King’s Archers – and for other members of the rabble who have come up for judgment.
After these pleasant trivialities Francois, aided by the rabble, distinguishes himself against the Burgundians and courageously wears the King’s clothes in order to deal with the still plotting Thibaut – an affair in which poor Huguette, bravely interposing, is fatally wounded.
The final scene is around a scaffold, where the bargain is to be completed – for the King, though half admiring Francois, is jealous and fearful of his popularity. With Katherine, however, the gallant vagabond has made more than a half-conquest. She alone can save him – by claiming him for her husband – and her final words are of love.