Howbeit, so very noble was the Duke this day, that he did not put lance in rest (as belike he would have done on the morrow), but, drawing up his men on foot, behind certain mosses and marshes, all in firm array, he kept himself coy behind them, and not too far from the gate of Roye.

To cross these mosses and marshes was beyond our cunning, nor could we fast all that night, and see if the Duke would feel himself less noble, and more warlike, on the morrow.

So, with curses and cries of shame, we turned bridle, and, for that we could not hold together, being in lack of meat, the companies broke up, and went each to his own hold.

I have heard Messire Georges Chastellain tell, in times that were still to come, how fiercely the Duke of Burgundy bore him in council that night, after that we had all gone, and how he blamed his people who would not let him fight.  But, after he had well supped, he even let this adventure slip by, as being ordained by the will of God, who, doubtless, holds in very high honour men of birth princely, and such, above all, as let sell young virgins to the tormentors.  And thus ended our hope to save the Maid by taking captive the Duke of Burgundy.

CHAPTER XXX—­HOW NORMAN LESLIE TOOK SERVICE WITH THE ENGLISH

“What make we now?” I asked of Barthelemy Barrette, one day, after the companies had scattered, as I have said, and we had gone back into Compiegne.  “What stroke may France now strike for the Maid?” He hung his head and plucked at his beard, ere he spoke.

“To be as plain with you as my heart is with myself, Norman,” he answered at last, “deliverance, or hope of deliverance, see I none.  The English have the bird in the cage, and Rouen is not a strength that can be taken by sudden onslaught.  And, were it so, where is our force, in midwinter?  I rather put my faith, that can scarce move mountains, in some subtle means, if any man might devise them.”

“We cannot sit idle here,” I said.  “And for three long months there will be no moving of armies in open field.”

“And in three months these dogs of false French doctors of Paris will have tried and condemned the Maid.  For my part, I ride with my handful of spears to the Loire.  Perchance there is yet some hope in the King.”

“Then I ride with you, granted your goodwill, for I must needs to Tours, and I have overmuch treasure in my wallet to ride alone.”

Indeed, I was now a rich man, more by luck than by valour; and though I said nought of it, I hoped that my long wooing might now come to a happy end.

Barthelemy clasped hands gladly on that offer; and not to make a long tale, he and his men were my escort to Tours, and thence he rode to Sully to see the King.

I had no heart for glad surprises this time, but having sent on a letter to my master, by a King’s messenger who rode from Compiegne ere we did, I was expected and welcomed by Elliot and my master, with all the joy that might be, after our long severance.  And in my master’s hands I laid my newly gotten gear, and heard privily from him that, with his goodwill, I and his daughter might wed so soon as she would.