“I must be riding on now,” Edgar said,
“to carry this wonderful news to my father.”
While they had been dining, Hal Carter had been getting
a hearty meal in the kitchen, where he and Albert’s
two retainers were surrounded by all the men-at-arms,
who were anxious to hear the details of the expedition.
When Edgar sent down for his horse, Sir Ralph went
down with him to the courtyard, and as Hal brought
the horses round, the old knight put his hand upon
his shoulder.
“My brave fellow,” he said, “I have
heard how you stood with your master across my son’s
body, and how doughtily you fought. Do not forget
that I am your debtor, but for the present I can only
say that I thank you for the part you played.”
“It would have been strange, indeed, Sir Ralph,
had I not hit my hardest, for my own life depended
upon it, and it was not like that I should draw back
a foot when Sir Albert, whom I love only next to my
master, was lying there; but, indeed, it was a right
merry fight, the only one that came up to my expectations
of what a stiffly fought melee would be.
I would not have missed it for anything.”
WELL SETTLED
“Well, well, well,” Mr. Ormskirk exclaimed
when Edgar brought the story of all that had happened
since he had been away to an end, “indeed you
surprise me. I know that many knights fit out
parties and go to the wars, not so much for honour
and glory as for the spoils and ransoms they may gain,
and that after Crecy and Poictiers, there was not a
single soldier but came back laden with booty and
with rich jewels, gold chains, and costly armour,
gathered from the host of French nobles who fell on
those fields; while knights who were fortunate enough
to capture counts, earls, or princes, gained ransoms
that enabled them to purchase estates, and live without
occasion to go further to the wars during their lives.
But I never thought that you would benefit by such
a chance. As it is to my mind more honourable
to save life than to take it, I rejoice that you have
come to your fortune, not by the slaying of enemies,
but by the saving the lives of a man, his wife, and
daughter, who are rich enough to reward you.
“Assuredly, if a man like Mynheer Van Voorden
had fallen into the hands of the Count of Flanders,
the latter would have extracted from him, as the price
of his freedom, a sum many times larger than that which
he has expended on the purchase of these two estates,
and the building of the castles. Well, Edgar,
I congratulate you heartily. You can now ride
to the wars when the king’s banner is spread
to the winds, and do your duty to your country, but
there will be no occasion for you to become a mere
knight adventurer—a class I detest, ever
ready to sell their swords to the highest bidder,
and to kill men, against whom they have no cause of
complaint, as indifferently as a butcher would strike
down a bullock with a pole-axe.
