“I thank your Majesty for your kindness,”
Edgar said, bowing; “but indeed I should not
presume to judge amusements as frivolous because I
myself might be unused to them; but in truth two years
ago I studied at the convent of St. Alwyth, and my
spare time then and most of my time since has been
so occupied by my exercises in arms that I have had
but small opportunity for learning the ways of Courts,
but I hope to do so, seeing that a good knight should
bear himself as well at Court as in the field.”
“You will have small opportunity now”,
the king said, rather dolefully. “Our royal
mother is absent, and our talk is all of riots and
troubles, and none seem even to think of pleasure.”
After leaving the king Sir Ralph presented his son
and Edgar to Sir Michael de la Pole, who held high
office; Robert de Vere, one of the king’s special
favourites; and several other young nobles, who all
received them kindly for the sake of Sir Ralph.
A RESCUE
“Perhaps, boys, you could hardly have been introduced
at Court better than by myself,” the knight
said, as they returned to the lodgings. “There
are men much more highly placed, many more influential
than I am, but for that very reason I can be friends
with all. The king’s mother is always most
courteous to me, because I was the friend of the Black
Prince, her husband; and she has taught her son that,
whatever might come, he could rely upon my fidelity
to his person. On the other hand, no one has reason
either to dislike or fear me. I am a simple knight,
longing most to be at home, and at the Court as seldom
as may be; besides, I hold myself aloof from both
parties in the state, for you must know that the Court
is composed of two factions.
“The one is that of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster,
uncle of the king. He is greatly ambitious; some
men even say that he would fain himself be king, but
this I believe not; yet I am sure that he would like
to rule in the name of the king. He has a powerful
party, having with him the Duke of Gloucester, his
brother, and other great nobles. On the other
hand, he is ill-liked by the people, and they say
at Canterbury the rioters made every man they met
swear to obey the king and commons—by which
they meant themselves—never to accept a
king bearing the name of John, and to oppose Lancaster
and Gloucester.
“The king’s mother has surrounded him
with a number of men who, being for the most part
of obscure birth, have no sympathy with John of Gaunt’s
faction, and oppose it in every way.
