“These captains,”—­hear Froissart, who traveled through Bigorre on his way to Bearn,—­“made many excursions into Bigorre, the Toulousain, the Carcassonois and on the Albigeois; for the moment they left Lourde they were on enemy’s ground, which they overran to a great extent, sometimes thirty leagues from their castle.  In their march they touched nothing, but on their return all things were seized, and sometimes they brought with them so many prisoners and such quantities of cattle, they knew not how to dispose of nor lodge them.”  Thus, “these companions in Lourde had the satisfaction of overrunning the whole country wherever they pleased.  Tarbes, which is situated hard by, was kept in great fear and was obliged to enter into a composition with them.  On the other side of the river Lisse is a goodly enclosed town called Bagneres,[20] the inhabitants of which had a hard time of it.  In short, they laid under contribution the whole country,—­except the territory of the Count de Foix; but there they dared not take a fowl without paying for it, nor hurt any man belonging to the count or even any who had his passport; for it would have enraged him so much that they must have been ruined.”

[20] Now the frequented watering-place, Bagneres de Bigorre.

The count showed less respect for Lourde than Lourde for him; and he even aided the French on one occasion by a scheme to capture the place and oust the intruders.  This—­it is a cruel story—­was when he summoned its governor, his own half-brother, Sir Pierre Arnaut, to Orthez, under pretense of desiring a visit.  Sir Pierre was holding Lourde stoutly in fief for the English prince, and was in considerable doubt about going, for he knew his man and had suspicions; however, “all thynges consydred, he sayd he wolde go, bycause in no wyse he wolde displease the erle.”  He left the castle with his brother Jean under strict injunctions, and proceeded to Orthez, where he was handsomely received by the count, “who with great ioye receyued hym, and made hym syt at his borde, and shewed hym as great semblant of love as he coude.”

For the sequel, let us go back for once to an earlier translation[21] of the Chronicles than the one best known.  The cruel story gains in effect of cruelty from the quaint, childlike telling.

[21] The translation made in 1523 by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, at the request of Henry VIII.  The one I have elsewhere quoted from is that of Thomas Johnes.

“The thirde daye after, the Erle (Count) of Foiz sayd aloude, yt euery man might here hym: 

“’Cosyn Pierre, I sende for you and ye be come; wherefore I comaunde you, as ye wyll eschewe my displeasure, and by the faith and lignage that ye owe to me, that ye yelde vp the garyson of Lourde into my handes.’

“Whan the knyght herde these wordes, he was sore abasshed, and studyed a lytell, remembringe what aunswere he might make, for he sawe well the erle spake in good faithe; howebeit, all thynges consydred, he sayd: