At Agincourt

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Just as the knights had drunk their wine, Guy, who had left them on the
landing, entered, escorting Dame Margaret and her two children. Count
Charles d'Estournel, after saluting her, presented his companions to her,
and she thanked each very heartily for the succour they had brought so
opportunely.

"In truth, lady," the Count de Vesoul said, "methinks from what we saw
that you might even have managed without us, so stoutly were you defended
by your esquire and your retainers, aided as they were by those of the
provost, though in the end it may be that these must have succumbed to
numbers; for I can well imagine that your assailants, after the loss that
they have suffered, would have spared no effort to avenge themselves, and
might indeed, as a last resource, have fired the house. This they would no
doubt have done long before had it not been that by so doing they would
have lost all the plunder that they counted on. This stout defence will no
doubt teach these fellows some moderation, for they will see that
citizens' houses are not to be plundered without hard fighting and much
loss. As for ourselves, we shall see the Duke of Burgundy's lieutenant to-
morrow morning and lay the matter before him, praying him to issue a
proclamation saying that in order to suppress the shameful disorders that
have taken place, he gives notice that all who attack the houses of
peaceful citizens will henceforth be treated as evildoers and punished
accordingly."

After some further conversation the knights prepared to leave.

"I shall do myself the honour, sirs," Maitre Leroux said, "of sending to
your lodgings to-morrow the cups that you have used, as a small testimony
of my gratitude to you, and as a memorial of the events of this evening."

While they were upstairs the men-at-arms and servants had been employed in
clearing the stairs, throwing the bodies that had encumbered it out into
the street. The men-at-arms of the knights had, after drinking the wine
that had been sent out to them, aided in clearing the passage; buckets of
water had been thrown down on the stairs, and the servitors by a vigorous
use of brooms had removed most of the traces of the fray. The work had
just been finished, and Dame Margaret's men had, by Guy's orders,
stationed themselves on the landing to do honour to the knights as they
set out.

"Ah, my tall friend," D'Estournel said to the archer, "so you have been at
work again, and I can see that you are even more doughty with the bow than
with that long staff of yours. Well, this time there must have been enough
fighting to please even you."

"It has been an indifferent good fight, my lord," Tom said; "but in truth,
save for the stand on that pile of logs below, when things were for a time
brisk, it has been altogether too one-sided to please me."

"Most people would think that the one-sidedness was all the other way,"
D'Estournel laughed. "Well, men, you have all done your duty to your lady
right well this night, and there is not one of us here who would not
gladly have such brave fellows in his service. I see that you are all four
wounded."

"They are scarce to be called wounds, Sir Count, seeing that they are but
flesh cuts from their halberts which we got in the fray below. These
slaughterers can doubtless strike a good blow with a pole-axe, but they
are but clumsy varlets with other weapons. But to give them their due,
they fought stoutly if with but little skill or discretion."

Several of the others also said a few words of commendation to the men.
The provost and Guy escorted the knights to the door below. The latter had
ordered twenty of their men-at-arms to remain in the house until morning,
after which ten were to stay there until the doors had been repaired and
refixed. As soon as the knights had ridden off the silversmith ordered
several bundles of rushes to be strewn in the shop for the guard, and a
meal of cold meat to be set for their supper. Two of them were posted as
sentinels at the door.

"I shall not open the shop to-morrow," he said as he ascended the stairs
with Guy, "nor indeed shall I do so until things have settled down. There
will be for some time a mighty animosity on the part of these butchers and
skinners against me, and it is only reasonable that after such an attack I
should close my shop. Those who have dealings with me will know that they
can do their business with me in private. And now methinks we will retire
to bed; 'tis past midnight, and there is no fear of our being disturbed
again. If they send anyone to spy out whether we are on the watch, the
sight of the Burgundian soldiers below will suffice to tell them that
there is nothing to be done. The first thing tomorrow I will set the
carpenters to work to make me an even stronger pair of doors than those
that have been spoilt."

CHAPTER X

AFTER THE FRAY

On going into Dame Margaret's apartments Guy found that she had again
retired to rest, and at once threw himself on his bed without disrobing
himself further than taking off his armour, for he felt that it was
possible the assailants might return after finding that the Burgundian
knights and men-at-arms had ridden away. He had told the men-at-arms to
keep watch by turns at the top of the stairs, where the barricade still
remained, and to run in to wake him should they hear any disturbance
whatever at the door below. He slept but lightly, and several times went
out to see that the watch was being well kept, and to look up and down the
street to assure himself that all was quiet.

"You did nobly last night, Guy," Dame Margaret said as she met him in the
morning; "Sir Eustace himself could have done no better had he been here.
When I next write to my lord I shall tell him how well you have protected
us, and pray him to send word of it to your father."

"I did my best, lady; but it is to Long Tom that it is chiefly due that
our defence was made good. It was his shooting that caused the long delay
in breaking open the door, and that enabled us to hold the barricade
below, and he also stoutly aided in the defence of the landing."

"Nevertheless, Guy, it was under your direction that all things were done.
It is to the leader who directs that the first praise is due rather than
to the strongest and bravest of his men-at-arms. It was, too, owing to
your interference on behalf of Count Charles d'Estournel that we owe it
that succour came to us; it was his friendship for you that prompted him
to gather his friends to come to our aid; and it was the warning, short
though it was, sent us by that strange Italian that enabled you to send to
the count for aid. I must see his daughter and thank her personally for
the part she played in the matter. No, Guy, had it not been for you this
house would now have been an empty shell, and all of us would have been
lying under its ruins. I have been thinking during the night that you must
be most careful when you go abroad; you know that the son of that monster
Caboche, the leader of the skinners, and doubtless many leaders of the
butchers, among them Legoix, were killed, and their friends are certain to
endeavour to take vengeance on you. They saw you at the window, they will
know that you are my esquire, and will doubtless put down their defeat
entirely to you. You cannot be too careful, and, above all, you must not
venture out at night save on grave occasion. Agnes," she broke off as the
girl entered the room, "you too must thank our brave esquire for having so
stoutly defended us."

"I do thank you most heartily, Guy," the girl said, "though I felt it very
hard that I could do nothing to help you. It was terrible sitting here and
hearing the fight so close to us, and the dreadful shouts and screams of
those people, and to have nothing to do but to wait. Not that I was
frightened, I felt quite confident that you would beat them, but it was so
hard to sit quiet. I should not have minded so much if I could have been
standing there to see the brave deeds that were being done."

"Like the queen of a tournament, Agnes," her mother said with a smile.
"Yes, indeed, it is one of the hardships of us women. It is only when a
castle is besieged and her lord is away that a woman may buckle on armour
and set an example to her retainers by showing herself on the wall and
risking the enemies' bolts, or even, if necessary, taking her place with
her retainers on the breach; at other times she must be passive and wait
while men fight."

"If I had only had my bow," Agnes said regretfully, "I could really have
done something. You would have let me go out then, mother, would you not?"

"I don't know, dear; no, I don't think I should. It was anxious work
enough for me as it was. If you had gone out I must have done so, and then
Charlie would have wanted to go too. No; it was much better that we all
sat together as we did, waiting quietly for what might come, and praying
for those who were fighting for us."

"I was glad that Madame Leroux stayed upstairs with her maid instead of
coming down here as you asked her, mother; she looked so scared and white
that I do think it would have been worse than listening to the fighting to
have had to sit and look at her."

Dame Margaret smiled. "Yes, Agnes, but I think that she was more
frightened for her husband than for herself, and I don't suppose that she
had ever been in danger before. Indeed, I must say that to look out at
that crowd of horrible creatures below, brandishing their weapons,
shouting and yelling, was enough to terrify any quiet and peaceable woman.
As a knight's wife and daughter it was our duty to be calm and composed
and to set an example, but a citizen's wife would not feel the same
obligation, and might show her alarm without feeling that she disgraced
herself or her husband."

On going out Guy found their host already engaged in a conference with a
master carpenter as to the construction of the new doors. They were to be
very strong and heavy, made of the best oak, and protected by thick sheets
of iron; the hinges were to be of great strength to bear the weight. A
smith had also arrived to receive instructions for making and setting very
strong iron bars before the shop, the front of which would require to be
altered to allow of massive shutters being erected on the inside. Iron
gates were also to be fixed before the door.

"That will make something like a fortress of it, Master Aylmer," the
silversmith said, "and it will then need heavy battering-rams to break
into it. Several others of my craft similarly protect their shops; and
certainly no one can blame me, after the attack of last night, for taking
every means to defend myself. I intend to enlist a party of ten fighting
men to act as a garrison until these troubles are all over."

"I think that you will act wisely in doing so," Guy said. "Your servants
all bore themselves bravely last night, but they had no defensive armour
and were unaccustomed to the use of weapons. Only I would advise you to be
very careful as to the men that you engage, or you may find your guard
within as dangerous as the mob without."

"I will take every pains as to that, you may be sure, and will engage none
save after a careful inquiry into their characters."

The streets had already been cleared of the slain. All through the night
little parties had searched for and carried off their dead, and when at
early morning the authorities sent a party down to clear the street there
remained but some twenty-five bodies, evidently by their attire belonging
to the lowest class, and presumably without friends. That day petitions
and complaints were sent to the king by the provosts of the merchants, the
gold and silver smiths, the cloth merchants, the carpenters and others,
complaining of the tumults caused by the butchers and their allies, and
especially of the attack without cause or reason upon the house of Maitre
Leroux, the worshipful provost of the silversmiths. Several skirmishes
occurred in the evening between the two parties, but an order was issued
in the name of the king to the Maire and syndics of Paris rebuking them
for allowing such disturbances and tumults, and ordering them to keep a
portion of the burgher guard always under arms, and to repress such
disturbances, and severely punish those taking part in them.

Maitre Leroux and his wife paid a formal visit to Dame Margaret early in
the day to thank her for the assistance that her retainers had given in
defending the house.

"You were good enough to say, madame," the silversmith said, "that you
regretted the trouble that your stay here gave us. We assured you then,
and truly, that the trouble was as nothing, and that we felt your presence
as an honour; now you see it has turned out more. Little did we think when
you came here but a few days since that your coming would be the means of
preserving our lives and property, yet so it has been, for assuredly if it
had not been for your esquire and brave retainers we should have been
murdered last night. As it is we have not only saved our lives but our
property, and save for the renewal of the doors we shall not have been the
losers even in the value of a crown piece. Thus, from being our guests you
have become our benefactors; and one good result of what has passed is,
that henceforth you will feel that, however long your stay here, and
however much we may try to do for you, it will be but a trifle towards the
discharge of the heavy obligation under which we feel to you."

After a meeting of the city council that afternoon, a guard of ten men was
sent to the silversmith's to relieve the Burgundian men-at-arms. Five of
these were to be on duty night and day until the house was made secure by
the new doors and iron grill erected in front of the shop. Guy proposed to
Dame Margaret that he should give up his visit to the _salle d'armes_, but
this she would not hear of.

"I myself and the children will go no more abroad until matters become
more settled, but it is on all accounts well that you should go to the
school of arms. Already the friends that you have made have been the means
of saving our lives, and it is well to keep them. We know not what is
before us, but assuredly we need friends. Maitre Leroux was telling me
this morning that the Armagnacs are fast approaching, and that in a few
days they will be within a short distance of Paris. Their approach will
assuredly embitter the hostility between the factions here, and should
they threaten the town there may be fierce fighting within the walls as
well as without. At present, at any rate, there are likely to be no more
disturbances such as that of last night, and therefore no occasion for you
to remain indoors. Even these butchers, arrogant as they are, will not
venture to excite the indignation that would be caused by another attack
on this house. That, however, will make it all the more likely that they
will seek revenge in other ways, and that the house will be watched at
night and any that go out followed and murdered.

"You and Tom the archer are no doubt safe enough from the attack of
ordinary street ruffians, but no two men, however strong and valiant, can
hope to defend themselves successfully against a score of cut-throats. But
I pray you on your way to the school go round and thank, in my name, this
Italian and his daughter, and say that I desire much to thank the young
lady personally for the immense service she has rendered me and my
children. Take the archer with you, for even in the daytime there are
street brawls in which a single man who had rendered himself obnoxious
could readily be despatched."

"In faith, Master Guy," Long Tom said as they sallied out, "it seems to me
that if our stay in Paris is a prolonged one I shall return home rich
enough to buy me an estate, for never did money so flow into my pocket. We
have been here but a short time, and I have gained as much and more than I
should do in a year of hard service. First there was that young French
count, the very next morning when he called here he gave me a purse with
thirty crowns, telling me pleasantly that it was at the rate of five
crowns for each skull I cracked on his behalf. Then this morning Maitre
Leroux came to me and said, 'Good fellow, it is greatly to your skill and
valour that I owe my life, and that of my wife; this will help you to set
up housekeeping; when you return home,' and he gave me a purse with a
hundred crowns in it; what think you of that, master? The other three also
got purses of fifty crowns each. If that is the rate of pay in Paris for a
couple of hours' fighting, I do not care how often I take a share in a
fray."

"You are doing well indeed, Tom, but you must remember that sooner or
later you might go into a fray and lose your life, and with it the chance
of buying that estate you speak of."

"We must all take our chances, master, and there is no winning a battle
without the risk of the breaking of casques. Are we going to the house we
went to the first night we came here, Master Guy? Methinks that this is
the street we stopped at."

"Yes, Tom. It was the man who lives here who sent me word that the
butchers were going to attack the provost's house, by the same messenger
who met us before Notre Dame, and who last night, after warning me,
carried my message to Count Charles, praying him to come to our aid."

"Then he did us yeoman service," the archer said warmly, "though I think
not that they would have carried the barricade had they fought till
morning."

"Perhaps not, though I would not say so for certain, for they might have
devised some plan such as they did for covering themselves while they
assaulted the door. But even had they not done so they would have been
sure before they retired to have fired the house."

"That is what I thought of when they were attacking us," the archer said,
"and wondered why they should waste men so freely when a torch would have
done their business just as well for them."

"That would have been so, Tom, had they only wished to kill us; but
though, no doubt, the leaders desired chiefly the life of the provost, the
mob simply fought for plunder. If they had found all the jeweller's store
in his shop, they would have fired the house very quickly when they
discovered that they could not get at us. But it was the plunder that they
wanted, and it was the sight of those chests full of silver-ware that made
them venture their lives so freely, in order to have the handling of it. I
do not think that I shall be long here, Tom. Do not wait for me at the
door, but stroll up and down, keeping a short distance away, so that I can
see you when I come out."

A decrepit old woman opened the door, and on Guy giving his name she said
that she had orders to admit him if he called. The girl came out dressed
in her female attire as he went upstairs.

"Ah, signor," she said, "I am glad indeed to see that you are safe."

"Thanks to you," he said warmly; "we are all your debtors indeed."

"I had but to run a mile or two," she said; "but what was there in that?
But indeed I had an anxious time, I so feared that I should be too late.
When I had seen the Count d'Estournel and delivered your message to him
and had shown him your ring, and he and his friends had declared that they
would call up their men and come at once to your aid, I could not go back
and wait until this morning to learn if they arrived in time, so I ran to
your street again and hid in a doorway and looked out. Just as I got there
they broke in the door and I saw some of them rush in. But there was a
pause, though they were all pressing to enter. They went in very slowly,
and I knew that you must be defending the entrance. At last there was a
sudden rush, and I almost cried out. I thought that it was all over. A
great many entered and then there was a pause again. The crowd outside
became more and more furious; it was dreadful to hear their shouts and to
see the waving of torches and weapons.

"They seemed to be almost mad to get in. The crush round the door was
terrible, and it was only when two or three horsemen rode in among them
shouting, that the press ceased a little. One horseman obtained silence
for a moment by holding up his hand. He told them that their friends
inside were attacking a barricade, and would soon carry it, and then there
would be silver enough for all; but that by pressing forward they did but
hamper the efforts of their comrades. It seemed, oh, such a long, long
time before I saw the Burgundians coming along, and I could not help
throwing my cap up and shouting when they charged into the crowd. I waited
until it was all over, and then I ran back home and had a rare scolding
for being out so late; but I did not mind that much, after knowing that
you were all safe."

At this moment a voice from the landing above said: "Are you going to keep
Master Aylmer there all day with your chattering, Katarina?" The girl made
a little face and nodded to Guy to go upstairs.

"Katarina is becoming a madcap," the astrologer said, as he led Guy into
the room. "I cannot blame her altogether; I have made a boy of her, and I
ought not to be shocked at her acting like one. But she gave me a rare
fright last night when she did not return until close on midnight. Still,
it was natural for her to wish to see how her mission had turned out."

"Her quickness saved all our lives," Guy said. "Had it not been for her
carrying my message to the Count d'Estournel we should have been burnt
alive before morning."

"It was unfortunate that I sent you the message so late, Master Aylmer. I
was busy when a medical student who sometimes gathers news for me in the
butchers' quarter came here, and left a missive for me. Had he sent up a
message to me that it was urgent, I would have begged the personage I had
with me to wait a moment while I read the letter. As it was, it lay
downstairs till my visitor departed. When I learned the news I sent off
Katarina at once. She had but a short time before come in, and was
fortunately still in her boy's dress, so there was no time lost. I went
out myself at ten o'clock to see what was going on, and must have been
close to her without either of us knowing it. I looked on for a short
time; but seeing that nothing could be done, and feeling sure that the
house must be taken,--knowing nothing of the chance of the Burgundians
coming to the rescue,--I returned here and was surprised to find that
Katarina had not returned.

"I did not think that she could have reached the shop and warned you
before the mob arrived, and therefore I became greatly alarmed as the time
went by without her appearing. Indeed, my only hope was that she must have
been looking on at the fight and would return when it was all over, as
indeed it turned out; and I should have rated her much more soundly than I
did had she not told me how she had fetched the Burgundians and that they
had arrived in time. I hear that there is a great stir this morning. The
number of men they have lost, and specially the deaths of Legoix and of
the young Caboche, have infuriated the butchers and skinners. They have
already sent off two of their number to lay their complaint before the
Duke of Burgundy of the conduct of some of his knights in attacking them
when they were assailing the house of a noted Armagnac. But they feel that
they themselves for the moment must remain quiet, as the royal order has
emboldened the Maire, supported by the traders' guilds, and notably by the
carpenters, who are a very strong body, to call out a portion of the city
guard, and to issue an order that all making disturbances, whomsoever they
may be and under whatsoever pretext they are acting, will be summarily
hung if captured when so engaged.

"In spite of this there will no doubt be troubles; but they will not
venture again to attack the house of the silversmith, at any rate until an
order comes from the Duke of Burgundy to forbid his knights from
interfering in any way with their doings."

"Which I trust he will not send," Guy said; "and I doubt if the knights
will obey it if it comes. They are already much enraged at the insolence
of the butchers, and the royal proclamation this morning will justify them
in aiding to put down disturbances whatsoever may be the duke's orders.
And now, Sir Count, I have come hither this morning on behalf of my lady
mistress to thank you for sending the news, and still more for the service
your daughter rendered in summoning the knights to her assistance. She
desires much to return thanks herself to your daughter, and will either
call here to see her or would gladly receive her at her lodging should you
prefer that."

"I should prefer it, Master Aylmer. Your lady can scarce pass through the
streets unnoticed, for her English appearance marks her at once; and as
all know she lodges at the silversmith's, she will be more particularly
noticed after the events of last night, and her coming here will attract
more attention to me than I care for. Therefore I will myself bring
Katarina round and will do myself the honour of calling upon your lady. I
can wrap the girl up in a cloak so that she shall not attract any
observation, for no one knows, save the old woman below, that I have a
daughter here; and with so many calling at the house, and among them some
reckless young court gallants, I care not that it should be known, if for
no other reason than, were it so, it would be soon suspected that the lad
who goes so often in and out is the girl in disguise, and I could then no
longer trust her in the streets alone."

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