At Agincourt | Page 2

being a favourite with the queen,
she got her to ask the king to accede to the knight's suit; and no wonder,

he is as proper a man as eyes can want to look on--tall and stately, and
they say brave. His father and grandfather both were Edward's men,
and held their castle for us; his father was a great friend of the Black
Prince, and he, too, took a wife from England. Since then things have
not gone well with us in France, and they say that our lord has had
difficulty in keeping clear of the quarrels that are always going on out
there between the great French lords; and, seeing that we have but little
power in Artois, he has to hold himself discreetly, and to keep aloof as
far as he can from the strife there, and bide his time until the king sends
an army to win back his own again. But I doubt not that, although our
lady's wishes and the queen's favour may have gone some way with
him, the king thought more of the advantage of keeping this French
noble,--whose fathers have always been faithful vassals of the crown,
and who was himself English on his mother's side,--faithful to us, ready
for the time when the royal banner will flutter in the wind again, and
blood will flow as it did at Cressy and Poitiers.
"The example of a good knight like Sir Eustace taking the field for us
with his retainers might lead others to follow his example; besides,
there were several suitors for our lady's hand, and, by giving her to this
French baron, there would be less offence and heart-burning than if he
had chosen one among her English suitors. And, indeed, I know not
that we have suffered much from its being so; it is true that our lord and
lady live much on their estates abroad, but at least they are here part of
their time, and their castellan does not press us more heavily during
their absence than does our lord when at home."
"He is a goodly knight, is Sir Aylmer, a just man and kindly, and, being
a cousin of our lady's, they do wisely and well in placing all things in
his hands during their absence."
"Ay, we have nought to grumble at, for we might have done worse if
we had had an English lord for our master, who might have called us
into the field when he chose, and have pressed us to the utmost of his
rights whenever he needed money."
The speakers were a man and woman, who were standing looking on at
a party of men practising at the butts on the village green at Summerley,

one of the hamlets on the estates of Sir Eustace de Villeroy, in
Hampshire.
"Well shot!" the man exclaimed, as an archer pierced a white wand at a
distance of eighty yards. "They are good shots all, and if our lord and
lady have fears of troubles in France, they do right well in taking a
band of rare archers with them. There are but five-and-twenty of them,
but they are all of the best. When they offered prizes here a month since
for the bowmen of Hants and Sussex and Dorset, methought they had
some good reason why they should give such high prizes as to bring
hither the best men from all three counties, and we were all proud that
four of our own men should have held their own so well in such
company, and especially that Tom, the miller's son, should have beaten
the best of them. He is captain of the band, you know, but almost all the
others shoot nigh as well; there is not one of them who cannot send an
arrow straight into the face of a foe at a hundred and twenty yards.
There were some others as good who would fain have been of the party,
but our lady said she would take no married men, and she was right.
They go for five years certain, and methinks a man fights all the better
when he knows there is no one in England praying for his return, and
that if he falls, there is no widow or children to bewail his loss. There
are as many stout men-at-arms going too; so the Castle of Villeroy will
be a hard nut for anyone to crack, for I hear they can put a hundred and
fifty of their vassals there in the field."
"We shall miss Sir Aylmer's son Guy," the woman said; "he is ever
down at the village green when there are sports going on. There is not
one of his age who can send an arrow so straight to the mark, and not