At Agincourt | Page 7

changes will take place; and should the Orleanists gain the upper hand,
they will be quick to take advantage of my having fought for Burgundy,
and would confiscate my estates and hand them over to one who might
be hostile to England, and pledged to make the castle a stronghold that
would greatly hinder and bar the advance of an English army upon
Paris. Therefore, Sire, I would, not for my own sake but for the sake of
your majesty's self and your successors, pray you to let me for a while
remain quietly at Summerley until the course of events in France is
determined.'
"The king was pleased to see the force of what I urged. As far as I had
inclinations in the case, they were towards the cause, not of Burgundy
himself, whose murder of Orleans was alike treacherous and
indefensible, but of his cause, seeing that Flanders is wholly under his
authority, and that in Artois he is well-nigh paramount at present. On
the other hand, Amiens and Ponthieu, which lie but a short distance to
the south of me, are strongly Orleanist, and I have therefore every
motive for standing aloof. So far the fortune of war has been so

changeable that one cannot say that the chances incline towards one
faction more than the other. Even the Church has failed to bring about
the end of the troubles. The Orleanists have been formally placed under
interdicts, and cursed by book, bell, and candle. The king's commands
have been laid upon all to put aside their quarrels, but both the ban of
the Church and the king's commands have been ineffectual. I am as
anxious as ever to abstain from taking any part in the trouble, the more
so as the alliance between our king and Burgundy has cooled somewhat.
But I have received such urgent prayers from my vassals at Villeroy to
come among them, since they are now being plundered by both parties,
that I feel it is time for me to take up my abode there. When the king
stayed at Winchester, a month since, I laid the matter before him. He
was pleased to say that what I had urged a year ago had turned out to be
as I foretold, and that he would give me leave to go over and establish
myself at Villeroy, and to hold myself aloof from both parties until the
matter should further ripen. What will come of it I cannot say. The
English king seemed to me to be ailing, and I fear that it may not be
long before young Henry comes to the throne. He is a wild young
prince, but has already shown himself in the Northern war to be full of
spirit and courage, and methinks that when he comes to the throne he
will not long observe the peaceful policy of his father, but that we shall
see the royal standard once again spread to the winds of France."
"But, Sir Eustace," Guy said, when he had concluded, "how do these
matters affect you? I thought that by the treaty the west part of Artois
was English."
"Ay, lad, it was so settled; but at that time the strength of France had
been broken at Poitiers, and the Black Prince and his army were so
feared that his terms were willingly accepted in order to secure peace.
Much has happened since then: war has been constantly going on,
sometimes hotly, sometimes sluggishly; France has had her own
troubles, and as the English kings have been more pacific, and England
has become weary of bearing the heavy expenses of the war, the treaty
has become a dead letter. Gascony, in which province Armagnac is the
greatest lord, is altogether lost to England, as is the greater part of
Guienne. A great proportion of the people there were always bitterly

opposed to the change, and, as you know, even in the time of the Black
Prince himself there were great rebellions and troubles; since then town
after town and castle after castle has declared for France, and no real
efforts have ever been made by the English to win them back again. I,
who in England am an English baron, and--so long as things go on as at
present--a French noble while in France, am in a perilous position
between my two Suzerains. Were an English army to land, I should join
them, for I still hold myself to be a vassal of the king of England, as we
have been for three generations. As to the French disputes, I fear that
sooner or later I shall have to declare in favour of one party or the other,
for it will be difficult to stand altogether aloof from these conflicts,
because all men,