“And the—the money?” faltered Aymery, with a greedy glitter in his eyes that all his terror could not wholly repress.
“Keep it,” said Edward, with a look and tone of such blasting scorn that even this heartless villain felt its sting, and cowered out of the king’s presence so abjectly that he seemed actually to grow smaller as he went.
CHAPTER XI
A Midnight Battle
Night had fallen over Calais on New Year’s Eve, cold, gloomy, threatening; and around a blazing fire in an upper chamber of the great tower flanking the Boulogne Gate were gathered a group of stalwart young Englishmen in full armour, whose silver spurs told that they had already attained the rank of esquires, though they were not yet “dubbed knights.”
“Marry, these Frenchmen will have such a regale this night as they little expect,” said a tall youth, rubbing his sinewy hands gleefully. “We English are hospitable folk, and care not how many guests come to taste our New Year’s cheer; but methinks these gallants will find it somewhat hard for their French teeth!”
“They are minded, doubtless,” laughed another, “to break their fast in Calais town on the New Year morn; and so indeed they shall—as prisoners!”
“Under whose banner fight we to-night, brother Hugo?” asked a slim, handsome lad of his neighbour, whose comely face was a singularly exact copy of his own.
“Under the pennon of Sir Walter de Manny,” replied his double, “a good and gentle knight, who is ever to be found where hard blows are going. Under such a one we may well hope to win spurs of gold. Methinks we have been esquires long enough—ha, brother Alured?”
The speakers were no other than the twin-brothers, Alured and Hugo de Claremont, who were greatly altered since they had sat at meat with Sir Yvon du Guesclin, years before.
Still retaining their wonderful likeness to each other, the dainty boy-pages had grown into tall and stalwart cavaliers, who had proved their courage in many a hard fray. On the field of Crecy they had been made esquires; and they now hoped, young as they were, to win knighthood in the coming fight.