‘In your letters, you inform me, that you have fixed on Calais as the place where our meeting should be held in the presence of the noble and puissant prince the earl of Somerset; and afterward your letters say, that as he was otherwise occupied, your sovereign lord the king of England, at your request, had nominated sir Hugh Lutrellier, lieutenant to the earl of Somerset in his government of Calais, judge between us, without ever having had my consent, or asking for it, which has exceedingly, and with just cause, astonished me,—for how could you, without my permission, take such advantages as to name the judge of the field and fix on the place of combat?
‘It seems to me, that you are very unwilling to lose sight of your own country; and yet our ancestors, those noble knights who have left us such examples to follow, never acquired any great honours in their own countries, nor were accustomed to make improper demands, which are but checks to gallant deeds.
‘I am fully aware, that you cannot be so ignorant as not to know that the choice of the judge, and of the time and place of combat, must be made with the mutual assent of the two parties; and if I had received your letters, you should sooner have heard this from me.
‘With regard to what you say, that you are ignorant whether the god of love have banished me from his court, because I had absented myself from France, where my first letter was written, and whether he have caused me to change my mind,—I make known to you, that assuredly, without any dissembling, I shall never, in regard to this combat, change my mind so long as God may preserve my life; nor have there ever been any of my family who have not always acted in such wise as became honest men and gentlemen. When the appointed day shall come, which, through God’s aid, it shall shortly, unless it be by your own fault, I believe you will need good courage to meet a man whom you have suspected of having retracted his word. I therefore beg such expressions may not be used, as they are unproductive of good, and unbecoming knights and gentlemen, but attend solely to the deeds of arms of which you have given me hopes.
‘I make known to you, that it has been told me that you entered the lists at Calais alone as if against me, who was ignorant of every circumstance, and three hundred leagues distant from you. If I had acted in a similar way to you in the country where I then was (which God forbid), I believe my armour would have been little the worse for it, and my lances have remained as sound as yours were. You would undoubtedly have won the prize. I must, in truth, suppose, that this your extraordinary enterprise was not undertaken with the mature deliberation of friends, nor will it ever be praised by any who may perchance hear of it. Not, however, that I conclude from this that you want to make a colourable show by such fictions, and avoid keeping the promise you made of delivering me;—and I earnestly entreat you will fulfil the engagement you have entered into by your letters to me, for on that I rest my delight and hope of deliverance.
‘Should you not be desirous of accomplishing this, I have not a doubt but many english knights would have engaged so to do, had you not at first undertaken it. Make no longer any excuses on account of the letters you have sent me, for I have explained wherein the fault lay. I am ready to maintain and defend my honour; and as there is nothing I have written contrary to truth, I wish not to make any alteration in what I have said.
‘Because I would not be so presumptuous to make choice of a place without your assent, I offer the combat before that most excellent and sovereign prince my lord the king of Arragon, or before the kings of Spain[[20]], Portugal or Navarre; and should none of these princes be agreeable to you to select as our judge, to the end that I may not separate you far from your country, your lady and mine, to whose wishes I will conform to the utmost of my power, I am ready to go to Boulogne on your coming to Calais,—and then the governors of these two places, in behalf of each of us, shall appoint the proper time and place for the fulfilment of our engagement according to the terms of my letter, which I am prepared to accomplish, with the aid of God, of our Lady, of my lord St Michael and my lord St George.
‘Since I am so very far from my native country, I shall wait here for your answer until the end of the month of August next ensuing; and in the mean time, out of compliment to you, I shall no longer wear the stump of the greve fastened to my leg, although many have advised to the contrary. The month of August being passed without hearing satisfactorily from you, I shall replace the greve on my leg, and shall disperse my challenge throughout your kingdom, or wherever else I may please, until I shall have found a person to deliver me from my penance. That you may place greater confidence in what I have written, I have put to these letters the seal of my arms, and to the parts marked A, B, C, my sign manual, which parts were done and written at Paris the 4th day of September 1401.’
THE CHALLENGE OF THE ARRAGONIAN ESQUIRE.
‘In the name of the holy Trinity, the blessed virgin Mary, of my lord St Michael the archangel, and of my lord St George,—I, Michel d’Orris, esquire, a native of the kingdom of Arragon, make known to all the knights of England, that, to exalt my name and honour, I am seeking deeds of arms.