"Some fair lady, now, I will warrant," replied the Count, laughing; "I have marked the ruby ring in your basinet; but, faith, we have more serious matters in hand than either fine clothes or fair ladies. I go to raise men, sir knight, and you have a commission to do so likewise. My father would fain have you swell your company to fifty archers, taught and disciplined by your own men. The more Englishmen you can get the better, for it seems that you are famous for the bow in your land; but our worthy citizens of Bruges are not unskilful either."
"Good faith, my lord," replied Richard of Woodville, "I know not well how to obey the noble Duke's behest; for my riches are but scanty, and 'tis as much as I can do to maintain my band as it is."
"Ha! are you there, my friend?" said the young Prince, with a smile. "Well, you have borne long and patiently with our poverty; but the good towns have come to our assistance now, and we will acquit our debt. One of these bags is for you, and you will find it contains wherewithal to pay you what you have spent, to reward your archers according to the rate of England, which is, I believe, six sterlings a day, for the month past--to pay them for three months to come, and to raise your band, as I have said, to fifty men. You will find therein one thousand fleurs-de-lys of gold, or, as we call them, franc-à-pieds, each of which is worth about forty of your sterlings."
"Then there is much more than is needful, my good lord," replied the young knight. "One-half of that sum would suffice."
"Exactly," replied the Count; "but no one serves well the House of Burgundy without guerdon, my good friend. My father knighted you because you had done well in arms, both in England and in his presence; but knighthood is too high and sacred a thing to be made a reward for any personal benefit rendered to a prince. My father would think that he degraded that high order, if he conferred it even for saving him from death or captivity, as you were enabled to do. For that good deed therefore he gives you the rest; and I do trust that ere long you will have the means of winning more."
Richard of Woodville expressed his thanks, though, with the ordinary chivalrous affectation of the day, he denied all merit in what he had done, and made as little of it as possible. There was one difficulty in regard to increasing his band, however, which he had to explain to the young Count, and which arose from the promise he had given his own Sovereign, of holding himself ready to join him at the first summons. But that was speedily obviated, it being agreed that in case of his services being demanded by King Henry, he should be at liberty to retire with the yeomen who then accompanied him, and that the rest of the troop about to be raised, should, in that case, be placed under the command of any officer the Duke might appoint.
As was then customary, a clerk was called in, and an indenture drawn up, specifying the terms on which the young knight was to serve in the Burgundian force, the number of the men-at-arms and archers which he was to bring into the field, the pay they were to receive, the arms and horses with which they were to appear, and even the Burgundian cloaks, or huques, which they were to wear. A copy was taken and signed by each party; and fortunate it was for Richard of Woodville, that the young Count suggested this precaution. The usual clauses regarding prisoners were added, reserving the persons of kings and princes of the blood from those whom the young knight might put to ransom as his lawful captives; but the Count specifically renounced his right to the third of the winnings of the war, which was not unusually reserved to the great leader with whom any knight or squire took service.
All these points being settled, Richard of Woodville hurried back to the inn, called the Shield of Burgundy, where he and his men were lodged, and prepared to accompany the Count to Ghent. When he returned to the castle, with his men mounted and armed, he found the court-yard full of knights, nobles, and soldiery, all ready to set out at the appointed hour; and for a time he fancied that the young Prince might be going to Ghent with a larger force than the good citizens, jealous of their privileges, would be very willing to receive; but, as soon as the trumpet sounded, and the whole force marched out over the drawbridge into the streets of Lille, the seven or eight hundred men, of which the party consisted, separated into different bands, and each took its own road. One pursued its way towards Amiens, another towards Tournay, another towards Cassel, another towards Bethune, another towards Douay; and the Count and his train, reduced to about a hundred men, rode on in the direction of Ghent, which city they reached about four o'clock upon the following day.
Except the Lord of Croy, between whom and the young Englishman a good deal of intimacy had arisen, the Count de Charolois was accompanied by no other gentleman of knightly rank but Richard of Woodville; and, as that high military station placed him who filled it on a rank with princes, those two gentlemen were the young Count's principal companions on the road to Ghent, and received from him a fuller intimation of his father's designs and purposes than had been communicated to them before they quitted Lille. All seemed smiling on the fortunes of Richard of Woodville; the path to wealth and renown was open before him, and he might be pardoned for giving way to all the bright visions and glowing expectations of youth.