"Well," answered Richard of Woodville, "I can go to Bruges, my lord, where you said I should find good archers, and can be carrying on my levies there."
The Count shook his head, saying, "That will be no place of safety. These good folks of Ghent, and those of Bruges, so often at deadliest enmity, are now sworn friends; and the Brugeois would give you up without a thought. No, what I have to propose is this, that you should go an hour or two before daylight to my cousin Waleran de St. Paul, who is now raising troops upon the Meuse. I shall have to pass thither also; for my father sends me into Burgundy, and I cannot go through France. If you will wait for me between Chimay and Dinant, I will join you within ten days, and we will go on to the west, and raise what men we can at Besançon."
"So be it, my noble lord," replied Richard of Woodville; "but where shall I find the Count?"
"You will find him at Chimay," replied the young prince. "He has a castle two leagues thence, on the road to Dinant. From me you shall hear before I come. I will meet you somewhere in the Ardennes. Make all your preparations quickly; and, in the meanwhile, I will write letters to my uncles of Brabant and Liege, that you may have favour and protection as you pass."
Richard of Woodville thanked him for his kindness in due terms, and, as soon as the young Count, with the Lords of Croy and Lens, had left him, called his servants, and gave orders to prepare once more for their immediate departure. Fortunately, it so happened that he had ordered all his baggage to be brought from the inn, so that no great time was lost; and in about an hour all was ready to set out. The letters of the young Count, however, had not arrived, and Richard of Woodville waited, pondering somewhat anxiously upon the only difficulty which presented itself to his mind, namely, how he was to recal the men whom he had sent with Ella Brune upon the side of Bruges, without depriving her of aid and protection at the moment when she most needed it. It was true, he thought, she had no actual claim upon him; it was true that he had done more for her already than might have been expected at his hands, without any motive but that of compassion; but yet he felt that it would be cruel, most cruel, to leave her in an hour of peril, undefended and alone. "We take a withering stick and plant it in the ground," says Sterne; "and then we water it, because we have planted it;" and Richard of Woodville was one who felt that the kindness he had shown did give her a title to expect more.
At first he thought of bidding the men rejoin him, and bring her with them; but then the glance which Sir John Grey had cast upon him as her name was mentioned, came back to his mind, and he said, "No, that must not be. For her sake and my own, she must go no farther with me. Men might well think, if she did, that there were other ties between us than there are. I will bid them take her to England, or place her anywhere in safety, and then come. To Sir John Grey I must write--and to my sweet Mary also. I may well trust her, I hope, to plead my cause, and repel the charges which this base villain has brought. Yet, 'tis most unfortunate that this event should have occurred at such a moment."
He was still thinking deeply over these matters, when the door opened, and the young Count of Charolois appeared alone. "Here are the letters, my friend," he said. "I have ordered some of my people to go with you for a mile or two beyond the gates, in order to secure you a safe passage. Is there aught I can do for you while you are absent?"
"One thing, my noble lord," replied the young knight, a sudden thought striking him--"if you will kindly undertake to be my advocate with one whose good opinion is to me a matter of no light moment. You must know that Sir John Grey--so long an exile in your father's dominions, but now empowered by King Henry to treat, in conjunction with Sir Philip de Morgan, at the Court of Burgundy--has one daughter, plighted to me by long love, by her own promises, and by her father's also; but some scoundrel--the same, I do verily believe, who has made all this mischief--I mean Sir Simeon of Roydon--has brought charges against me to that good knight, which have altered his countenance towards me. Called suddenly away, I have no means of explanation; and I leave my name blighted in his opinion. The accusation, I believe, refers to this poor girl, Ella Brune; but you may tell Sir John, and I pledge you my knightly word you will tell him true, that there is nought between her and me but kindness rendered on my part to a woman in distress, and gratitude on hers to one who has protected her."
"I will not fail," replied the young prince, giving him his hand, "nor will I lose any time before I explain all as far as I know it." Thus saying, he walked out with Woodville into the court, where the horses stood prepared; and, in a few minutes, the young wanderer was once more upon his way.