"In hours of pain and grief,
If such thou must endure,
Thy breast shall know relief
In honour tried and pure;
For the true heart and kind,
Its recompence shall find;
Shall win praise,
And golden days,
And live in many a tale."
In the meanwhile his treatment varied greatly at different times. Sometimes the Châtelain was harsh and severe, refusing him almost everything that was necessary to his comfort; at others, with the caprice which is so common amongst rude and uncivilized people, he would seem joyous and good-humoured: would visit his prisoner, talk with him, and send him dishes from his own table, permitting many a little alleviation of his grief, which on former occasions he denied. In one of these happier moods he allowed the page to buy his master a cithern, which proved one of the prisoner's greatest comforts and resources; and not long after, in the summer of 1415, a still greater change of conduct took place towards him. His table became supplied with princely liberality; rich wines and dainty meats were daily set before him; and the page was suffered to go at large about the town to procure anything his master might require.
One day the boy returned very much heated with exercise, and moved with what seemed pleasurable feelings; and looking round the room eagerly, he closed the door with care.
"You have tidings, Will," said the young knight, "and joyful tidings, too, or I am mistaken."