"No. I am a man of peace," rejoined the first-comer. "Those horses are my master's, not mine; and the fighting is his too. But he knows my infirmity, and leaves me here out of arrow-shot. The boy who was with me has run down the hill, to be nearer to our lord; but I, as in duty bound, stay where he placed me. I should like very much to know, however, what is the name of that farm-house and the two or three cottages there, at the edge of the meadow, with the deep ditch across it."
"That is called Tramecourt," replied the younger monk. "It is but a small hamlet; and I heard this morning that our riotous soldiers had driven all the people out of it, and eaten up all their stores. Why do you ask, my son?"
"Because I saw but now some two or three hundred men, coming from the side of Blangy, run down by the willows there, and disappear in the ditch."
"God's retribution!" said the elder monk, gravely. "Had not the soldiery driven out the peasantry, there would have been men to bear the news of the ambush."
"Think you it is an ambush, then?" asked the younger monk.
"Beyond doubt," replied the other; "and he who would do a good service to the army of France would mount yon horse, ride down toward Azincourt, and carry the tidings to the constable."
As he spoke, he fixed his eyes upon their lay companion, who seemed a little uneasy under their gaze. He fidgeted, pulled the points of his doublet, and then said, sturdily, "Well, I can not go. I must stay with the horses."
"Are you a coward?" asked the elder monk, in a low, bitter tone.
"Yes," replied the man, nonchalantly. "I am a desperate coward--have been so all my life. I have a reverent regard for my own skin, and no fondness for carving that of other people. If men have a peculiar fancy for poking holes in each other's bodies, I do not quarrel with them for it. Indeed, I do not quarrel with any one for any thing; but it is not my taste: it is not my trade. Why should I make eyelet-holes in nature's jerkin, or have myself bored through and through, like a piece of timber under an auger?"
"Well, my son, wilt thou let me have a horse, that I may ride down and tell the constable?" asked the shorter of his two companions.