"That shall be as God pleases," answered De Coucy; "but, in the mean time, we are disputing about wind. Till we reach Tours, we cannot at all tell what assistance may wait us there. If there be sufficient force to justify us in proceeding to action, I will by no means dissent; but, if there be but few of our friends arrived, I will say, that man who advises the prince to attempt any thing yet, may be as brave as a lion, but seeks to serve his own vanity more than Arthur Plantagenet."
"How his own vanity, sir?" demanded Savary de Maulèon, ready to take offence on the slightest provocation.
"By risking his prince's fortunes," replied De Coucy, "rather than let others have a share in the harvest of glory before him. Ho, there!" he continued, turning to one of his squires, who instantly rode up.--"Bid Jodelle detach a score of his lightest men round the eastern limb of that wood, and bring me word what 'tis that glittered but now above the trees.--Go yourself too, and use your eyes."
The man obeyed, with the promptitude of one accustomed to serve a quick and imperative lord; and the little manœuvre the knight had commanded was performed with all the precision he could desire. In the mean while he resumed the conversation with Arthur and Savary de Maulèon, who--cooled by the momentary pause, and also somewhat soothed by something flattering, he scarce knew what, in the idea of the sort of avarice of glory De Coucy had attributed to him--replied to the young knight with more cordiality than he had at first evinced. In a very few minutes, the horsemen, who had been detached, returned at full gallop. Their report was somewhat startling. A large body of horse, they said, whose spear-heads De Coucy had seen above the low trees, were skirting slowly round the wood towards them. Full a hundred knights, with barbed horses and party pennons, had been seen. There appeared more behind; and the whole body, with the squires, archers, and servants of arms, might amount to fifteen hundred. No banner, however, was displayed; but one of the Brabançois declared, that he knew the foremost to be king John's Norman knights, by the fashion of their hauberts, and the pikes on their horses' heads.
"Give me my lance and casque!" cried De Coucy.--"Sir Savary de Maulèon, I leave the prince under your care, while I, with my Brabançois and followers, give these gentry the meeting at the corner of the wood. You would not be mad enough in this business to risk the prince with four hundred men and forty knights, against one hundred knights and fifteen hundred men!"
"Surely not," replied Savary de Maulèon; "but still I will go with you myself, beau sire."
"No! as you are a knight," cried De Coucy, grasping his hand, "I charge you, stay with the prince, cover his march to Tours; keep all the knights with you, for you will want them all. You start fair with the enemy--the distance is about equal to the city; and I promise you, that if they pass yon turn of the wood within this quarter of an hour, 'tis over my dead body--let it be so, sir knight, in God's name! The honour will rest with him who gets the prince safe to Tours. Is not that enough? You have the post of honour."
"And you the post of danger," said Savary de Mauléon, shaking his head.
"Mind not you that!" cried De Coucy, whose casque was by this time fixed. "If these be Normans, there will be danger and honour enough too, before you reach Tours!" and grasping his lance, he fell back to the band of Brabançois, put himself at their head, and galloped at full speed to the turning of the wood.
Before coming in sight of the enemy, however, De Coucy paused, and advancing so far alone as to gain a sight of them, he perceived that their numbers, though they had been somewhat exaggerated, were still too great to admit the chance of fighting them with any hope of success. His object, therefore, was to delay them on their march as long as he could; and then to retreat fighting, so as to cover the prince's march upon Tours. Accordingly he commanded the cotereaux to spread out in such a manner that the iron of their spears might just be seen protruding from the wood, and by patting his horse's neck, and touching him with the spur, he made him utter one or two loud neighs, for the purpose of calling the attention of the enemy, which the sound of their galloping thither did not seem to have done.