"He is gone!" said the knight, disengaging himself from his grasp. "Our army marching upon Bovines!" continued he: "can it be true? They were not to quit Tournay for two days.--Up, Ermold, into that tree, and see whether you can gain any sight of them. Quick! for we must spur hard, if it be true.--You, Hugo, search the body of the coterel.--Quick, Ermold--hold by that branch--there, your foot on the other! See you any thing now?"
With some difficulty, Ermold de Marcy, though an active youth, had climbed half-way up the tree that Gallon had sprung up like a squirrel; and now, holding round it with both legs and arms, he gazed out over the far prospect. "I see spears," cried he,--"I see spears marching on by the river--and I can see the bridge too!"
"Are there any men on it?" cried De Coucy:--"how far is it from the foremost spears?"
"It is clear yet!" replied the page; "but the lances in the van are not half a mile from it!"
"Look to the right!--look to the right!" cried the knight; "towards Mortain, what see you?"
"I see a clump or two of spears," replied the youth, "scattered here and there; but over one part, that seems a valley, there rises a cloud;--it maybe the morning mist--it may be dust:--stay, I will climb higher;" and he contrived to reach two or three branches above. "Lances, as I live!" cried he: "I see the steel heads glittering through the cloud of dust, and moving on, just above the place where the hill cuts them. They are rising above the slope--now they dip down again--thousands on thousands--never did I see such a host in Christendom or Paynimry!"
"Come down, Ermold, and mount!" cried the knight. "Two of the servants of arms, take up yon poor fellow's body!" he continued, "and bear it to the cottage where we watered our horses but now--then follow towards the bridge with all speed.--Now, Hugo, hast thou the packet? 'Tis it, by the holy rood!" he added, taking a sealed paper that the squire had found upon Jodelle. "To horse! to horse! We shall reach the king's host yet, ere the van has passed the bridge. He must fight there or lose all." And followed by the small body of spears that accompanied him, Guy de Coucy spurred on at full gallop towards the bridge of Bovines.
The distance might be about four miles; but ere he had ridden one-half of that way, he came suddenly upon a body of about twenty spears, at the top of a slight rise that concealed each party till they were within fifty yards of the other. "Down with your lances!" cried De Coucy; "France! France! A Coucy! a Coucy!" and in an instant the spears of his followers, to the number of about seventy, were levelled in a long straight row.
"France! France!" echoed the other party; and, riding forward, De Coucy was met in mid space by the Chancellor Guerin,--armed at all points, but bearing the coat and cross of a knight hospitaller--and Adam Viscount de Melun, who had together ridden out from the main body of the army, to ascertain the truth of some vague reports, that the enemy had left Mortain, and was pursuing with all his forces.
"Well met. Sir Guy de Coucy," said Guerin. "By your cry of France but now, I trust you are no traitor to France, though strange accusations against you reached the king last night; and your absence at a moment of danger countenanced them. I have order," he added, "to attach you for treason."