'I command you,' continued the boy, 'to restore to me my rightful inheritance, of which you have unjustly deprived me, and to set my knights instantly at liberty.'
Some of the bystanders were looking at the lad with pity, mingled with admiration for his courage; but the boy's fearlessness only filled the king with a desire to lower his pride.
By the time he had found his voice, John's eyes were glittering with a cruel determination.
'To Falaise with him!' he said. 'Take him away; and in the dungeon there he will learn to rebel against his uncle and lawful king.'
Arthur was not frightened yet. He remembered that King Philip had promised to make him King of England; and he saw nothing to be afraid of in the mean, cowardly face of the man before him.
'No king of mine,' he said; 'you may put me in a dungeon, but you cannot keep me there. The King of France is on my side and against you, base usurper; and he will send an army and deliver me from the strongest fortress of those that you have stolen from me.'
King John made a sign; and the boy was hurried away, still defying his uncle. A horse was waiting for him, and he was made to ride, strongly guarded, all the long distance to the castle of Falaise, which was reached early one fine sunny morning.
Standing beneath the grim walls of the castle, the chief of Arthur's guards blew a horn.
Some men-at-arms stirred upon the battlements; then the drawbridge was lowered, the iron grating raised which guarded the entrance; and the party clattered under the entrance tower and into the courtyard.
Arthur descended from his horse; and weary as he was, he was led along a passage and down a stone staircase to a great iron door which one of his guides opened with a large key.