“Sayest so?” cried Sir James, harshly. “Then take thou my message back again to thy Lord. Not for Mackworth—no, nor a better man than he—will I make any changes in my government. An I be set to rule a pack of boys, I will rule them as I list, and not according to any man's bidding. Tell him, sirrah, that I will enter no lad as squire of the body without first testing an he be fit at arms to hold that place.” He sat for a while glowering at Myles and gnawing his mustaches, and for the time no one dared to break the grim silence. “What is thy name?” said he, suddenly. And then, almost before Myles could answer, he asked the head squire whether he could find a place to lodge him.
“There is Gillis Whitlock's cot empty,” said Blunt. “He is in the infirmary, and belike goeth home again when he cometh thence. The fever hath gotten into his bones, and—”
“That will do,” said the knight, interrupting him impatiently. “Let him take that place, or any other that thou hast. And thou, Jerome,” said he to his clerk, “thou mayst enter him upon the roll, though whether it be as page or squire or bachelor shall be as I please, and not as Mackworth biddeth me. Now get ye gone.”
“Old Bruin's wound smarteth him sore,” Gascoyne observed, as the two lads walked across the armory court. He had good-naturedly offered to show the new-comer the many sights of interest around the castle, and in the hour or so of ramble that followed, the two grew from acquaintances to friends with a quickness that boyhood alone can bring about. They visited the armory, the chapel, the stables, the great hall, the Painted Chamber, the guard-house, the mess-room, and even the scullery and the kitchen, with its great range of boilers and furnaces and ovens. Last of all Myles's new friend introduced him to the armor-smithy.
“My Lord hath sent a piece of Milan armor thither to be repaired,” said he. “Belike thou would like to see it.”
“Aye,” said Myles, eagerly, “that would I.”
The smith was a gruff, good-natured fellow, and showed the piece of armor to Myles readily and willingly enough. It was a beautiful bascinet of inlaid workmanship, and was edged with a rim of gold. Myles scarcely dared touch it; he gazed at it with an unconcealed delight that warmed the smith's honest heart.
“I have another piece of Milan here,” said he. “Did I ever show thee my dagger, Master Gascoyne?”
“Nay,” said the squire.
The smith unlocked a great oaken chest in the corner of the shop, lifted the lid, and brought thence a beautiful dagger with the handle of ebony and silver-gilt, and a sheath of Spanish leather, embossed and gilt. The keen, well-tempered blade was beautifully engraved and inlaid with niello-work, representing a group of figures in a then popular subject—the dance of Death. It was a weapon at once unique and beautiful, and even Gascoyne showed an admiration scarcely less keen than Myles's openly-expressed delight.