That terminated the fight. Nine of the robbers and four of their opponents had been slain, while four on each side had been grievously wounded, including one of the English archers, who was already dying.
Meanwhile Oswald had assisted the elder lady to rise.
"By St. Denis!" she exclaimed. "To think that my silver dagger should be sullied by the blood of a base routier. But I am forgetting. I have to thank thee, sir, and thy comrades for this timely assistance. I trust thou art a gentleman of coat armour?"
Oswald hastened to assure the haughty dame that both he and his two friends were of noble birth.
"The saints be praised!" was the lady's remark. "It would ill-become the wife of Sir Raoul d'Aulx, seigneur of Maissons, to be beholden to bourgeois or villein."
Geoffrey felt tempted to point out that 'twas with the aid of the merchants and the common archers that the affair had been decided, but the announcement of the lady's title completely took him by surprise.
"Certes!" he exclaimed. "This is passing strange. It is to Sir Raoul d'Aulx that my companion here, Richard Ratclyffe, squire to Sir Thomas Carberry, Governor of Portchester Castle, doth bear a letter from his lord."
"Then perchance thou canst do us a further service," replied Lady d'Aulx. "Since our horses are done for and many of our men have fallen, it may be possible for us to journey to Rouen together."
"Our boat, though inconveniently crowded, is at thy service, madame," said Roche, who was busily engaged in completing the binding of a slight cut on his wrist.
"Boat, quotha! I like not this mode of travelling; yet 'tis better than nothing at all. But, sir, thy name and rank?"