Edgar the Ready: A Tale of the Third Edward's Reign

by W. P. Shervill

"Nay, nay, we should be sorry esquires were that so. No, twice a week Sir Percy Standish cometh to Wolsingham to give us instruction in the use of our weapons. He doth it out of friendship for Sir John, and lucky indeed are we to have a teacher so able. It is said, however, by some of the pertest of our pages that his visits are less on Sir John's account than because of an attraction amongst his household, but I hold that the report is baseless, seeing that Sir John's elder daughter is but seventeen."

"I saw three ladies on the outer walls as I rode up to the gates of the castle," said Edgar. "Doubtless two were Sir John's daughters? Who was the third?"

"Oh, she is Sir John's ward, Beatrice d'Alençon. She is only fifteen, but is heiress to wide lands in Kent and wider lands in Guienne. She will be greatly in request among the needy nobles when she cometh of age an the prophets mistake not. Even Aymery and Roland dispute one another's claims to wear her gage, and that is why they are so zealous to worst one another in fence. Asses!--when she careth naught for either!"

Edgar smiled at the scorn with which Robert spoke. "At any rate," he said, "neither you nor I are likely to dispute the damsel with the twain. I hold such ideas to be rubbish, and far from befitting esquires aspiring to the honour of knighthood. My aim at least is single, and no maiden shall divide it."

"Ha! ha! Edgar," laughed Robert, "I should love to hear thee make that declaration in the lady's hearing."

Edgar did not care to join in the laugh, and merely shrugged his shoulders and turned the conversation into other channels. He was interested beyond all else in learning the details of his squirehood and how best he might find opportunity to advance himself in it. The other matters that apparently so interested Aymery and Roland had no charms for him.

So earnest to succeed, it did not take Edgar long to learn his duties and to make rapid headway with his knowledge of martial accomplishments. The period of the next year or two was to him a time of continuous development. Applying himself with ardour to learn all that appertained to knightly prowess, in six months he had passed several of his comrades in skill and dexterity with arms, and could compel even Aymery Montacute to put out all his strength to worst him.

It was then that he gave effect to a resolve half formed in his first talk with Aymery. His opinion at that time was that a knight or esquire should practise clothed in full armour if he desired to show himself at his best on the day of trial. As time went on and his knowledge increased, this opinion deepened into a firm conviction. His comrades, however, as Aymery had done at the first, laughed at the idea, and one or two suggested slyly that perhaps he was becoming tired of the hard knocks he was getting, now that he had worked his way into the front rank and none thought of sparing him. But Edgar cared as little for their ridicule and somewhat ungenerous suggestions as he really did for their hard knocks, and presently appeared at their practices clad in as full a suit of gear as he possessed.

The natural result of the change was that his comrades easily worsted him, and from being almost a match for Aymery he passed down the line to Philip Soames, who stood last in order of prowess with the sword. Undismayed, however, by the fall, Edgar set himself to climb back to the position he had lost, and to become once more the equal of Aymery notwithstanding the armour which clogged and weighted his every movement.

The labour was heavy and the task most irksome. Edgar was quite determined about it, however, and slowly, bit by bit, won his way upward. One of the greatest difficulties before him was that of getting used to wearing a helmet with vizor closed, and learning to watch his man as keenly and surely through its narrow slits as with the vizor open. Accomplish the task he did, however, and had the satisfaction of knowing that the fierce shock of battle or the exciting moments of the tourney would find him on as familiar ground as in the contests of the gymnasium or the tilts in the castle courtyard. As a result of the heavy and constant exercise and the good fare, his frame expanded and his muscles thickened, and from a sturdy lad of fifteen he grew to be a stalwart youth, strong as most grown men and as hardy as one of his Viking forefathers.