Your gentle courtesy may perhaps grant
me an exchange of thrusts."
"Nay, nay, Sir Nigel," cried the prince, "fasten not the offence
upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the
same mire. Truth to say, our ears have just been vexed by the
doings of the same company, and I have even now made vow to hang
the man who held the rank of captain over it. I little thought
to find him among the bravest of my own chosen chieftains. But
the vow is now nought, for, as you have never seen your company,
it would be a fool's act to blame you for their doings."
"My liege," said Sir Nigel, "it is a very small matter that I
should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more
ignoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be a
very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the
flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance or
no, and fail to bring it to fulfilment."
"Vex not your mind on that," the prince answered, smiling. "We
have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us
such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our
blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority
over them.
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