He does but ask some delay and certain conditions
and hostages----"
"Conditions! Hostages! Is he speaking to the Prince of England,
or is it to the bourgeois provost of some half-captured town!
Conditions, quotha? He may find much to mend in his own
condition ere long. The passes are, then, closed to us?"
"Nay, sire----"
"They are open, then?"
"Nay, sire, if you would but----"
"Enough, enough, Don Martin," cried the prince. "It is a sorry
sight to see so true a knight pleading in so false a cause. We
know the doings of our cousin Charles. We know that while with
the right hand he takes our fifty thousand crowns for the holding
of the passes open, he hath his left outstretched to Henry of
Trastamare, or to the King of France, all ready to take as many
more for the keeping them closed. I know our good Charles, and,
by my blessed name-saint the Confessor, he shall learn that I
know him. He sets his kingdom up to the best bidder, like some
scullion farrier selling a glandered horse. He is----"
"My lord," cried Don Martin, "I cannot stand there to hear such
words of my master.
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