If you could wait until the promised
help from England comes----"
"Nay, nay, my sweet cousin," cried Don Pedro. "Had we known that
your own coffers were so low, or that this sorry sum could have
weighed one way or the other, we had been loth indeed----"
"Enough, sire, enough!" said the prince, flushing with vexation.
"If the public funds be, indeed, so backward, Sir William, there
is still, I trust, my own private credit, which hath never been
drawn upon for my own uses, but is now ready in the cause of a
friend in adversity. Go, raise this money upon our own jewels,
if nought else may serve, and see that it be paid over to Don
Fernando."
"In security I offer----" cried Don Pedro.
"Tush! tush!" said the prince. "I am not a Lombard, sire. Your
kingly pledge is my security, without bond or seal. But I have
tidings for you, my lords and lieges, that our brother of
Lancaster is on his way for our capital with four hundred lances
and as many archers to aid us in our venture. When he hath come,
and when our fair consort is recovered in her health, which I
trust by the grace of God may be ere many weeks be past, we shall
then join the army at Dax, and set our banners to the breeze once
more.
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