I took him,
and here are a score to prove it."
"It is true, fair lord. We saw it and it was even so," cried a
chorus of Englishmen.
At all times there was growling and snapping betwixt the English
and their allies of France. The Prince saw how easily this might
set a light to such a flame as could not readily be quenched. It
must be stamped out now ere it had time to mount.
"Fair and honored lord," he said to the King, "again I pray you
for a moment of patience. It is your word and only yours which
can tell us what is just and right. To whom were you graciously
pleased to commit your royal person?"
King John looked up from the flagon which had been brought to him
and wiped his lips with the dawnings of a smile upon his ruddy
face.
"It was not this Englishman," he said, and a cheer burst from the
Gascons, "nor was it this bastard Frenchman," he added. "To
neither of them did I surrender."
There was a hush of surprise.
"To whom then, sir?" asked the Prince.
The King looked slowly round. "There was a devil of a yellow
horse," said he. "My poor palfrey went over like a skittle-pin
before a ball. Of the rider I know nothing save that he bore red
roses on a silver shield. Ah! by Saint Denis, there is the man
himself, and there his thrice-accursed horse!"
His head swimming, and moving as if in a dream, Nigel found
himself the center of the circle of armed and angry men.
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