"Well, Sir Phillip," he exclaimed, rising to his feet as the other entered, "what news?""The news is bad," the knight growled."This famous scheme of yours has cost me fifty of my best men.I would I had had nothing to do with it.""But this Walter Somers," the other exclaimed, "what of him? He has not escaped surely! The force which marched from Amiens was large enough to have eaten him and his garrison.
"He has not escaped," the knight replied.
"Then he is killed!" the other said eagerly.
"No; nor is he killed.He is at present a prisoner in a dungeon below, together with a stout knave whom he begged might accompany him until ransomed.""All is well then," the other exclaimed."Never mind the loss of your men.
The money which I have promised you for this business will hire you two hundred such knaves; but why didst not knock him on head at once?""It was not so easy to knock him on the head," Sir Phillip growled."It cost us five hundred men to capture the outer walls, and to have fought our way into the keep, held, as it was, by men who would have contested every foot of the ground, was not a job for which any of us had much stomach, seeing what the first assaults had cost us; so the count took them all to quarter.The rest he carried with him to Amiens; but their leader, according to the promise which he made me, he handed over to me as my share of the day's booty, giving me every charge that he should receive good and knightly treatment.
"Which, no doubt, you will observe," the other said, with an ugly laugh.
"It is a bad business," the knight exclaimed angrily, "and were it not for our friendship, in Spain, and the memory of sundry deeds which we did together, not without profit to our purses, I would rather that you were thrown over the battlements into the river than I had taken a step in this business.However, none can say that Phillip of Holbeaut ever deserted a friend who had proved true to him, not to mention that the sum which you promised me for my aid in this matter will, at present time, prove wondrously convenient.Yet I foresee that it will bring me into trouble with the Count of Evreux.Ere many days a demand will come for the fellow to be delivered on ransom.""And what will you say?" the other asked.
"I shall say what is the truth," the knight replied, "though I may add something that is not wholly so.I shall say that he was drowned in the Somme.I shall add that it happened as he was trying to make his escape, contrary to the parole he had given; but in truth he will be drowned in the dungeon in which I have placed him, which has rid me of many a troublesome prisoner before now.The river is at ordinary times but two feet below the loophole; and when its tide is swelled by rain it often rises above the sill, and then there is an end of any one within.They can doubt my word;but there are not many who would care to do so openly; none who would do so for the sake of an unknown English knight.And as for any complaints on the part of the Black Prince, King Phillip has shown over and over again how little the complaints of Edward himself move him.""It were almost better to knock him on head at once," the other said thoughtfully; "the fellow has as many lives as a cat.
"If he had as many as nine cats," the knight replied, "it would not avail him.But I will have no violence.The water will do your work as well as a poinard, and I will not have it said, even among such ruffians as mine, that I slew a captured knight.The other will pass as an accident, and Icare not what my men may think as long as they can say nothing for a surety.The count may storm as much as he will, and may even lay a complaint against me before the king; but in times like the present, even a simple knight who can lead two hundred good fighting men into the field is not to be despised, and the king is likely to be easily satisfied with my replies to any question that may be raised.Indeed, it would seem contrary to reason that I should slay a captive against whom I have no cause of quarrel, and so forfeit the ransom which I should get for him.""But suppose that a messenger should come offering ransom before the river happens to rise?""Then I shall anticipate matters, and shall say that what I know will happen has already taken place.Do not be uneasy, Sir James.You have my word in the matter, and now I have gone so far I shall carry it through.
From the moment when I ordered him into that dungeon his fate was sealed, and in truth, when I gave the order I did so to put an end to the indecision in which my mind had been all night.Once in there he could not be allowed to come out alive, for his report of such treatment would do me more harm among those of my own station in France than any rumours touching his end could do.It is no uncommon affair for one to remove an enemy from one's path; but cruelty to a knightly prisoner would be regarded with horror.Would you like to have a look at him?"The other hesitated."No," he replied."Against him personally I have no great grudge.He has thwarted my plans, and stands now grievously in the way of my making fresh ones; but as he did so from no ill-will towards myself, but as it were by hazard, I have no personal hatred towards him, though I would fain remove him from my path.Besides, I tell you fairly, that even in that dungeon where you have thrown him I shall not feel that he is safe until you send me word that he is dead.He has twice already got out of scrapes when other men would have been killed.Both at Vannes and at Ghent he escaped in a marvellous way; and but a few weeks since, by the accident of his having a coat of mail under his doublet he saved his life from as fair a blow as ever was struck.Therefore I would not that he knew aught of my having a hand in this matter, for if after having seen me he made his escape I could never show my face in England again.I should advise you to bid three or four men always enter his cell together, for he and that man-of-arms who follows him like a shadow are capable of playing any desperate trick to escape.
