For the next fortnight Guy worked hard in the _salle d'armes_, being
one of the first to arrive and the last to depart, and after taking a
lesson from one or other of the masters he spent the rest of the morning
in practising with anyone who desired an adversary. Well trained as he was
in English methods of fighting, he mastered with a quickness that
surprised his teachers the various thrusts and parries that were new to
him. At the end of that time he was able to hold his own with the young
Count d'Estournel, who was regarded as an excellent swordsman.
The attendance of the Burgundian nobles had now fallen off a good deal.
The Armagnac army had approached Paris, St. Denis had opened its gates to
them, and there were frequent skirmishes near the walls of Paris between
parties of their knights and the Burgundians. Paris was just at present
more quiet. Burgundy was still absent, and the future seemed so uncertain,
that both factions in the city held their hands for a time.
The news that a reconciliation between Orleans and Burgundy had been fully
effected, and that the great lords would soon enter Paris together, was
received with a joy that was modified by recollections of the past.
Burgundy and Orleans had once before sworn a solemn friendship, and yet a
week or two later Orleans lay dead in the streets of Paris, murdered by
the order of Burgundy. Was it likely that the present patching up of the
quarrel would have a much longer duration? On the former occasion the
quarrel was a personal one between the two great houses, now all France
was divided.
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