Guy and his men-at-arms saw to the comfort of the
knights' retainers and their horses, and the castle rang with sounds of
merriment and laughter to which it had been a stranger for months. After
the cup of welcome had been handed round Sir Eustace showed the knights
over the castle.
"We heard the details of the siege, Sir Eustace, from your esquire, and it
is of interest to us to inspect the defences that Sir Clugnet de Brabant
failed to capture, for, foe though he is to Burgundy, it must be owned
that he is a very valiant knight, and has captured many towns and strong
places. Yes, it is assuredly a strong castle, and with a sufficient
garrison might well have defeated all attempts to storm it by foes who did
not possess means of battering the walls, but the force you had was quite
insufficient when the enemy were strong enough to attack at many points at
the same time, and I am surprised that you should have made good your
defence against so large a force as that which assailed you.
"But it was doubtless in no slight degree due to your English archers. We
saw in Paris what even one of these men could do."
"I am all anxiety to know what took place there," Sir Eustace said, "and I
shall pray you after supper to give me an account of what occurred."
"We will tell you as far as we know of the matter, Sir Eustace; but in
truth we took but little share in it, there was just one charge on our
part and the mob were in flight.
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