"
"Now that you are a belted knight, Sir Guy, I shall not presume to tease
you any more, but shall treat you with the respect due to your dignity."
Then she swept a deep curtsey, and turning, went off with a merry laugh,
while Guy looked after her more puzzled than ever.
That evening he received the news that during the absence of Sir Eustace
and himself Sir William Bailey, a young knight whose estates lay near, had
asked for the hand of Agnes, and that, although Dame Margaret had been
unable to give an answer during her lord's absence, Agnes would willingly
submit herself to her father's orders to wed Sir William.
Guy remained for some months quietly at Summerley. The Emperor Sigismund
had paid a visit to England, and then to Paris, to endeavour to reconcile
the two countries. His mediation failed. Henry offered, as a final
settlement, to accept the execution, on the part of France, of the treaty
of Trepigny. Nothing, however, came of it, for there was no government in
France capable of making a binding treaty. In spite of the disgrace and
the slaughter of the nobles at Agincourt there was no abatement of the
internal dissensions, and the civil war between Burgundy and Armagnac was
still raging, the only change in affairs being that the vicious and
incapable Duke of Aquitaine had died, and the queen had once again gone
over to the Burgundian faction. Count Charles d'Estournel had carried into
effect the mission with which he had charged himself.
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