He waited an unconscionable time, a month in fact, during which he delighted to watch the shy oncoming of a Northern spring, so different from the sudden flooding of the South.  He found the wood-sorrel, he measured the crosiers of the brake, and saw the blue mist of the hyacinth carpet the glades.  All this charmed him quite, until he learned, by hazard, that the Sieur de Gurdun was to be married to Dame Jehane Saint-Pol on Palm Sunday in the church of Saint Sulpice of Gisors.  ‘God ha’ mercy!’ he thought, with a stab at the heart; ’there is merely time.’  He rode South on the wind’s wings.

CHAPTER VIII

HOW THEY HELD RICHARD OFF FROM HIS FATHER’S THROAT

Long before the pink flush on the almond announced the earth a bride, on all Gaulish roads had been heard the tramp of armed men, the ring of steel on steel.  This new war splintered Gaul.  Aquitaine held for Richard, who, though he had quelled and afterwards governed that great duchy with an iron whip, had made himself respected there.  So the Count of Provence sent him a company, the Count of Toulouse and Dauphin of Auvergne each brought a company; from Perigord, from Bertram Count of Roussillon, from Bearn, and (for reasons) from the wise King of Navarre, came pikemen and slingers, and long-bowmen, and knights with their esquires and banner-bearers.  The Duke of Burgundy and Count of Champagne came from the east to fill the battles of King Philip; in the west the Countess of Brittany sent about the war-torch.  All the extremes of Gaul were in arms against the red old Angevin who sat at her heart, who was now still snarling in England, and sending message after secret message to his son John.  That same John, alone in Paris, headed no spears, partly because he had none of his own, partly because he dared not declare himself openly.  He had taken a side, driven by his vehement brother; for the first time in his life he had put pen to parchment.  God knew (he thought) that was committal enough.  So he stayed in Paris, shifting his body about to get comfort as the winds veered.  Nobody inquired of him, least of all his brother Richard, who, beyond requiring his signature, cared little what he did with his person.  This was characteristic of Richard.  He would drive a man into a high place and then forget him.  Reminded of his neglect, he would shrug and say, ’Yes.  But he is a fool.’  Insufficient answer:  he did not see or did not choose to see that there are two sorts of fools.  Stranded on his peak, one man might be fool enough to stop there, another to try a descent.  Prince John (no fool either) was of this second quality.  How he tried to get down, and where else he tried to go, will be made clear in time.  You and I must go to the war in the west.