“And you, discourteous Constable, were keeping him for you own behoof, when all my maidens have been speaking for weeks of no name but the Knight of the beleaguered Castle!”

And Eustace had to kiss the fair hand of the Princess of Wales.

In the meantime, the three boys were whispering together.  “It is all well, all gloriously well, is it not, Arthur, as I told you?” said Edward.  “I knew my father would settle all in his own noble fashion.”

“What said the master of the Damoiseaux?” asked Arthur, as the sight of that severe functionary revived certain half-forgotten terrors.

“Oh, he, the old crab-stock!” said Henry,—­“he looked sour enough at first; but Edward kept your counsel well, till you were safe at a good distance from Bordeaux; and then, though he said somewhat of complaining to my Lord the Prince, it was too late to mend it.  And when Sir John Chandos came back, and bade him be content, he vowed you were enough to spoil a whole host of pages; but did not we all wish some of our uncles would get themselves betrayed?”

“But what means all this preparation?” asked Arthur—­“these lists!  Oh, surely, there is not to be a tourney, which I have so longed to see!”

“No,” said Edward, “that cannot be, my mother says, while my father is so weakly and ill.  But there are the trumpets! you will soon see what will befall.”

And, with a loud blast of trumpets, the gorgeously arrayed heralds rode into the court, followed by a guard of halberdiers, in the midst of whom rode a Knight in bright armour, his visor closed, but his shield and crest marking the Baron of Clarenham.

When the trumpets had ceased, and the procession reached the centre of the lists, they halted, and drew up in order,—­the principal herald, Aquitaine, immediately in front of the Prince.  After another short clear trumpet-blast, Aquitaine unrolled a parchment, and, in a loud voice, proclaimed the confession of Fulk, Baron of Clarenham, of his foul and unknightly conduct, in attempting to betray the person of the good Knight and true, Eustace Lynwood, Knight Banneret, with that of his Esquire, Gaston d’Aubricour, and of certain other trusty and well-beloved subjects of his liege Lord, King Edward of England, together with the fortalice, called Chateau Norbelle, in the county of Gascogne, appertaining to my Lord Edward, Prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitaine, into the hands of the enemy—­having for that purpose tampered with and seduced Thibault Sanchez, Seneschal of the Castle, Tristan de la Fleche, and certain others, who, having confessed their crime, have received their deserts, by being hung on a gallows—­upon which same gallows it was decreed by the authority of the Prince, Duke and Governor of Aquitaine, that the shield of Fulk de Clarenham should be hung—­he himself being degraded from the honours and privileges of knighthood, of which he had proved himself unworthy—­and his lands forfeited to the King, to be disposed of at his pleasure.