Gervaise bowed deeply to the two knights, and then followed the page.

“I suppose you arrived in that ship which came in today,” the latter said, as soon as they had left the room.  “You are in luck indeed to have obtained a pageship at the grand master’s.  You begin to count your time at once, while we do not begin to count ours until we are seventeen.  Still, good luck may befall us yet, for if the grand master dies, Sir Peter is sure to be chosen to succeed him.  Then, you see, we too shall be pages of the grand master.”

“How many are there of you?”

“Only De Lille and myself.  Of course D’Aubusson will take on the grand master’s present pages; but as there are five vacancies on an average every year, he will be able to find room for us among the number.”

“Why, how many pages has the grand master?” Gervaise asked, in surprise.

“Sixteen of them, so you may guess the duties are easy enough, as only two are generally employed, except, of course on solemn occasions.”

“Are there any other English besides myself?”

The boy shook his head.  “There are eight belonging to the French langues; the others are Spaniards, Italians, or Germans.  There, this is our room and this is De Lille.  De Lille, this is the grand master’s new page, Master Gervaise Tresham, and our lord says we are to treat him kindly and entertain him well until tomorrow, when he will go to the palace.  He speaks our language, and has been some years in France.”

“How came you to be there?” De Lille asked Gervaise.

“My father was a Lancastrian, and my mother a great friend of our Queen Margaret of Anjou, and they were with her all the time she was in exile.”

“How quarrelsome you English are!” De Lille said.  “You seem to be always fighting among yourselves.”

“I don’t think,” Gervaise said, with a smile, “there is any love lost between Louis of France and the Duke of Burgundy, to say nothing of other great lords.”

“No; you are right there.  But though we talk a great deal about fighting, it is only occasionally that we engage in it.”

The pages’ room was a small one.  It contained two pallets, which served as seats by day, and two wooden chests, in which they kept their clothes.

Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a bell.

“That is supper,” De Lille said, jumping up.  “We will leave you here while we go down to stand behind our lord’s chair.  When the meal is over we will bring a pasty or something else good, and a measure of wine, and have our supper together up here; and we will tell the servitors to bring up another pallet for you.  Of course, you can go down with us if you like.”

“Thank you, I would much rather stay here.  Every one would be strange to me, and having nothing to do I should feel in the way.”

The boys nodded, and taking their caps ran off, while Gervaise, tired by the excitement of the day, lay down on the bed which a servant brought up a few minutes after they had left him, and slept soundly until their return.