"Hold your tongue!" commanded his father, briefly, "what else can ye
expect of a border man but broken faith?"

The archers of the guard rushed in, as was their duty, and separated
the remaining combatants. Hugh and his brother William fought it to
the last, the younger with all his vigour and with a fierce energy
born of his brother James's taunts, William with the calm courtesy and
forbearance of an old and assured knight towards one who has yet his
spurs to win.

The stunned knights and squires were conveyed to their several
pavilions, where the Earl's apothecaries were at once in attendance.
William of Douglas was the first to revive, which he did almost as
soon as the laces of his helm had been undone and water dashed upon
his face. His head still sang, he declared, like a hive of bees, but
that was all.

He bent with the anxiety of a generous enemy over the unconscious form
of the Marshal de Retz, from whom they were stripping his armour. At
the removal of the helmet, the strange parchment face with its
blue-black stubbly beard was seen to be more than usually pale and
drawn. The upper lip was retracted, and a set of long white teeth
gleamed like those of a wild beast.

The apothecary was just commencing to strip off the leathern
under-doublet from the ambassador's body to search for a wound, when
Poitou, his squire, happened to open his eyes. He had been laid upon
the floor, as the most seriously wounded of the combatants, though
being the least in honour he fell to be attended last.