and worthy knight. Here is a document with the king's signature and seal
to the effect which I have delivered to you."

"His Majesty's demands come upon me as a surprise," the knight said
gravely, "and I pray you to abide with me till to-morrow, by which time I
shall have had leisure to consider the alternative and be ready to give
you answer."

"Your request is a reasonable one, Sir Eustace," the herald replied, "and
I will await the answer for twenty-four hours."

The herald was then conducted to the guest-chamber, and Sir Eustace went
out into the court-yard and for some time busied himself with the usual
affairs of his estate and talked to the tenants as to their plans; then he
went up on to the wall and there paced moodily backwards and forwards
thinking over the summons that he had received. He knew that Margaret had
been in the gallery in the hall and had heard the message the herald had
delivered, and he wished to think it well over before seeing her. His
position was, he felt, a perilous one. The last treaty of peace between
France and England had drawn the frontier line more straitly in. After
Cressy was fought, but a few miles away, Villeroy had stood within the
English line as far as it now stood without it. That Henry, who although
now old and averse to war, must yet ere long again renew the war that had
so long languished he had little doubt; but he had no hope of succour at
present, and felt that though able to withstand any sudden attack like
that he had recently repulsed, he could not hope to make a successful
defence against a great force provided with battering machines.

The message from the king was indeed but a message from Burgundy, but if
Burgundy was all-powerful just at present it had the same effect as if it