"Nay, my friend, thou hast no need to look so troubled;
for thou seest that I was not burned. This is the selfsame body
that was tied to the stake in the market place of the king's
city many a year ago.
"For the friends of my lord, young men for the most part, and many
who had been fain to be my friends also, put on their armour,
and took my lord out of the courteous prison wherein he was,
and came to the Great Square whenas I stood naked in my smock
bound amid the faggots; and I saw the sheriffs' men give back,
and great noise and rumour rise up around me: and then all about me
was a clear space for a moment and I heard the tramp of the many
horse-hoofs, and the space was full of weaponed men shouting,
and crying out, 'Life for our Lord's Lady!' Then a minute,
and I was loose and in my lord's arms, and they brought me a horse
and I mounted, lest the worst should come and we might have to flee.
So I could see much of what went on; and I saw that all the unarmed
folk and lookers-on were gone, but at our backs was a great crowd
of folk with staves and bows who cried out, 'Life for the Lady!'
But before us was naught but the sheriffs' sergeants and a company
of knights and men-at-arms, about as many as we were, and the king
in front of them, fully armed, his face hidden by his helm,
and a royal surcoat over his hauberk beaten with his bearing,
to wit, a silver tower on a blue sky bestarred with gold.
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