"
"And did well to listen, man, since otherwise by now you would be
excommunicate."
"I could mock at that," said Dick sullenly, "who make confession in
my own way, and do not wish to be married, and care not the worth of
a horseshoe nail how and where I am buried, provided those I hate are
buried first."
"Richard Archer, graceless wight that you are," said Sir Andrew, "I say
you stand in danger of your soul."
"Ay, Father, and so the Frenchman, Acour, stood in danger of his body.
But you saved it, so perhaps if there is need at the last, you will do
as much for my soul. If not it must take its chance," and snatching at
the dish-cover angrily, he turned and left the chamber.
"Well," commented Sir Andrew, shaking his head sadly, "if the fellow's
heart is hard it is honest, so may he be forgiven who has something to
forgive like the rest of us. Now hearken to me, son and daughter. Wrong,
grievous and dreadful, has been done to you both. Yet, until death or
the Church levels it, a wall that you may not climb stands between you,
and when you meet it must be as friends--no more."
"Now I begin to wish that I had learned in Grey Dick's school," said
Hugh. But whatever she thought, Eve set her lips and said nothing.
CHAPTER IX
CRECY FIELD
It was Saturday, the 26th of August, in the year 1346. The harassed
English host--but a little host, after all, retreating for its life from
Paris--had forced the passage of the Somme by the ford which a forgotten
traitor, Gobin Agache by name, revealed to them.
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