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Rh 'Perchance, my fair sir,' he whispered, 'there is some small vow of which I may relieve you. Might we not have some honourable debate upon the matter? Your gentle courtesy may perhaps grant me an exchange of thrusts.'

'Nay, nay, Sir Nigel,' cried the prince, 'fasten not the offence upon Sir Robert Briquet, for we are one and all bogged in the same mire; Truth to say, our ears have just been vexed by the doings of the same Company, and I have even now made vow to hang the man who held the rank of captain over it. I little thought to find him among the bravest of my own chosen chieftains. But the vow is now nought, for, as you have never seen your Company, it would be a fool's act to blame you for their doings.'

'My liege,' said Sir Nigel, 'it is a very small matter that I should be hanged, albeit the manner of death is somewhat more ignoble than I had hoped for. On the other hand, it would be a very grievous thing that you, the Prince of England and the flower of knighthood, should make a vow, whether in ignorance or no, and fail to bring to it fulfilment.'

'Vex not your mind on that,' the prince answered, smiling. 'We have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority over them, and not on him who had never set eyes upon them.'

'My dear and honoured master,' cried Nigel, in great anxiety, 'I fear me much that in your gentleness of heart you are straining this vow which you have taken. If there be so much as a shadow of a doubt as to the form of it, it were a thousand times best'

'Peace! peace!' cried the prince impatiently. 'I am very well able to look to my own vows and their performance. We hope to see you both in the banquet-hall anon. Meanwhile you will attend upon us with our train.' He bowed, and Chandos, plucking Sir Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the back of the press of courtiers.