Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed: (The Harvard Classics Series)
History
Chronicle and Romance: Froissart, Malory, Holinshed: (The Harvard Classics Series)
England -- Social life and customs -- 16th century; Great Britain -- History -- Edward III, 1327-1377
That Sunday all the day the cardinal travailed in riding from the one
host to the other gladly to agree them: but the French king would
not agree without he might have four of the principallest of the
Englishmen at his pleasure, and the prince and all the other to yield
themselves simply: howbeit there were many great offers made. The
prince offered to render into the king's hands all that ever he had
won in that voyage, towns and castles, and to quit all prisoners that
he or any of his men had taken in that season, and also to swear not
to be armed against the French king in seven year after; but the king
and his council would none thereof: the uttermost that he would do
was, that the prince and a hundred of his knights should yield
themselves into the king's prison; otherwise he would not: the which
the prince would in no wise agree unto.
In the mean season that the cardinal rode thus between the hosts in
trust to do some good, certain knights of France and of England both
rode forth the same Sunday, because it was truce for that day, to
coast the hosts and to behold the dealing of their enemies. So it
fortuned that the lord John Chandos rode the same day coasting the
French host, and in like manner the lord of Clermont, one of the
French marshals, had ridden forth and aviewed the state of the English
host; and as these two knights returned towards their hosts, they met
together: each of them bare one manner of device, a blue lady
embroidered in a sunbeam above on their apparel. Then the lord
Clermont said: 'Chandos, how long have ye taken on you to bear my
device?' 'Nay, ye bear mine,' said Chandos, 'for it is as well mine as
yours.' 'I deny that,' said Clermont, 'but an it were not for the
truce this day between us, I should make it good on you incontinent
that ye have no right to bear my device.' 'Ah, sir,' said Chandos, 'ye
shall find me to-morrow ready to defend you and to prove by feat of
arms that it is as well mine as yours,' Then Clermont said: 'Chandos,
these be well the words of you Englishmen, for ye can devise nothing
of new, but all that ye see is good and fair.' So they departed
without any more doing, and each of them returned to their host.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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