I then asked the knight, “But how did they gain the castle?”--“I will tell you,” said Sir Espaign du Lyon. “At the time the town was taken, by ill-luck the governor was absent, supping with some merchants from Carcassonne, so that he was made prisoner; and on the morrow Peter d’Anchin had him brought before the castle wherein were his wife and children, whom he frightened by declaring he would order the governor’s head to be struck off if they did not enter into a treaty to deliver up the castle. It was concluded, that, if his lady would surrender, the governor should be given up to her, with permission to march unmolested away with every thing that belonged to them. The lady, who found herself in such a critical situation, through love to him who could not now defend her, in order to recover her husband and to avoid greater dangers, surrendered the castle, when the governor, his wife, and children, set out with all that belonged to them, and went to Pamiers. By this means Peter d’Anchin captured the town and castle of Ortingas; and, when they entered the place, he and his companions gained thirty thousand francs, as well in merchandise which they found there, as in good French prisoners. All those who were from the county of Foix or Béarn received their liberty, with their goods untouched. “Peter d’Anchin held Ortingas for full five years; and he and his garrison made frequent excursions as far as the gates of Carcassonne, which is sixteen long leagues distant, greatly ruining the country, as well by the ransoms of towns which compounded, as by the pillage they made. During the time Peter d’Anchin garrisoned Ortingas, some of his companions made a sally, being desirous of gain, and came to a castle a good league off, called Le Paillier, of which Raymond du Paillier, a French knight, was the lord. They this time accomplished their enterprise, having before attempted it in vain; and, by means of a scalado, they took the castle, the knight and his lady in bed. They kept possession of it, allowing the lady and the children to depart, but detained the knight four months in his own castle, until he had paid four thousand francs for his ransom. In short, after they had sufficiently harassed the country, they sold these two castles, Ortingas and Le Paillier, for eight thousand francs, and then retired to Lourde, their principal garrison. Such feats of arms and adventures were these companions daily practising. CHAPTER III. FROISSART CONTINUES HIS JOURNEY.--IN TRAVELLING FROM TOURNAY TO TARBES, THE KNIGHT RELATES TO HIM HOW THE GARRISON OF LOURDE HAD A SHARP RENCOUNTER WITH THE FRENCH FROM THE ADJACENT GARRISONS. In the morning we mounted our horses, set out from Tournay, passed the river Lesse at a ford, and, riding toward the city of Tarbes, entered Bigorre.