“Holy Mary!” said I to the knight, “this Bourg d’Espaign, is he so strong a man as you tell me?”--“Yes, that he is, by my troth,” said he, “and you will not find his equal in all Gascony for vigor of body: it is for this the Count de Foix esteems him as his brother in arms. Three years ago I saw him play a ridiculous trick, which I will relate to you. On Christmas Day, when the Count de Foix was celebrating the feast with numbers of knights and squires, as is customary, the weather was piercing cold; and the count had dined, with many lords, in the hall. After dinner he rose, and went into a gallery, which has a large staircase of twenty-four steps: in this gallery is a chimney where is a fire kept when the count inhabits it, otherwise not; and the fire is never great, for he does not like it: it is not for want of blocks of wood, for Béarn is covered with wood in plenty to warm him if he had chosen it, but he has accustomed himself to a small fire. When in the gallery he thought the fire too small, for it was freezing, and the weather very sharp; and said to the knights around him, ‘Here is but a small fire for this weather.’ Ernauton d’Espaign instantly ran down stairs (for, from the windows of the gallery which looked into the court, he had seen a number of asses with billets of wood for the use of the house), and seizing the largest of these asses, with his load, threw him over his shoulders, and carried him up stairs, pushing through the crowd of knights and squires who were around the chimney, and flung ass and load, with his feet upward, on the dogs of the hearth; to the delight of the count, and the astonishment of all, at the strength of the squire, who had carried, with such ease, so great a load up so many steps.” This feat of strength did I hear; and all the histories of Sir Espaign du Lyon gave me such satisfaction and delight, I thought the road was much too short. CHAPTER IV. SIR JOHN FROISSART ARRIVES AT ORTHÈS.--AN OLD SQUIRE RELATES TO HIM THE CRUEL DEATH OF THE ONLY SON OF THE COUNT OF FOIX. On the morrow we set out, and dined at Montgerbal, when having remounted, and drunk a cup at Ercie, we arrived by sunset at Orthès. The knight dismounted at his own house; and I did the same at the Hotel of the Moon, kept by a squire of the count, called Ernauton du Pin, who received me with much pleasure on account of my being a Frenchman. Sir Espaign du Lyon, who had accompanied me, went to the castle to speak with the count on his affairs. He found him in his gallery, for a little before that hour he had dined. It was a custom with the count, which he had followed from his infancy, to rise at noon, and sup at midnight.