"How is this?" he exclaimed. "My lord the Prince of Wales trifles with me when he orders me to disband eight hundred knights and squires whom, by his command, I have retained, and have diverted from other means of obtaining profit and honor." Then he called for a secretary, and said to him in a rage,
"Write what I shall dictate to you."
The secretary wrote as follows from his master's dictation:
"MY DEAR LORD,
"I am marvelously surprised at the contents of the letter
which you have sent me. I do not know and can not imagine
what answer I can make. Your present orders will do me a
great injury, and subject me to much blame. For all the
men-at-arms whom I have retained by your command have
already made their preparations for entering your service,
and were only waiting your orders to march. By retaining
them for your service I have prevented them from seeking
honor and profit elsewhere. Some of the knights had actually
made engagements to go beyond sea, to Jerusalem, to
Constantinople, or to Russia, in order to advance
themselves, and now, having relinquished these advantageous
prospects in order to join your enterprise, they will be
extremely displeased if they are left behind. I am myself
equally displeased, and I can not conceive what I have done
to deserve such treatment. And I beg you to understand, my
lord, that I can not be separated from my men; nor will they
consent to be separated from each other. I am convinced
that, if I dismiss any of them, they will all go."
The baron added other words of the same tenor, and then, signing and sealing the letter, sent it to the prince. The prince was angry in his turn when he received this letter.
"By my faith," said he, "this man D'Albret is altogether too great a man for my country, when he seeks thus to disobey an order from my council. But let him go where he pleases. We will perform this expedition, if it please God, without any of his thousand lances."
This case presents a specimen of the perplexities and troubles in which the prince was involved during the winter, while organizing his expedition and preparing to set out in the spring. The want of money was the great difficulty, for there was no lack of men. Don Pedro agreed, it is true, that when he recovered his kingdom he would pay back the advances which Edward had to make, but he was so unprincipled a man that Edward knew very well that he could not trust to his promises unless he gave some security. So Don Pedro agreed to leave his three daughters in Edward's hands as hostages to secure the payment of the money.
The names of the three princesses thus pledged as collateral security for money borrowed were Beatrice, Constance, and Isabel.
At length, on the third day of April, the child was born. The princess was in a monastery at the time, called the monastery of St. Andrew, whither she had retired for privacy and quiet. Immediately after the event, Prince Edward, having made every thing ready before, gave orders that the expedition should set forward on the road to Spain. He himself was to follow as soon as the baptism of the child should be performed. The day on which the child was born was Wednesday, and Friday was fixed for the baptism. The baptism took place at noon, at a stone font in the church of the monastery. The King of Majorca, whom the prince had promised to restore to his kingdom, was one of the godfathers. The child was named Richard.
On the Sunday following the prince bade his wife and the little infant farewell, and set out from Bordeaux with great pomp, at the head of an immense cavalcade, and went on to join the expedition which was already on its way to Spain.
[Illustration: RICHARD RECEIVING THE VISIT OF HIS UNCLE JOHN.]
The birth of Richard was an event of great importance, for he was not only the son of the Prince of Aquitaine, but he was the grandson of the King of England, and, of course, every one knew that he might one day be the King of England himself. Still, the probability was not very great that this would happen, at least for a long period to come; for, though his father, Prince Edward, was the oldest son of the King of England, he himself was not the oldest son of his father. He had a brother who was some years older than himself, and, of course, there were three lives that must be terminated before his turn should come to reign in England-his grandfather's, his father's, and his brother's.
It happened that all these three lives were terminated in a comparatively brief period, so that Richard really became King of England before he grew up to be a man.
The first important occurrence which took place at the monastery at Bordeaux, where little Richard remained with his mother after his father had gone, was the arrival of his uncle John, that is, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, who was on his way from England at the head of an army to accompany his brother into Spain. John stopped at Bordeaux to see the princess and the infant child. He was very joyfully received by the princess, and by all the ladies in attendance upon her. The princess was very fond of her brother, and she was much pleased that he was going to join her husband in the war in Spain; besides, he brought her late and full news from England. The duke, however, did not remain long at Bordeaux, but, after a brief visit to his sister, he put himself again at the head of his troops, and hurried forward to overtake the prince, who was already far on his way toward the Pyrenees and Spain.
Little Richard remained in Bordeaux for three or four years. During this time he had his brother for a playmate, but he saw little of his father. It was some time before his father returned from Spain, and when he did return he came home much depressed in spirits, and harassed and vexed with many cares. He had succeeded, it is true, in conquering Don Pedro's enemies, and in placing Don Pedro himself again upon the throne; but he had failed in getting back the money that he had expended. Don Pedro could not or would not repay him. What Prince Edward did with the three daughters of the king that had been left with him as hostages I do not know. At any rate, he could not pay his debts with them, or raise money by means of them to silence his clamorous troops. He attempted to lay fresh taxes upon the people of Aquitaine. This awakened a great deal of discontent. The barons who had had disagreements of any sort with Edward before, took advantage of this discontent to form plots against him, and at last several of them, D'Albret among the rest, whom he had mortally offended by countermanding his orders for the thousand men, combined together and sent to the King of France, complaining of the oppressions which they suffered under Edward's rule, and inviting him to come and help them free themselves. The king at once determined that he would do this.
This King of France was, however, not King John, whom Edward had made prisoner and sent to London. King John had died, and the crown had descended to his successor, Charles the Fifth.
King Charles determined first to send two commissioners to summon the Prince of Aquitaine into his presence to give an account of himself. He did this under the pretext that Aquitaine was part of France, and that, consequently, Prince Edward was in some sense under his jurisdiction.
The two commissioners, with their attendants, left Paris, and set out on their journey to Bordeaux. People traveled very slowly in those days, and the commissioners were a long time on the way. At length, however, they reached Bordeaux. They arrived late in the evening, and took up their quarters at an inn. The next day they repaired to the monastery where the prince was residing.