Part 3 (2/2)
D'Aubusson cut the silken string that bound the missive together, and read the letter.
”He does indeed speak warmly,” he said, as he laid it down on the table.
”He tells me that the lad, young as he was, had been well trained when he came, and that he worked with great diligence during the five months he was in the House, and displayed such skill and strength for his age, as to surprise his preceptors, who prophesied that he would turn out a stout swordsman, and would be a credit to the Order.”
”He is well furnished with garments both for ordinary and state occasions,” Sir Guy said; ”and in this packet are some sixty gold crowns, which are the last remains of his patrimony, and which I was to hand to you in order to pay the necessary expenses during his pages.h.i.+p.”
”He could have done without that,” D'Aubusson said. ”Recommended to me as he is, I would have seen that he lacked nothing, but was provided with all necessaries for his position. I will in the future take care that in all things he is on a par with his companions.” He touched a bell on the table, and a servitor entered.
”Tell Richard de Deauville to come here,” he said.
A minute later the hangings at the door were pushed aside, and a lad about a year older than Gervaise appeared, and, bowing deeply to the knight, stood in a respectful att.i.tude, awaiting his orders.
”Deauville, take this youth, Gervaise Tresham to your room. He is appointed one of the pages of the grand master. He is English, but he speaks French as well as you do, having lived in France for some years.
Take him to your apartment and treat him kindly and well, seeing that he is a stranger and new to all here. Tomorrow he will go to the palace.”
Gervaise bowed deeply to the two knights, and then followed the page.
”I suppose you arrived in that s.h.i.+p which came in today,” the latter said, as soon as they had left the room. ”You are in luck indeed to have obtained a pages.h.i.+p at the grand master's. You begin to count your time at once, while we do not begin to count ours until we are seventeen.
Still, good luck may befall us yet, for if the grand master dies, Sir Peter is sure to be chosen to succeed him. Then, you see, we too shall be pages of the grand master.”
”How many are there of you?”
”Only De Lille and myself. Of course D'Aubusson will take on the grand master's present pages; but as there are five vacancies on an average every year, he will be able to find room for us among the number.”
”Why, how many pages has the grand master?” Gervaise asked, in surprise.
”Sixteen of them, so you may guess the duties are easy enough, as only two are generally employed, except, of course on solemn occasions.”
”Are there any other English besides myself?”
The boy shook his head. ”There are eight belonging to the French langues; the others are Spaniards, Italians, or Germans. There, this is our room and this is De Lille. De Lille, this is the grand master's new page, Master Gervaise Tresham, and our lord says we are to treat him kindly and entertain him well until tomorrow, when he will go to the palace. He speaks our language, and has been some years in France.”
”How came you to be there?” De Lille asked Gervaise.
”My father was a Lancastrian, and my mother a great friend of our Queen Margaret of Anjou, and they were with her all the time she was in exile.”
”How quarrelsome you English are!” De Lille said. ”You seem to be always fighting among yourselves.”
”I don't think,” Gervaise said, with a smile, ”there is any love lost between Louis of France and the Duke of Burgundy, to say nothing of other great lords.”
”No; you are right there. But though we talk a great deal about fighting, it is only occasionally that we engage in it.”
The pages' room was a small one. It contained two pallets, which served as seats by day, and two wooden chests, in which they kept their clothes.
Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a bell.
”That is supper,” De Lille said, jumping up. ”We will leave you here while we go down to stand behind our lord's chair. When the meal is over we will bring a pasty or something else good, and a measure of wine, and have our supper together up here; and we will tell the servitors to bring up another pallet for you. Of course, you can go down with us if you like.”
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