the
lane from my kennels to the Avon."

All morning Sir Nigel rode in a very ill-humor, with his Company
tramping behind him. It was a toilsome march over broken ground and
through snow, which came often as high as the knee, yet ere the sun had
begun to sink they had reached the spot where the gorge opens out on to
the uplands of Navarre, and could see the towers of Pampeluna jutting
up against the southern sky-line. Here the Company were quartered in a
scattered mountain hamlet, and Alleyne spent the day looking down
upon the swarming army which poured with gleam of spears and flaunt of
standards through the narrow pass.

"Hola, mon gar.," said Aylward, seating himself upon a boulder by his
side. "This is indeed a fine sight upon which it is good to look, and a
man might go far ere he would see so many brave men and fine horses.
By my hilt! our little lord is wroth because we have come peacefully
through the passes, but I will warrant him that we have fighting
enow ere we turn our faces northward again. It is said that there are
four-score thousand men behind the King of Spain, with Du Guesclin and
all the best lances of France, who have sworn to shed their heart's
blood ere this Pedro come again to the throne."

"Yet our own army is a great one," said Alleyne.

"Nay, there are but seven-and-twenty thousand men. Chandos hath
persuaded the prince to leave many behind, and indeed I think that he is
right, for there is little food and less water in these parts for which
we are bound. A man without his meat or a horse without his fodder is
like a wet bow-string, fit for little. But voila, mon petit, here comes
Chandos and his company, and there is many a pensil and banderole among
yonder squadrons which show that the best blood of England is riding
under his banners."

Whilst Aylward had been speaking, a strong column of archers had defiled
through the pass beneath them. They were followed by a banner-bearer
who held high the scarlet wedge upon a silver field which proclaimed the
presence of the famous warrior. He rode himself within a spear's-length
of his standard, clad from neck to foot in steel, but draped in the long
linen gown or parement which was destined to be the cause of his death.
His plumed helmet was carried behind him by his body-squire, and his
head was covered by a small purple cap, from under which his snow-white
hair curled downwards to his shoulders. With his long beak-like nose and
his single gl