o my desire, when the time
shall have come for it; and you shall see the king, who will be rejoiced
thereat. We will have no evil suspicion in anything, for I never was
inclined to treason, and never shall be as long as I live." Then said
the valiant knights and esquires to him, "Never was more valiant man seen
on earth; and in you we have more belief and faith than in all the
prelates and great clerics who dwell at Avignon or in France."

When Du Gueselin returned to Paris, "Sir," said he to the king, "I have
accomplished your wish; I will put out of your kingdom all the worst folk
of this Grand Company, and I will so work it that everything shall be
saved." "Bertrand," said the king to him, "may the Holy Trinity be
pleased to have you in their keeping, and may I see you a long while in
joy and health!" "Noble king," said Bertrand, "the captains have a very
great desire to come to Paris, your good city." "I am heartily willing,"
said the king; "if they come, let them assemble at the Temple; elsewhere
there is too much people and too much abundance; there might be too much
alarm. Since they have reconciled themselves to us, I would have nought
but friendship with them."

The poet concludes the negotiation thus: "At the bidding of Bertrand,
when he understood the pleasure of the noble King of France, all the
captains came to Paris in perfect safety; they were conducted straight to
the Temple; there they were feasted and dined nobly, and received many a
gift, and all was sealed."

Matters went, at the outset at least, as Du Guesclin had promised to the
king on the one side, and on the other to the captains of the Grand
Company. There was, in point of fact, a civil war raging in Spain
between Don Pedro the Cruel, King of Castile, and his natural brother,
Henry of Transtamare, and that was the theatre on which Du Guesclin had
first proposed to launch the vagabond army which he desired to get out of
France. It does not appear, however, that at their departure from
Burgundy at the end of November, 1365, this army and its chiefs had in
this respect any well-considered resolution, or any well-defined aim in
their movements. They made first for Avignon, and Pope Urban V., on
hearing of their approach, was somewhat disquieted, and sent to them one
of his cardinals to ask them what was their will. If we may believe the
poet-chronicler, Cuvelier, the mission was anything but pleasing to the
cardinal, who said to one of