his confidants, "I am grieved to be set to
this business, for I am sent to a pack of madmen who have not an hour's,
nay, not even half-an-hour's conscience." The captains replied that they
were going to fight the heathen either in Cyprus or in the kingdom of
Granada, and that they demanded of the pope absolution of their sins and
two hundred thousand livres, which Du Guesclin had promised them in his
name. The pope cried out against this. "Here," said he, "at Avignon, we
have money given us for absolution, and we must give it gratis to yonder
folks, and give them money also: it is quite against reason." Du
Guesclin insisted. "Know you," said he to the cardinal, "that there are
in this army many folks who care not a whit for absolution, and who would
much rather have money; we are making them proper men in spite of
themselves, and are leading them abroad that they may do no mischief to
Christians. Tell that to the pope; for else we could not take them
away." The pope yielded, and gave them the two hundred thousand livres.
He obtained the money by levies upon the population of Avignon. They, no
doubt, complained loudly, for the chiefs of the Grand Company were
informed thereof, and Du Guesclin said, "By the faith that I owe to the
Holy Trinity, I will not take a denier of that which these poor folks
have given; let the pope and the clerics give us of their own; we desire
that all they who have paid the tax do recover their money without losing
a doit; "and, according to contemporary chronicles, the vagabond army did
not withdraw until they had obtained this satisfaction. The piety of the
middle ages, though sincere, was often less disinterested and more rough
than it is commonly represented.

On arriving at Toulouse from Avignon, Du Guesclin and his bands, with a
strength, it is said, of thirty thousand men, took the decided resolution
of going into Spain to support the cause of Prince Henry of Transtamare
against the King of Castile his brother, Don Pedro the Cruel. The Duke
of Anjou, governor of Languedoc, gave them encouragement, by agreement,
no doubt with King Charles V., and from anxiety on his own part to rid
his province of such inconvenient visitors. On the 1st of January, 1366,
Du Guesclin entered Barcelona, whither Henry of Transtamare came to join
him. There is no occasion to give a detailed account here of that
expedition, which appertains much more to the history of Spain than to
that of France.