ng the fleet sailed from the Orwell. It contained 620
men-at-arms, among whom were many of the noblest and bravest of the
country, and 6000 picked archers in the pay of the king. The whole were
commanded by Sir Walter. The scene was a very gay one. The banners of
the nobles and knights floated from the lofty poops, and the sun shone
on bright armour and steel weapons. Walter, who had never seen the
sea before, was delighted. The wind was fair, and the vessels glided
smoothly along over the sea. At evening the knight and his four young
companions gathered in the little cabin, for it was in the first week in
March, and the night was cold.

"Will you please tell me, Sir John," Walter said to the knight, "the
merits of this quarrel in which we are going to fight? I know that we
are going in aid of the Countess of Montford; but why she is in a sore
strait I know not."

"The matter is a mixed one, Walter, and it requires a herald to tell you
all the subtleties of it. John III, Duke of Brittany, was present with
his liege lord, Phillip of Valois, in the last war with England, on the
border of the low country. When the English retired from before Tournay
Phillip dismissed his nobles. The Duke of Burgundy was taken ill, and
died at Caen, in Normandy, on the 30th of April, 1341. Arthur II, his
father, had been twice married. By his first wife he had three sons,
John, Guy, and Peter. John and Peter left no issue. Guy, who is also
dead, left a daughter, Joan. By his second wife, Jolande de Dieux, Duke
Arthur had one son, John, Count of Montford. Thus it happened, that
when Duke John died, his half-brother, the Count of Montford, and
Joan, daughter of his second brother Guy, were all that survived of
the family. These were the rival claimants for the vacant dukedom. In
England we have but one law of succession, which rules through the whole
land. In France it is different. There the law of succession depends
entirely upon the custom of the county, dukedom, or lordship, which is
further affected both by the form of grant by which the territory was
conveyed to its first feudal possessors and by the mode in which the
province had been acquired by the kings of France. This is important,
as upon these circumstances alone it depended whether the son or the
granddaughter of Arthur II should inherit the dukedom.

"Joan claimed the duchy as the daughter of the elder brother. The Salic
law of France, which barred females from the right of s