For with us in France it has ever been fair and honest war--a shut fist for the man, but a bended knee for the woman.

But how was it at Winchelsea when their galleys came down upon it some few years back?
I had an old mother there, lad, who had come down thither from the Midlands to be the nearer her son.

They found her afterwards by her own hearthstone, thrust through by a Frenchman's bill.
My second sister, my brother's wife, and her two children, they were but ash-heaps in the smoking ruins of their house.

I will not say that we have not wrought great scath upon France, but women and children have been safe from us.

And so, old friend, my heart is hot within me, and I long to hear the old battle-cry again, and, by God's truth! if Sir Nigel unfurls his pennon, here is one who will be right glad to feel the saddle-flaps under his knees." "We have seen good work together, old war-dog," quoth Aylward; "and, by my hilt! we may hope to see more ere we die.