Page 45 - A Knight of the White Cross

"Sixteen of them, so you may guess the duties are easy enough, as only two
are generally employed, except, of course on solemn occasions."

"Are there any other English besides myself?"

The boy shook his head. "There are eight belonging to the French langues;
the others are Spaniards, Italians, or Germans. There, this is our room and

this is De Lille. De Lille, this is the grand master's new page, Master
Gervaise Tresham, and our lord says we are to treat him kindly and

entertain him well until tomorrow, when he will go to the palace. He speaks
our language, and has been some years in France."

"How came you to be there?" De Lille asked Gervaise.

"My father was a Lancastrian, and my mother a great friend of our Queen
Margaret of Anjou, and they were with her all the time she was in exile."

"How quarrelsome you English are!" De Lille said. "You seem to be always
fighting among yourselves."

"I don't think," Gervaise said, with a smile, "there is any love lost between
Louis of France and the Duke of Burgundy, to say nothing of other great

lords."

"No; you are right there. But though we talk a great deal about fighting, it is
only occasionally that we engage in it."

The pages' room was a small one. It contained two pallets, which served as
seats by day, and two wooden chests, in which they kept their clothes.

Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a bell.

"That is supper," De Lille said, jumping up. "We will leave you here while
we go down to stand behind our lord's chair. When the meal is over we will

bring a pasty or something else good, and a measure of wine, and have our
supper together up here; and we will tell the servitors to bring up another