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''Where do you go?" Salisbury called as his eye was caught by his son's unsteady gait. They were too near the docks to make drunken wandering safe. |
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Geoffrey explained, and his father snorted derisively. "You are full as an untapped wineskin. Where will you look in the dark? Like enough, if he is alive, he is on his way to England. Tomorrow, if you still want to know, I will inquire." |
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It was highly unlikely that either would have remembered in the morning, but a middle-aged knight further down the room called out to say that if Lord Geoffrey meant the man wounded by the longbow arrow, he had taken him prisoner. The man's name was Léon de Baisieux and he was not like to die unless the stiffening sickness took him. For some reason, more associated with a newly filled goblet than anything else, Geoffrey now felt he had vindicated himself and settled back to enjoy the party. |
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Later he was called upon to sing. A handsome lute, also part of the plunder, was thrust into his hands. By then most of the rowdier drunks were either under the tables or had left the hall to settle elsewhere the quarrels they had started. A gentle melancholy pervaded the remaining celebrants. It seemed appropriate to sing laments, and the only one Geoffrey could call to mind at the moment was King Richard's song, written when he was a prisoner in Germany. The fine logic of drunkenness immediately connected Coeur de Lion, who had been a prisoner, with Léon de Baisieux, who was now a prisoner, and fixed the name in Geoffrey's memory. |
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Perhaps Geoffrey would have done something about the man once his interest and sense of responsibility had been awakened, but the next day was even busier than the one before. Count Ferrand arrived to ratify the alliance with King Johnand to receive his share of the booty. Salisbury, Dammartin, and Holland were fully occupied with their noble guest. Geoffrey was completely immersed in his duty as temporary quartermaster. Meanwhile, most of the knights, afflicted with high spirits or bad tempers owing to overindulgence, decided to work off their energies. They ranged further afield than they should have and ran directly |
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