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Page 189
sadly that he had no desire to contest at arms with his acknowledged overlord, that he would never attack his king but only defend himself against injustice, that he asked only for a trial before his peers so that they might judge his offense and Gilbert Bassett's. Since the outcome of such a trial would most certainly be in Richard's and Gilbert's favor, it was not a course that recommended itself to the king. Henry was left to reiterate furiously that he and he alone was the judge of his vassals' rights and duties, which further angered and embittered those barons who had answered his summons.
No other course then remained but to besiege or attack. Teams of men were already busy building new siege engines, but it was clear that there would not be time enough to batter down the walls before the king's party starvednot to mention that it was not really possible to make satisfactory machines out of green wood. Raiding parties came back nearly empty-handedif they came back at all. If Henry wanted Usk, he would have to take it by the crudest form of direct assault.
Simon watched the preparations with bright-eyed eagerness, and Richard came across him on a dawn tour of inspection when it appeared that the assault was imminent. The earl examined Simon's preparations for repelling attack on his section of the wall and had no fault to find. He stood a moment looking out at the king's camp and then sighed.
"Do you not have kin in that army?" he asked.
"Yes," Simon agreed brightly, "and good friends too."
"Do you not care?" Richard asked, rather shocked at the young man's apparent hard-heartedness. "I mean, what if your brother came up the wall?"
"That is one worry I do not have, thank God," Simon answered. "Geoffrey cannot climb a scaling ladder. He was crippled at the Battle of Bouvinesoh, long ago.

 
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