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Page 190
I was only a child then. It does not affect him fighting mounted or even on foot much, although he cannot run well and he cannot manage a ladder.''
Richard's face relaxed a little. There was so much good-humored mischief in Simon's eyes that he guessed what was coming even as he asked, "And the others? The good friends?"
"They will not attempt this section of the wall," Simon said. "I sent a man over as soon as you told me where I would be. I hope you do not mind, my lord," he added with sudden doubt. "I thought it would be better that way. Thus we can honestly all fight our best. It is not like a battle on an open field, where we could see each other's colors and avoid. I do not think I could bear to cast over a ladder on which my mother's vassal stood. Those men, most of them, dandled me upon their knees."
"No, I do not mind," Richard said, smiling and feeling better suddenly.
The thought that tormented Richard most bitterly was that in a war of this kind, brother might fight brother and father fight son. Simon's insouciance reminded him that those who cared would probably find ways to avoid each other, and those who did not would have ended at each other's throats whether or not they had the excuse of war. He remembered, comfortingly, that his own father and elder brother had managed never to come to blows, even though William had rebelled against King John and had joined Prince Louis.
"Look!" Simon exclaimed, interrupting Richard's thoughts.
"I see," he responded, and took off around the wall at a trot, calling an alarm as he went.
It was hardly necessary. All along the wall men were shouting to their companions to come to attention. Simon's archers sprang to their feet and bent their bows against their arches to string them, plucking

 
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