Chapter XXXIX

SIR WALTER MANNY FINDS IN LA RÉOLE THE SEPULCHRE OF HIS FATHER.

While they were lying before this castle, and miners only could be employed, Sir Walter Manny was reminded of his father, who formerly had been murdered in his journey from St. James of Compostella; he had heard in his infancy that he had been buried in La Réole or that neighborhood. He therefore made inquiries in the town, if there were any one who could inform him of the truth of this matter; and offered a hundred crowns to him who should conduct him to the spot. This brought forward an old man, who said to Sir Walter Manny, “Certainly, sir: I think I can lead you to the place where your father was buried, or very near to it.” Sir Walter replied, “If you prove your words true I will stick to my bargain, and even go beyond it.”

To explain this matter more clearly, you must know that there was formerly a bishop of Cambray, a Gascon, and of the families of Buc and Mirefoix; and, during the time of his holding that see, a magnificent tournament was held at Cambray, where there were upwards of five hundred knights. A knight from Gascony tilted with the Lord of Manny, the father of Sir Walter: the Gascon knight was so roughly handled and wounded that he never enjoyed his health afterwards, but died. His death was laid to the door of the Lord of Manny, and the bishop and his kindred vowed revenge for it. Two or three years after, some good-hearted people endeavored to reconcile them; and peace was agreed to, on condition that the Lord of Manny should make a pilgrimage to St. James of Compostella by way of penance.

During the time of this journey the Earl Charles of Valois, brother to King Philip the Fair, was besieging La Réole, and had been there some time; for it appertained, as well as many other cities and towns, to the King of England, the father of him who besieged Tournay: so that the Lord of Manny, on his return, went to visit the Earl Charles of Valois,--as William Earl of Hainault had married the Lord Charles’s daughter,--and showed him his letters, for in these parts he was as king of France. It chanced one night, as he was returning to his lodgings, that he was watched and waylaid by the kindred of him on whose account he had performed this pilgrimage, and was murdered at a small distance from the Earl Charles’s hotel. No one knew positively who had done this deed, but the relations of the Gascon knight above mentioned were very strongly suspected: however, they were so powerful that it was passed over and excused, for none took the part of the Lord of Manny. The Earl of Valois had him buried immediately in a small chapel which at that time was without the walls of La Réole; and, when the Earl of Valois had conquered the town, this chapel was enclosed in it. The old man remembered all these circumstances perfectly well, for he had been present when the Lord of Manny was interred. When Sir Walter came to the spot where his father had been buried, with his aged conductor, he found there a small tomb of marble which his servants had erected over him; and the old man said, “You may be perfectly assured that your father was buried and lies under this tomb.” Sir Walter then caused the inscription, which was in Latin, to be read to him by a clerk, and found that the old man had told him the truth. Two days afterwards he had the tomb opened, took out the bones of his father, and, placing them in a coffin, sent them to Valenciennes in the county of Hainault, where they were again buried in the church of the Frères Mineurs, near the choir. He ordered masses to be said, and to be continued yearly.