Your house was mine when I sorely needed it, and mine shall be yours now.

You are as yet but fifty-five, and I take it that you can do a man's work still, for you no longer suffer from that wound that disabled you ten years ago.

Now, I shall require someone to drill the fifty men who will form my contingent, if all vassals of the king are called upon to take the field.

Of course they will not always be under arms; most of them will be the sons of tenants, or substitutes provided by them, and will only give two or three days' service a month.

It is probable, however, that half will be regular retainers at the castle.