Stay here, and play the man.' "So, by the messenger, I sent thee back a letter, asking thee to write me word how it was that thou, being my betrothed, hadst come to do this thing; and whether Humphry was good to thee, and making thy life pleasant.

To Humphry I sent a letter saying that, thy love being round him as a silver shield, I would not slay him, wound him, or touch him! But--if he used thee ill, or gave thee any grief or sorrow, then would I come, forthwith, and send him straight to hell.
"These letters, with others from the camp, went back to England by that clerkly messenger.

No answers were returned to mine.
"Meanwhile I went, with my despair, out to the battlefield.
"No tender shield was round me any more.

I fought, like a mad wild beast.

So often was I wounded, that they dubbed me 'The Knight of the Bloody Vest.' "At last they brought me back to camp, delirious and dying.