at all, it was at the best stale fish, sour beer and
wine, coarse black bread, and meat scarcely eatable, even with the rough
appetite of travellers of that age. Matters were made ten times worse by
Henry's mode of travelling. "If the king has proclaimed that he intends to
stop late in any place, you may be sure that he will start very early in
the morning, and with his sudden haste destroy every one's plans. It often
happens that those who have let blood or taken medicine are obliged at the
hazard of their lives to follow. You will see men running about like mad;
urging forward their pack-horses, driving their waggons into one another,
everything in confusion, as if hell had broken loose. Whereas, if the king
has given out that he will start early in the morning, he will certainly
change his mind, and you may be sure he will snore till noon. You will see
the pack-horses drooping under their loads, waggons waiting, drivers
nodding, tradesmen fretting, all grumbling at one another. Men hurry to
ask the loose women and the liquor retailers who follow the court when the
king will start; for these are the people who know most of the secrets of
the court." Sometimes, on the other hand, when the din of the camp was
silenced for a while in sleep, a sudden message from the royal lodging
would again set all in commotion. A wild clatter of horsemen and footmen
would fill the darkness. The stout pack-horses, probably borrowed from a
neighbouring monastery to carry the heavy Rolls in which state business
was chronicled, were hastily laden. Baggage of every kind was slung across
the backs of horses, or stowed into cumbrous two-wheeled waggons made of
rough planks, or of laths covered with twisted osiers, which had been
seized from farmer or peasant for the king's journey. The forerunners
pushed on in front to give notice of the king's arrival, and in the dim
morning light the motley train of riders at last crowded along the narrow
trackway, followed heavily by the waggons dragged by single file of
horses, which too often foundered in the muddy hollows, or half-plunged
into the torrents through rents and chasms in the low, narrow bridges that
threatened at every instant to crumble away under the strain. But before
the weary day's journey was over the king would suddenly change his mind,
stop short of the town towards which all were toiling in hope of food and
shelter, and turn aside to some spot in the woods where there was perhaps
a so