The White Company & Sir Nigel (Illustrated Edition). Arthur Conan Doyle

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       Arthur Conan Doyle

      The White Company & Sir Nigel

      (Illustrated Edition)

      Historical Adventure Novels set in Hundred Years' War

      Published by

      Books

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       [email protected]

      2017 OK Publishing

      ISBN 978-80-272-1936-0

      Table of Contents

       Sir Nigel

       The White Company

      Sir Nigel

       Table of Contents

Table of Contents

       Introduction

       I. The House of Loring

       II. How the Devil Came to Waverley

       III. The Yellow Horse of Crooksbury

       IV. How the Summoner Came to the Manor House of Tilford

       V. How Nigel was Tried by the Abbot of Waverley

       VI. In Which Lady Ermyntrude Opens the Iron Coffer

       VII. How Nigel Went Marketing to Guildford

       VIII. How the King Hawked on Crooksbury Heath

       IX. How Nigel Held the Bridge at Tilford

       X. How the King Greeted His Seneschal of Calais

       XI. In the Hall of the Knight of Duplin

       XII. How Nigel Fought the Twisted Man of Shalford

       XIII. How the Comrades Journeyed Down the Old, Old Road

       XIV. How Nigel Chased the Red Ferret

       XV. How the Red Ferret Came to Cosford

       XVI. How the King’s Court Feasted in Calais Castle

       XVII. The Spaniards on the Sea

       XVIII. How Black Simon Claimed Forfeit from the King of Sark

       XIX. How a Squire of England Met a Squire of France

       XX. How the English Attempted the Castle of La Brohiniere

       XXI. How the Second Messenger Went to Cosford

       XXII. How Robert of Beaumanoir Came to Ploermel

       XXIII. How Thirty of Josselin Encountered Thirty of Ploermel

       XXIV. How Nigel was Called to His Master

       XXV. How the King of France Held Counsel at Maupertuis

       XXVI. How Nigel Found His Third Deed

       XXVII. How the Third Messenger Came to Cosford

      Introduction

       Table of Contents

      Dame History is so austere a lady that if one, has been so ill-advised as to take a liberty with her, one should hasten to make amends by repentance and confession. Events have been transposed to the extent of some few months in this narrative in order to preserve the continuity and evenness of the story. I hope so small a divergence may seem a venial error after so many centuries. For the rest, it is as accurate as a good deal of research and hard work could make it.

      The matter of diction is always a question of taste and discretion in a historical reproduction. In the year 1350 the upper classes still spoke Norman-French, though they were just beginning to condescend to English. The lower classes spoke the English of the original Piers Plowman text, which would be considerably more obscure than their superiors’ French if the two were now reproduced or imitated. The most which the chronicles can do is to catch the cadence and style of their talk, and to infuse here and there such a dash of the archaic as may indicate their fashion of speech.

      I am aware that there are incidents which may strike the modern reader as brutal and repellent. It is useless, however, to draw the Twentieth Century and label it the Fourteenth. It was a sterner age, and men’s code of morality, especially in matters of cruelty, was very different. There is no incident in the text for which very good warrant may not be given. The fantastic graces of Chivalry lay upon the surface of life, but beneath it was a half-savage population, fierce and animal, with little ruth or mercy. It was a raw, rude England, full of elemental passions, and redeemed only by elemental virtues. Such I have tried to draw it.

      For good or bad, many books have gone to the building of this one. I look round my study table and I survey those which lie with me at the moment, before I happily disperse them forever. I see La Croix’s “Middle Ages,” Oman’s “Art of War,” Rietstap’s “Armorial General,” De la Borderie’s “Histoire de Bretagne,” Dame Berner’s “Boke of St. Albans,”