The house of the Dauphin of Agincourt was rife with corruption and debauchery. Know all at the outset that never in French history was one more decadent than this.
In France, King Henry's men languished in Agincourt castle prison.
Their humiliation at the hands of the French was ceaseless. English Knights of higher order found themselves visited for the sole purpose of the French Court's entertainment. French men, some of them, lost interest in these Anglican nobles who soon found themselves on display more frequently for the French Court's curious women.
Englishmen with no French words available to their tongues had begun giving the parade of frequent Lady visitors names. Knights and English nobles chiding each other on the repeated visitations of Laurette, Regine, Angeline, Felicite accompanied by their giggling handmaidens: there for the sole purpose of seeing the English 'barbarians'. Safely isolated from them like exotic animals in cages the Englishmen's solidity, stature, strength and manliness contrasted widely from the effeminate men to which French Aristocratic women were accustomed. Unrestricted by mores or modesty, French court women became brazenly flirtatious with the prisoners from the distance of incarceration behind stone and iron.
With much protestation and calamity, shaking of bars and threats to the guards in the pitch darkness lit only by a French soldiers torch: one English knight of high order was dragged from his cell of eight and placed in irons to be taken away. Rumor raced through the dungeon that they were to be chained and flailed one after the other for indiscretion.
The 'unfortunate' English noble returned to the population next morning with fantastic tales of intrigue at the hands of a Lady of the Court; one of their frequent visitors. This churned a tempest within the hearts of many Knights.
To these ends, William felt dismay. To hold his love of Cecelia on a certain pedestal and see English manhood subjected to willful desire of the flesh and submit gleefully grated at his sense of honor. William perished the hopeful temptation others had embraced by banishing these thoughts from his mind until he himself was singled out for these attentions.
A red-haired fair skinned, tall and angular Lady of the Dauphin's Court had come accompanied by her handmaiden to linger at his cell. No one had seen her before and she , being new to the debauchery and never observed by captive knights of the chamber , ignored the leering jests with haughty dismissal. The Lady followed by a vacant handmaiden came directly to the cell of Sir William of Edenbridge and made a gesture to the guard.
"Le non, ceci est celui que je veux" while her handmaiden's eyes cast down the red-haired Lady of the Dauphin's Court stared at William without expression and instructed, "Ayez-le amenΓ© Γ mes chambres ce soir"
.......................Have him brought to my chambers tonight......................
The women departed quickly as they had come. Within the resultant brotherhood of boasting chide that men employ when discussing women in their own male company William sensed guilty compromise. The distant altar of his love for Cecelia was becoming a difficult thing to worship. The warmth of companionship he had lacked for months had been kindled with this one eye-opening moment leaving William of Edenbridge both heartsick and enthralled . Yet through it all he determined the occasion of this midnight meeting whatever it entailed, would carry the possibility of release from bondage, the proposition for release, a petition initialized or a message forwarded to his own English court. These would necessitate the willing cooperation of those he was soon to meet. So he sat in the darkness of his cell listening to the restless sleeping of his comrades waiting and plotting the path to his freedom.