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The White Company

Arthur Conan Doyle

About 10 hr 1 min Total reading time at 250 WPM

In 1366, Alleyne Edricson leaves Beaulieu Abbey with a fine education and very little experience of people. He can carve, paint and make music, but the roads beyond the cloister demand other accomplishments. Arthur Conan Doyle’s historical adventure sends this gentle young man into the company of English bowmen, where a good story, a strong arm and an eye for profit carry considerable weight. Alleyne has much to learn, and his companions are eager teachers.

Hordle John has already made a noisy exit from the monastery, whose rules could never accommodate his appetite. Samkin Aylward arrives from France with enough plunder to require six porters, including one carrying his feather-bed. Their boasts and quarrels give the journey a cheerful bustle, while the goods Aylward brings home make it difficult to forget how soldiers earn their comforts. Alleyne’s questions give the soldiers a chance to defend a way of life he scarcely understands.

Sir Nigel Loring brings a different ambition: he longs for some difficult feat that will add to his honour. Small, courteous and seemingly mild, he discusses dangerous undertakings with an enthusiasm his wife has good reason to dread. Around these companions, Doyle builds a medieval world of forest roads, crowded inns, castles and campaigns. The language has an old-fashioned ceremony, but the teasing and household arguments keep it lively. Their disagreements make even a pause at an inn worth lingering over, with Alleyne trying to decide whose example to follow.

  1. Chapter 1 How the Black Sheep Came Forth from the Fold About 14 min
  2. Chapter 2 How Alleyne Edricson Came Out into the World About 9 min
  3. Chapter 3 How Hordle John Cozened the Fuller of Lymington About 9 min
  4. Chapter 4 How the Bailiff of Southampton Slew the Two Masterless Men About 19 min
  5. Chapter 5 How a Strange Company Gathered at the “Pied Merlin” About 20 min
  6. Chapter 6 How Samkin Aylward Wagered His Feather-Bed About 19 min
  7. Chapter 7 How the Three Comrades Journeyed through the Woodlands About 18 min
  8. Chapter 8 The Three Friends About 16 min
  9. Chapter 9 How Strange Things Befell in Minstead Wood About 29 min
  10. Chapter 10 How Hordle John Found a Man Whom He Might Follow About 30 min
  11. Chapter 11 How a Young Shepherd Had a Perilous Flock About 21 min
  12. Chapter 12 How Alleyne Learned More than He Could Teach About 15 min
  13. Chapter 13 How the White Company Set Forth to the Wars About 11 min
  14. Chapter 14 How Sir Nigel Sought for a Wayside Venture About 17 min
  15. Chapter 15 How the Yellow Cog Sailed Forth from Lepe About 20 min
  16. Chapter 16 How the Yellow Cog Fought the Two Rover Galleys About 12 min
  17. Chapter 17 How the Yellow Cog Crossed the Bar of Gironde About 12 min
  18. Chapter 18 How Sir Nigel Loring Put a Patch upon His Eye About 16 min
  19. Chapter 19 How There Was Stir at the Abbey of St. Andrew's About 18 min
  20. Chapter 20 How Alleyne Won His Place in an Honorable Guild About 15 min
  21. Chapter 21 How Agostino Pisano Risked His Head About 15 min
  22. Chapter 22 How the Bowmen Held Wassail at the “Rose de Guienne” About 11 min
  23. Chapter 23 How England Held the Lists at Bordeaux About 15 min
  24. Chapter 24 How a Champion Came Forth from the East About 15 min
  25. Chapter 25 How Sir Nigel Wrote to Twynham Castle About 10 min
  26. Chapter 26 How the Three Comrades Gained a Mighty Treasure About 21 min
  27. Chapter 27 How Roger Club-Foot Was Passed into Paradise About 15 min
  28. Chapter 28 How the Comrades Came over the Marches of France About 19 min
  29. Chapter 29 How the Blessed Hour of Sight Came to the Lady Tiphaine About 17 min
  30. Chapter 30 How the Brushwood Men Came to the Chateau of Villefranche About 14 min
  31. Chapter 31 How Five Men Held the Keep of Villefranche About 16 min
  32. Chapter 32 How the Company Took Counsel round the Fallen Tree About 12 min
  33. Chapter 33 How the Army Made the Passage of Roncesvalles About 13 min
  34. Chapter 34 How the Company Made Sport in the Vale of Pampeluna About 16 min
  35. Chapter 35 How Sir Nigel Hawked at an Eagle About 21 min
  36. Chapter 36 How Sir Nigel Took the Patch from His Eye About 22 min
  37. Chapter 37 How the White Company Came to Be Disbanded About 14 min
  38. Chapter 38 Of the Home-Coming to Hampshire About 14 min
  1. Acknowledgements

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