is tongue
bound, for he did not speak a word, and there was such stillness in the
small chamber, that the grinding of the sand beneath his feet was
plainly heard.

"You hate my father," the girl at length continued with downcast eyes
but calm voice. "Oh, Jaufret, I have known this for many years, and it
has grieved me enough. But what I have now told you ought not to
increase your hatred, for if there be one miserable being on earth, who
in the burning torture of his soul already endures hell-fire, and
expiates his sins, believe me, cousin, it is the Count of Malaspina,
who would gladly change places with the dropsical cripple at his castle
gate, if only he could undo what he has done. He writhed as though
impaled at the stake, and buried his face in the pillows that I might
not see him while he told me how it all came about; how they clouded
his mind with hippocras; how at every throw they pressed the goblet
into his hand, till at length the mocking laughter of the Count seemed
to awake him from a dream, and he gazed with sheer horror at the abyss
into which he had hurled his last possession, the happiness of his
child. He did everything he could to propitiate his malicious enemy and
conqueror, nay he offered to be his serf, his bondservant, if only he
might pay the fearful debt thus. But the Count had merely laughed and
said, 'A Jew's bargain indeed you would make with me, my friend, to
offer me a plucked old cock for a plump young hen. I have more servants
to feed than I care for, but a young wife I do want, for you know that
I am getting old, and I am not so fond of my mistress as to wish to
leave her my lands and castles after my death. Moreover, I fear she
might make me a very bad return, and before my eyes were closed, drink
with some younger fellow to my approaching end. But your daughter has
been chastely and piously brought up, and will convert me--grey in sin
as I am--to an orderly life. Therefore I would not take all the
treasures on earth in exchange for her small hand, which can alone open
the door of Heaven to me; and so I charge you by your honour that
within three weeks you bring her to celebrate the marriage here in
Gaillac. I on my part, as my gift on the morning after the nuptials,
will make over to you all the woods and lands that I have won from you
of late years, in order that your child need not provide for you like a
beggar, but that you may live out your old age in state and comfort.'
And so s