but had knelt, in the Count's cap; and that therefore the
terms were not fulfilled. I thought that foolishness, and still think
so. But this is my own thought. I have never rightly been in either as
the leper intended, for I do not think the marriage a good one. If I am
no wife, then, God pity me, I have done a great sin; but I am no
Countess of Anjou. So I give the prophet the lie. On the other hand, if
I am put away by my lord the King that he may make a good marriage, I
shall be claimed again by the man to whom I was betrothed before, and so
the doom be in danger of fulfilment. For, look now, Madame, the leper
said, "Wife of a dead man and his killer"; and there is none so sure to
kill the King as Sir Gilles de Gurdun. Alas, alas, Madame, to what a
strait am I come, who sought no one's hurt! I have considered night and
day what it were best to do since the King, at my prayer, left me; and
now my judgment is this. I must be with the King, though not the King's
_mie_; because so surely as he sends me away, so surely will Gilles de
Gurdun have me.'

She stopped, out of breath, feeling some shame to have spoken so much.
The Queen-Mother came to her at once, with her hands out. 'By my soul,
Jehane,' she said, 'you are a good woman. Never leave my son.'

'I never mean to leave him,' said Jehane. 'That is my punishment, and (I
think) his also.'

'His punishment, my child?'

'Why, Madame,' said Jehane, 'you think that the King must wed.'

'Yes, yes.'

'And to wed, he must put me away.'

'Yes, yes, child.'

'Therefore, although he loves me, he may never have his dear desire; and
although I love him, I may give him no comfort. Yet we can never leave
each other for fear of the leper's prophecy; but he must always long and
I grieve. That, I think, is punishment for a man and woman.'

The Queen-Mother sobbed. Terrible punishment for a little pleasant sin!
Yet I doubt'--she said, politic through all--'yet I doubt my son, being
a fierce lover, will have his way with thee.'

Jehane shook her head. 'No means,' she said, drawing in her breath, 'no
means, Madame. I have his life to think of.' Here, pitying herself, she
turned away her face. The Queen-Mother came suddenly and kissed her.
They cried together, Jehane and the flinty old shrew of Aquitaine.

A pact was made, and sealed with kisses, between these two women who
loved King Richard, that Jehane should do her best to further the
Navarrese match. Circumstance was he