ching the youth, who now
stood alone in the middle of the hall. Sir Francis detected this, and
smiled with a sly smile.

"Will some person inquire of this polite young man," he said, "what he
wishes with us?"

"Show me where this Dragon of Wantley comes," said Geoffrey, "for I
intend to slay him to-night."

"Indeed, sir," fluttered Elaine, stepping towards him a little, "I
hope--that is, I beg you'll do no such dangerous thing as that for my
sake."

"For your sake?" Father Anselm broke in. "For your sake? And why so?
What should Elaine, daughter of Sir Godfrey Disseisin, care for the
carcase of Geoffrey, son of Bertram of Poictiers?"

But Elaine, finding nothing to answer, turned rosy pink instead.

"That rules you out!" exclaimed the Father, in triumph. "Your legend
demands a maid who never has cared for any man."

"Pooh!" said Geoffrey, "leave it to me."

"Seize him!" shouted Sir Godfrey in a rage. "He had ruled out my
daughter." Consistency had never been one of the Baron's strong
points.

"Seize him!" said Father Anselm. "He outrages Mother Church."

The vassals closed up behind young Geoffrey, who was pinioned in a
second. He struggled with them till the veins stood out in his
forehead in blue knots; but, after all, one young man of twenty is not
much among a band of stout yeomen; and they all fell in a heap on the
floor, pulling and tugging at Geoffrey, who had blacked several eyes,
and done in a general way as much damage as he possibly could under
the circumstances.

But Elaine noticed one singular occurrence. Not a monk had moved to
seize the young man, except one, who rushed forward, and was stopped,
as though struck to stone, by Father Anselm's saying to him in a
terrible undertone, "Hubert!"

Simply that word, spoken quickly; but not before this Hubert had
brushed against her so that she was aware that there was something
very hard and metallic underneath his gray gown. She betrayed no sign
of knowledge or surprise on her face, however, but affected to be
absorbed wholly in the fortunes of young Geoffrey, whom she saw
collared and summarily put into a cage-like prison whose front was
thick iron bars, and whose depth was in the vast outer wall of the
Monastery, with a little window at the rear, covered with snow. The
spring-lock of the gate shut upon him.

"And now," said Father Anselm, as the Monastery bell sounded once
more, "if our guests will follow us, the mid-day meal awaits us below.