she loved de Gatinais with a
passion which dwarfed comprehension.

"O Madame the Virgin!" prayed Miguel de Rueda, "thou that wast once a
woman, even as I am now a woman! grant that the man may slay him
quickly! grant that he may slay Etienne very quickly, honored Lady, so
that my Etienne may die unshamed!"

"I must question, messire," de Gatinais was saying, "whether you have
been well inspired. Yes, quite frankly, I do await the arrival of her
who is your nominal wife; and your intervention at this late stage, I
take it, can have no outcome save to render you absurd. Nay, rather be
advised by me, messire--"

Prince Edward said, "I am not here to talk."

"For, messire, I grant you that in ordinary disputation the cutting of
one gentleman's throat by another gentleman is well enough, since the
argument is unanswerable. Yet in this case we have each of us too much
to live for; you to govern your reconquered England, and I--you
perceive that I am candid--to achieve in turn the kingship of another
realm. And to secure this, possession of the Lady Ellinor is to me
essential; to you she is nothing."

"She is a woman whom I have deeply wronged," Prince Edward said, "and
to whom, God willing, I mean to make atonement. Ten years ago they
wedded us, willy-nilly, to avert the impending war 'twixt Spain and
England; to-day El Sabio intends to purchase all Germany, with her body
as the price, you to get Sicily as her husband. Mort de Dieu! is a
woman thus to be bought and sold like hog's-flesh! We have other and
cleaner customs, we of England."

"Eh, and who purchased the woman first?" de Gatinais spat at him, and
viciously, for the Frenchman now saw his air-castle shaken to the
corner-stone.

"They wedded me to the child in order a great war might be averted. I
acquiesced, since it appeared preferable that two people suffer
inconvenience rather than many thousands be slain. And still this is
my view of the matter. Yet afterward I failed her. Love had no clause
in our agreement; but I owed her more protection than I have afforded.
England has long been no place for women. I thought she would
comprehend that much. But I know very little of women. Battle and
death are more wholesome companions, I now perceive, than such folk as
you and Alphonso. Woman is the weaker vessel--the negligence was
mine--I may not blame her." The big and simple man was in an agony of
repentance.

On a sudden he strode forward, his