through. Therefore I do not doubt. Pardieu, I do not even doubt,
who know she is of matchless worth."

"Wherein have I done wrong, Raimbaut?" She came to him with fluttering
hands. "Why, but look you, the man had laid an ambuscade in the marsh
and he meant to kill you there to-night as you rode for Vaquieras. He
told me of it, told me how it was for that end alone he lured you into
Venaissin----" Again she brushed the hair back from her forehead.
"Raimbaut, I spoke of God and knightly honor, and the man laughed. No,
I think it was a fiend who sat so long beside the window yonder, whence
one may see the marsh. There were no candles in the room. The
moonlight was upon his evil face, and I could think of nothing, of
nothing that has been since Adam's time, except our youth, Raimbaut.
And he smiled fixedly, like a white image, because my misery amused
him. Only, when I tried to go to you to warn you, he leaped up
stiffly, making a mewing noise. He caught me by the throat so that I
could not scream. Then while we struggled in the moonlight your
Makrisi came and stabbed him----"

"Nay, I but fetched this knife, messire." Makrisi seemed to love that
bloodied knife.

Biatritz proudly said: "The man lies, Raimbaut."

"What need to tell me that, Belhs Cavaliers?"

And the Saracen shrugged. "It is very true I lie," he said. "As among
friends, I may confess I killed the Prince. But for the rest, take
notice both of you, I mean to lie intrepidly."

Raimbaut remembered how his mother had given each of two lads an apple,
and he had clamored for Guillaume's, as children do, and Guillaume had
changed with him. It was a trivial happening to remember after fifty
years; but Guillaume was dead, and this hacked flesh was Raimbaut's
flesh in part, and the thought of Raimbaut would never trouble
Guillaume de Baux any more. In addition there was a fire of juniper
wood and frankincense upon the hearth, and the room smelt too cloyingly
of be-drugging sweetness. Then on the walls were tapestries which
depicted Merlin's Dream, so that everywhere recoiling women smiled with
bold eyes; and here their wantonness seemed out of place.

"Listen," Makrisi was saying; "listen, for the hour strikes. At last,
at last!" he cried, with a shrill whine of malice.

Raimbaut said, dully: "Oh, I do not understand----"

"And yet Zoraida loved you once! loved you as people love where I was
born!" The Saracen's voice had altered. His s