lad, that I am all undone, like a fretted bow-string. Hark hither, Alleyne! it cannot be that you have forgotten little Tita, the daughter of the old glass-stainer at Bordeaux?'
'I remember her well.'
'She and I, Alleyne, broke the lucky groat together ere we parted, and she wears my ring upon her finger. "Caro mio," quoth she when last we parted, "I shall be near thee in the wars, and thy danger will be my danger." Alleyne, as God is my help, as I came up the stairs this night I saw her stand before me, her face in tears, her hands out as though in warning—I saw it, Alleyne, even as I see those two archers upon their couches. Our very finger-tips seemed to meet, ere she thinned away like a mist in the sunshine.'
'I would not give overmuch thought to it,' answered Alleyne. 'Our minds will play us strange pranks, and bethink you that these words of the Lady Tiphaine Du Guesclin have wrought upon us and shaken us.'
Ford shook his head. 'I saw little Tita as clearly as though I were back at the Rue des Apôtres at Bordeaux,' said he. 'But the hour is late, and I must go.'
'Where do you sleep, then?'
'In the chamber above you. May the saints be with us all!' He rose from the couch and left the chamber, while Alleyne could hear his feet sounding upon the winding stair. The young squire walked across to the window and gazed out at the moonlit landscape, his mind absorbed by the thought of the Lady Tiphaine, and of the strange words that she had spoken as to what was going forward at Castle Twynham. Leaning his elbows upon the stonework, he was deeply plunged in reverie, when in a moment his thoughts were brought back to Villefranche and to the scene before him.
The window at which he stood was in the second floor of that portion of the castle which was nearest to the keep. In front lay the broad moat with the moon lying upon its surface, now clear and round, now drawn lengthwise as the breeze stirred the waters. Beyond, the plain sloped down
