“Not wounded, as I have heard, but sorely battered and bruised; and he was brought hither unconscious, and lay long as one dead.  When he refused to do the bidding of Peter Sanghurst, they took him down to yon fearsome chamber; but, as I heard when I sat at the hoard with mine uncle and that wicked man, they had scarce laid hands upon him, to bend his spirit to their will through their hellish devices, before he fell into a deep swoon from which they could not rouse him; and afraid that he would escape their malice by a merciful death, and that they would lose the very vengeance they had taken such pains to win, they took him back to his cell; and there he lies, tended not unskilfully by my old nurse, who is ever brought to the side of the sick in this place.  Once I made shift to slip in behind her when the warder was off his guard, and to whisper in his ear a word of hope.  But we are too close watched to do aught but by stealth, and Annette is never suffered to approach the prison alone.  She is conducted thither by a grim warder, who waits beside her till she has done her office, and then takes her away.  They do not know how we loathe and hate their wicked, cruel deeds; but they know that women have ere this been known to pity helpless victims, and they have an eye to us ever.”

Gaston drew his breath more freely.  Raymond, then, was for the moment safe.  No grievous bodily hurt had been done him as yet; and here outside his prison was his brother, and one as devoted as though the tie of blood bound them together, ready to dare all to save him from the hands of his cruel foes.

“They are in no great haste,” said the maiden; “they feel themselves so strong.  They say that no man can so much as discover where thy brother has been spirited, still less snatch him from their clasp.  They know the French King will not stir to help a subject of the Roy Outremer, They know that Edward of England is far away, and that he still avoids an open breach of the truce.  They are secure in the undisturbed possession of their captive.  I have heard them say that had he a hundred brothers all working without to obtain his release, the walls of the Tower of Saut would defy their utmost efforts.”

“That we shall see,” answered Gaston, with a fierce gleam in his eye; and then his face softened as he said, “Now that we have for our ally the enchanted princess of the Castle, many things may be done that else would be hard of achievement.”

His ardent look sent a flush of colour through the girl’s transparent skin, but her eyes did not waver as she looked frankly back at him.

“Nay; I am no princess, and I have no enchantments —­ would that I had, if they could be used in offices of pity and mercy!  I am but a portionless maiden, an orphan, an alien.  Ofttimes I weep to think that I too did not die when my parents did, in that terrible scourge which has devastated the world, which I hear that you of England call the Black Death.”