f the
Sanghurst; and the Prince spoke words that brought the flush of shame
tingling to his face. An age of chivalry, and a man selling his daughter
for filthy lucre to one renowned for his evil deeds and remorseless
cruelties! A lady forced to flee her father's house and brave the perils
of the road to escape a terrible doom! I would thou hadst heard him,
Raymond our noble young Prince, with scorn in his voice and the light of
indignation in his eyes. And thy Joan stood beside him; he held her hand
the while, as though he would show to all men that the heir of England
was the natural protector of outraged womanhood, that the upholder of
chivalry would stand to his colours, and be the champion of every
distressed damsel throughout the length and the breadth of the land. And
the lady looked so proud and beautiful that I trow she might have had
suitors and to spare in that hour; but the Prince, still holding her
hand, told her father all the story of her plighted troth to thee --
that truest troth plight of changeless love. And he told him how that
Basildene and all its treasure had been secured to thee, and asked him
was he willing to give his daughter to the Lord of Basildene? And Sir
Hugh was but too glad that no more than this was asked of him, and in
presence of the Prince and of us all he pledged his daughter's hand to
thee, I standing as thy proxy, as I have told thee. And now thy Joan is
well-nigh as fully thine as though ye had joined your hands in holy
wedlock. Thou hast naught to fear from her father's act. He is but too
much rejoiced with the fashion in which all has turned out. His word is
pledged before the Prince; and moreover thou art the lord of Basildene
and its treasure, and what more did he ever desire? It was a share in
that gold for which he would have sold his daughter."

Raymond's face took a new look, one of shrinking and pain.

"I like not that treasure, Gaston," he said. "It is like the price of
blood. I would that the King had taken it for his own. It seemeth as
though it could never bring a blessing with it."

"Methinks it could in thy hands and Joan's," answered Gaston, with a
fond, proud glance at his brother's beautiful face; "and as the Prince
truly said, since this scourge has swept through the land, claiming a
full half of its inhabitants, it would be a hopeless task to try to
discover the real owners; and moreover a part may be the Sanghurst
store, which men have always said is no sma