and raging in his impotent fury till the gust of passion had worn
itself out, and in a sullen amaze he sank into his seat, still gazing
out from under his shaggy brows at the intruders, but the passion and
fury for a moment at an end.

"He will understand better what you say to him now, Sir Knight,"
whispered the old seneschal, who alone of the men belonging to the
Castle dared to enter the hall where their maniac master was. "His mind
comes back to him sometimes after he has raved himself quiet. We dread
his sullen moods almost more than his wild ones.

"Have a care how you approach him. He is as cunning as a fox, and as
crafty as he is cruel. He always has some weapon beneath his robe. Have
a care, I say, how you approach him."

Gaston nodded, but he was too fearless by nature to pay much heed to the
warning; he felt himself more than a match for that bowed-down old man.
Giving Constanza into Raymond's charge, he stepped boldly up to the
dais, and doffing his headpiece, addressed himself to his adversary in
firm though courteous accents.

"My Lord of Navailles," he said, "I am come to claim mine own. If thou
knowest me not, I will tell thee who I am -- Gaston de Brocas, the Lord
of Saut in mine own right, and by the mandate of the King which I hold
in mine hand. Long hast thou held lands to which thou hadst no right,
but the day has come when I claim mine own again, and am prepared to do
battle for it to the death. But here is no battle needed. Thine own men
have called me lord; they have obeyed the mandate of the King, and have
opened their gates to me. I stand here the Lord of Saut. Thy power and
thy reign are over for ever. Grossly hast thou abused that power when it
was thine. Now, like all tyrants, thou art finding that thy servants
fall away in the hour of peril, and that thou, who hast been a cruel
master, canst command no service from them in the time of need. I, and I
alone, am Lord of Saut. Hast thou aught to say ere thou yieldest
dominion to me?"

Did he understand? Those standing round and breathlessly watching the
curious scene could scarce be sure; but there was a look of
comprehension and of intense baffled rage and malice in those cavernous
eyes that sent a shiver through Constanza's light frame.

"Have a care, Gaston; have a care!" she cried, with sudden shrillness,
as she saw a quick movement of those knotted sinewy hands beneath the
coarse robe the old man wore; and in another moment both she