to
your homes and your wives. May Heaven grant you joy and happiness in
both; and England's King and Prince will over have smiles of welcome for
you when ye bring to the Court the sweet ladies of your choice. Do I not
know them both? and do I not know that ye have both chosen worthily and
well?"

A tumult without the tent now announced the approach of the French King,
those who brought him disputing angrily together whose prisoner he was.
The Prince stepped out to receive his vanquished foe with that winning
courtesy so characteristic of one who so longed to see the revival of
the truer chivalry, and in the confusion which ensued Gaston and Raymond
slipped away to their own tent.

"And now," cried Gaston, clasping his brother's hand, "our day of
service is for the moment ended. Now for a space of peaceful repose and
of those domestic joys of which thou and I, brother, know so little."

"At last!" quoth Raymond, drawing a long breath, his eyes glowing and
kindling as he looked into his brother's face and then far beyond it in
the direction of the land of his adoption. "At last my task is done; my
duty to my Prince has been accomplished. Now I am free to go whither I
will. Now for England and my Joan!"

CHAPTER XXXIII. "AT LAST!"

"At last, my love, at last!"

"Raymond! My own true lord -- my husband!"

"My life! my love!"

At last the dream had fulfilled itself; at last the long probation was
past. Raymond de Brocas and Joan Vavasour had been made man and wife by
good Master Bernard de Brocas in his church at Guildford, and in the
soft sunlight of an October afternoon were riding together in the
direction of Basildene, from henceforth to be their home.

Raymond had not yet seen Basildene. He had hurried to Joan's side the
moment that he left the ship which bore him from the shores of France,
and the marriage had been celebrated almost at once, there being no
reason for farther delay, and Sir Hugh being eager to be at the Court to
receive the triumphant young Prince when he should return to England
with his kingly captive.

All the land was ringing with the news of the glorious victory, of which
Raymond's vessel was the first to bring tidings. He himself, as having
been one of those who had taken part in the battle and having won his
spurs on the field of Poitiers, was regarded with no small admiration
and respect. But Raymond had thoughts of nothing but his beloved; and to
find her waiting for him