morning. I saw him walk up the jetty in a
new red cloak, a personable man with a broad beard and a jolly laugh.
I knew him by repute as the luckiest of the Flemish venturers. In him
I saw my fortune. That night he supped at my uncle's house and a week
later he sought me in marriage. My uncle would have bargained, but I had
become a grown woman and silenced him. With Willebald I did not chaffer,
for I read his heart and knew that in a little he would be wax to me. So
we were wed, and I took to him no dowry but a ring which came to me from
my forebears, and a brain that gold does not buy."

The monkey by her side broke into a chattering.

"Peace, Peterkin," she said. "You mind me of the babbling of the
merchant-folk, when I spurred Willebald into new roads. He had done as
his father before him, and bought wool and salted fish from the English,
paying with the stuffs of our Flemish looms. A good trade of small and
sure profits, but I sought bigger quarries. For, mark you, there was
much in England that had a value in this country of ours which no
Englishman guessed."

"Of what nature?" the monk asked with curiosity in his voice.

"Roman things. Once in that land of bogs and forests there were bustling
Roman towns and rich Roman houses, which disappeared as every tide
brought in new robbers from the sea. Yes, but not all. Much of the
preciousness was hidden and the place of its hiding forgotten. Bit by
bit the churls found the treasure-trove, but they did not tell their
lords. They melted down jewels and sold them piecemeal to Jews for
Jews' prices, and what they did not recognise as precious they wantonly
destroyed. I have seen the marble heads of heathen gods broken with the
hammer to make mortar of, and great cups of onyx and alabaster used
as water troughs for a thrall's mongrels.. .. Knowing the land, I sent
pedlars north and west to collect such stuff, and what I bought for
pence I sold for much gold in the Germanies and throughout the French
cities. Thus Willebald amassed wealth, till it was no longer worth his
while to travel the seas. We lived snug in Flanders, and our servants
throughout the broad earth were busy getting us gear."

The Cluniac was all interest. The making of money lay very near the
heart of his Order. "I have heard wondrous tales of your enterprise," he
told her. "I would fain know the truth."

"Packman's tricks," she laughed. "Nevertheless it is a good story. For I
turned my eyes to the Ea