as thou hast said. Yester eve comes a cloud
of dust over the hill by the marshes, and in the cloud as strange a
sight as man may see. Chariots, with horses smoking in the traces, lords
on horseback, slaves and rabble, all flying from the gods know what. A
tall man, very pale, with a mouth set like the jaws of a trap; a younger
one, to whom all turned for command and advice; a woman lovely as--er,
that is to say, fair enough to please a taste not over-critical as mine,
very pale, with red lips and the eyes of a little child in trouble. They
stopped here, even at this house, it being nearest, and bought food and
wine, resting for a time, for the woman was as one half dead from
weariness. Then went they on once more, and took the road for Londinium.
I made as much as five and twenty--"

Nicanor raised his head, and his eyes were full of a weary triumph.

"Nico, that pale lord is my lord, and that fair lady my lady, and I must
follow them even across to Gaul."

"What use?" said Nicodemus. "They will not stay their passage for thee.
Tarry rather with us, and be healed. In the wink of a cat's eye I'll
have that collar from off thy throat, and no man be the wiser. We have
no son, this old woman of mine and I; stay thou and be son to us. Thy
lord will not miss thee, having other matters in his head. And it is
long since we heard word from thee, lad."

"I had thought the girl would have told thee," Nicanor said. "And
she--where is she?"

"Eh? What she?" Nicodemus asked blankly, and Myleia paused to listen.

"A girl, Eldris by name, half a Briton, I think, who escaped from my
lord's house. I told her to come hither, that thou wouldst give her
shelter until I could come. Hath she not been here?"

"Never hath such an one darkened these doors of mine," said Nicodemus,
and Myleia nodded, adding quickly:

"Nay, or I should know!"

"She hath likely been captured and returned," Nicanor said, and let the
subject drop.

In spite of all they could say to him, he borrowed a horse from
Nicodemus, and at dawn set forth for Londinium, haggard and stubborn and
ridden by haunting desire which would not let him rest. And toward
evening he returned, and in his face was written failure. What he told
them gave no clew to that which all men could read in him.

"My lord and his family sailed yester eve for Gaul. A ship was on the
point of starting, and they were taken on board. This I learned from a
waterman at the quays, who had helped t