be no concealment among ourselves. I shall, of course, lay the whole
matter before the council. The fact that a strong body of knights has,
at so late an hour, started on some unknown mission is, of course,
already known in the auberges of Auvergne and England. No concealment
of the facts is therefore possible. It is the most serious attempt at a
revolt of the slaves that has ever taken place, and will be a warning
to us that more vigilance must be exercised. As it is, we have only been
saved from the loss of our galleys and slaves by the acuteness of one of
the youngest of our knights, who, in the first place, noted a suspicious
occurrence which would have been passed by without attracting a moment's
thought by ninety-nine out of a hundred men. He laid the matter before
his bailiff, Sir John Kendall, who accepted his offer to disguise
himself as a slave, to enter the prison under circumstances that would
excite no suspicions among the others, and to live and work among them
in order to ascertain whether there was any plot on hand. This task--a
painful one, as you may imagine--he carried out, and for two weeks he
rowed as a galley slave. His lot was as hard as that of the others, for,
as he had reason to believe that some of the officials were concerned in
the plot, it was necessary that all should be kept in ignorance that
he was other than he seemed to be. Thanks to his perfect knowledge of
Turkish, he was able to carry his mission through with complete success,
and to obtain full particulars of the plot we have tonight crushed.
The knight who has performed this inestimable service is Sir Gervaise
Tresham, of the English langue. The action he has performed will be
noted in the annals of the Order as an example of intelligence and of
the extreme of self sacrifice, as well as of courage; for his life would
have been assuredly forfeited had the slaves entertained the slightest
suspicion of his real character."

There was a murmur of acclamation among the knights. Not one of them but
would have freely risked his life in the service of the Order, but there
were few who would not have shrunk from the idea of living as a slave
among the slaves, sharing their tasks, and subject to the orders of men
of inferior rank and often brutal manners.

The knights now returned to their auberges. It was past midnight, but
at the English house the lamps and flambeaux were lighted in the great
hall. The servitors were called up, wine place