Ask a worthy question, and, with the
blessing of God, you shall have a worthy answer."

"Then I would fain ask," cried one of the French squires, "as to which
may hope to conquer in these wars betwixt the English and ourselves."

"Both will conquer and each will hold its own," answered the Lady
Tiphaine.

"Then we shall still hold Gascony and Guienne?" cried Sir Nigel.

The lady shook her head. "French land, French blood, French speech," she
answered. "They are French, and France shall have them."

"But not Bordeaux?" cried Sir Nigel excitedly.

"Bordeaux also is for France."

"But Calais?"

"Calais too."

"Woe worth me then, and ill hail to these evil words! If Bordeaux and
Calais be gone, then what is left for England?"

"It seems indeed that there are evil times coming upon your country,"
said Du Guesclin. "In our fondest hopes we never thought to hold
Bordeaux. By Saint Ives! this news hath warmed the heart within me. Our
dear country will then be very great in the future, Tiphaine?"

"Great, and rich, and beautiful," she cried. "Far down the course of
time I can see her still leading the nations, a wayward queen among the
peoples, great in war, but greater in peace, quick in thought, deft in
action, with her people's will for her sole monarch, from the sands of
Calais to the blue seas of the south."

"Ha!" cried Du Guesclin, with his eyes flashing in triumph, "you hear
her, Sir Nigel?--and she never yet said word which was not sooth."

The English knight shook his head moodily. "What of my own poor
country?" said he. "I fear, lady, that what you have said bodes but
small good for her."

The lady sat with parted lips, and her breath came quick and fast. "My
God!" she cried, "what is this that is shown me? Whence come they, these
peoples, these lordly nations, these mighty countries which rise up
before me? I look beyond, and others rise, and yet others, far and
farther to the shores of the uttermost waters. They crowd! They swarm!
The world is given to them, and it resounds with the clang of their
hammers and the ringing of their church bells. They call them many
names, and they rule them this way or that but they are all English,
for I can hear the voices of the people. On I go, and onwards over seas
where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land under new
stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is England. Where have her
children not gone? What have they not done? Her banner is plan