e room, where the company of young men
remained silent. Then he came back, his face white and stern.

[Illustration: The Quarrel in the Tennis Court]

'I tell you,' he said, 'and it is the solemn truth, that I would rather
you had told me that the prince was dead, though he is my only son, than
know that he would suffer such an injury without attempting to avenge
it. As for the gentleman who struck him, he will be brought before my
judges, and will plead his own cause, but I hardly think he can escape
death, after having assaulted the heir to the crown.'

The young man raised his head as if to reply, but the king would not
listen, and commanded his guards to put him under arrest, adding,
however, that if the prisoner wished to visit any part of the city, he
was at liberty to do so properly guarded, and in fifteen days he would
be brought to trial before the highest judges in the land.

* * * * *

The young man left the king's presence, surrounded by soldiers, and
accompanied by many of his friends, for he was a great favourite. By
their advice he spent the fourteen days that remained to him going about
to seek counsel from wise men of all sorts, as to how he might escape
death, but no one could help him, for none could find any excuse for the
blow he had given to the prince.

The fourteenth night had come, and in despair the prisoner went out to
take his last walk through the city. He wandered on hardly knowing where
he went, and his face was so white and desperate that none of his
companions dared speak to him. The sad little procession had passed some
hours in this manner, when, near the gate of a monastery, an old woman
appeared round a corner, and suddenly stood before the young man. She
was bent almost double, and was so wizened and wrinkled that she looked
at least ninety; only her eyes were bright and quick as those of a girl.

'Sir,' she said, 'I know all that has happened to you, and how you are
seeking if in any wise you can save your life. But there is none that
can answer that question save only I myself, if you will promise to do
all I ask.'

At her words the prisoner felt as if a load had all at once been rolled
off him.

'Oh, save me, and I will do anything!' he cried. 'It is so hard to leave
the world and go out into the darkness.'

'You will not need to do that,' answered the old woman, 'you have only
got to marry me, and you will soon be free.'

'Marry you?'