re say he has ignored a
few daughters--and these, mind you, with unmarried women. His
adulteries would be rather more difficult to establish, but I think
your Highness can take it for granted that such escapades were far
from uncommon."

He cleared his throat and then added, "If Your Highness is looking for
motive, I fear there is a superabundance of persons with motive."

"I see," the Duke said. "Well, we will wait and see what sort of
information Lord Darcy comes up with." He looked up at the clock.
"They should be there by now."

Then, as if brushing further thoughts on the subject from his mind, he
went back to work, picking up a new sheaf of state papers from his
desk.

The Marquis watched him for a moment and smiled a little to himself.
The young Duke took his work seriously, but was well-balanced about
it. A little inclined to be romantic--but aren't we all at nineteen?
There was no doubt of his ability, nor of his nobility. The Royal
Blood of England always came through.

* * * * *

"My lady," said Sir Pierre gently, "the Duke's Investigators have
arrived."

My Lady Alice, Countess D'Evreux, was seated in a gold-brocade
upholstered chair in the small receiving room off the Great Hall.
Standing near her, looking very grave, was Father Bright. Against the
blaze of color on the walls of the room, the two of them stood out
like ink blots. Father Bright wore his normal clerical black,
unrelieved except for the pure white lace at collar and cuffs. The
Countess wore unadorned black velvet, a dress which she had had to
have altered hurriedly by her dressmaker; she had always hated black
and owned only the mourning she had worn when her mother died eight
years before. The somber looks on their faces seemed to make the black
blacker.

"Show them in, Sir Pierre," the Countess said calmly.

Sir Pierre opened the door wider, and three men entered. One was
dressed as one gently born; the other two wore the livery of the Duke
of Normandy.

The gentleman bowed. "I am Lord Darcy, Chief Criminal Investigator for
His Highness, the Duke, and your servant, my lady." He was a tall,
brown-haired man in his thirties with a rather handsome, lean face. He
spoke Anglo-French with a definite English accent.

"My pleasure, Lord Darcy," said the Countess. "This is our vicar,
Father Bright."

"Your servant, Reverend Sir." Then he presented the two men with him.
The first was a scholarly-looking