there, when they came to think of it afterward, none could remember.
Still, the yellow and red head-dress, the coal-black silky furs, the
yellow skirt, the gleaming pearls, all vanished beneath it. Nothing
remained visible except the white fingerless gloves--why were they
fingerless, and what lay beneath them? Hugh wondered--and the white
shoes.

Forward they went across the Place of Arms, past the timber stand
ornamented with banners, which Murgh stayed to contemplate for an
instant, until they came to the mouth of the street up which men had
followed them, apparently with evil intent.

"Sir Murgh," said Hugh, stepping forward, "you had best let me and my
companion Grey Dick walk first down this place, lest you should come
to harm. When we passed it a while ago we thought that we heard robbers
behind us, and in Venice, as we are told, such men use knives."

"Thank you for your warning, Sir Hugh," and even beneath the shadow
of the silk hood Hugh thought that he saw his eyes smile, and seeing,
remembered all the folly of such talk.

"Yet I'll risk these robbers. Do you two and the lad keep behind me," he
added in a sterner voice.

So they advanced down the narrow street, the man called Murgh going
first, Hugh, Grey Dick and the lad following meekly behind him. As they
entered its shadows a low whistle sounded, but nothing happened for a
while. When they had traversed about half its length, however, men, five
or six of them in all, darted out of the gloom of a gateway and rushed
at them. The faint light showed that they were masked and gleamed upon
the blue steel of the daggers in their hands. Two of these men struck at
Murgh with their knives, while the others tried to pass him, doubtless
to attack his companions, but failed. Why they failed Hugh and Dick
never knew. All they saw was that Murgh stretched out his white-gloved
hands, and they fell back.

The men who had struck at him fell back also, their daggers dropping to
the ground, and fled away, followed by their companions, all except one
whom Murgh had seized. Hugh noted that he was a tall, thin fellow, and
that, unlike the rest, he had drawn no weapon, although it was at his
signal that the other bravoes had rushed on. This man Murgh seemed to
hold with one hand while with the other he ripped the mask off his face,
turning him so that the light shone on him.

Hugh and Dick saw the face and knew it for that of the priest who had
accompanied Acour to Englan