o death. As for the fair woman, she must remain among my ladies, and
become my dutiful wife, as a ransom price.'

The abbot, as one thunderstruck, raised his hands on high. 'O sack of
sin!' he groaned, 'O dross for the melting-pot! O unspeakable
sacrifice!' But Jehane, gravely smiling, checked him. 'Why, Lord Abbot,
is any sacrifice too great for King Richard?' she asked, gently
reproving him. 'Nay, go, my father; I shall do very well. I am not at
all afraid. Now do what I shall tell you. Kiss the hand of my lord
Richard from me when you see him, bidding him remember the vows we made
to each other on the day at Fontevrault when he took up the Cross, and
again before the lifted Host at Cahors. And to my lady Queen Berengere
say this, that from this day forth I am wife of a man, and stand not
between her bed and the King, as God knows I have never meant to stand.
Kiss me now, my father, and pray diligently for me.' He tells us that he
did, and records the day long ago when he had first kissed the poor girl
in the chapel of the Dark Tower, the day when, as she hoped, she had
taught her great lover to tread upon her heart.

At this time a great black, the chief of the eunuchs, came and touched
her on the shoulder. 'Whither now, friend?' said Jehane. He pointed the
way, being a deaf-mute. 'Lead,' said she; 'I will follow.' And so she
did.

She turned no more her head, nor did she go with it lowered, but carried
it cheerfully, as if her business was good. The black led her by many
winding ways to a garden filled with orange-trees, and across this to a
bronze door. There stood two more blacks on guard, with naked swords in
their hands. The eunuch struck twice on the lintel. The door was opened
from within, and they entered. An old lady dressed in black came to meet
them; to her the eunuch handed Jehane, made a reverence, and retired.
They shut the bronze doors. What more? After the bath, and putting on of
habits more sumptuous than she had ever heard tell of, she was taken by
slaves into the Hall of Felicity. There, among the heavy-eyed languid
women, Jehane sat herself staidly down, and suckled her child.

CHAPTER VIII

OF THE GOING-UP AND GOING-DOWN OF THE MARQUESS

The Marquess of Montferrat travelled splendidly from Acre to Sidon with
six galleys in his convoy. So many, indeed, did not suffice him; for at
Sidon he took off his favourite wife with her women, eunuchs and
janissaries, and thus with twelve ships