ty of writing this office."

D'Aquino rose heavily from a bench on the right side of the altar.
Puffing, sweating despite the chill of the day, he bowed to the pope
with hands clasped before him.

_A great honor, that must be_, Daoud thought. Fra Tomasso was silent for
the moment, but he would write words that would be repeated by thousands
of priests all over the world as long as Christians celebrated this
feast. D'Aquino was more than ever indebted to the pope. If the pope
were to want d'Aquino's help in persuading the French to go to war
against Manfred, he would collect that debt.

Looking at Fra Tomasso as he sat listening to Pope Urban talk on about
his plans for the feast, for the cathedral, for the office, Daoud saw a
glow on those rounded features that made him uneasy. Daoud had felt that
with Cardinal Ugolini and Fra Tomasso stirring up opposition to the
alliance throughout Christendom, he had but to wait for the plan to die
of old age.

He could no longer be sure of that. Fra Tomasso's opposition to the
alliance had a fragile basis at best, and this miracle might have
shattered it.

The blood of the Messiah had power to change the course of events. Daoud
felt himself trembling.

XL

Daoud's hands were cold and his heart was racing. He had been waiting
all morning for Ugolini to come back from the Dominican convent.

He sat at Ugolini's worktable, trying to read. He had found an old book
in Arabic in Ugolini's library, the _Aphorisms_ of ibn Zaina, a book
Saadi had often praised. At another time he would have devoured it, but
his mind refused to follow the words. Sending Ugolini to Fra Tomasso was
his final effort to learn what had gone wrong and to see what might be
saved.

What would Fra Tomasso say to Ugolini? At least Ugolini could be trusted
not to make things worse, as de Verceuil had for their opponents.

This was the Christian month of February, and the chill that pervaded
Daoud's body came from the air around him as well as from his troubled
spirit. The small wood fire that burned on the hearth beside the table
did little to dispel the cold in the room.

In the two months that followed the coming of the bloodstained altar
cloth to Orvieto, Tomasso d'Aquino had gradually, but completely,
reversed himself. According to a Dominican in Ugolini's pay, the
philosopher had sent new letters to the European kings confessing that
his opposition to an alliance between Christians and Tartars