etter return and seek shelter within the walls of
Hamelsham? I fear we have lost the way utterly, and shall never
reach Michelham Priory tonight."

"Nay, the motives that led me forth to face the storm still press
upon me, I must reach Michelham tonight."

An angry hollow gust of wind almost impeded his further progress as
he spoke, and choked his utterance.

"An inhospitable reception England affords us, after an absence of
so many years. Methinks I like Gascony the better in regard to
climate."

"For five happy years have I followed thy banner there, my lord."

"Yet I love England better, foreign although my blood, or I had
thought more of the French king's offer."

"It was a noble offer, my lord."

"To be regent of an unquiet realm while my revered suzerain and
friend, Louis, went upon his crusade--mark me, Stephen, England has
higher destinies than France; this land is fated to be the mother
of a race of freemen such as once ruled the world from Rome of old.
The union of the long hostile races, Norman and English, is
producing a people which shall in time rule the world; and if I can
do aught to help to lay the foundation of such a polity as befits
the union, please God, I shall feel well repaid: in short,
Leicester is a dearer name to me than Montfort; England than
France."

"Thy noble father, my lord, adorned the latter country."

"God grant he has not left an inheritance of judgment to his
children; the cries of the slaughtered Albigenses ever rang in my
poor mother's ears, and ring too often in mine."

"I have never heard the story fairly told."

"Thou shalt now. The land where they spoke the language of Oc,
thence called Langue-d'oc, was hardly a part of France; it had its
own government, its own usages, as well as its own sweet tongue. It
was lovely as the garden of the Lord ere the serpent entered
therein; the soil was fruitful, the corn and wine and oil abundant.
The people were unlike other people; they cared little for war,
they wrote books and made love on the banks of the Rhone and
Garonne.

"Well had they stopped here, and not taken liberties" (here the
knight crossed himself) "with the Church. Intercourse with
Mussulmen and Greeks--who alike came to the marts--corrupted them,
and they became unbelievers, so that even the children in their
play mocked at the Church and Sacraments. In short, it was said
they were Manicheans."

"What is that?"

"People who believe that the powers of g