t might surprise you. I can even cook and sew
for myself."

"Marvelous! The woman you marry will be fortunate indeed."

As soon as she said it, the light went out of her eyes and she looked
quickly away. An uneasy silence fell over them. Her obvious dismay threw
him into despair. Again he remembered their struggles and her tears--and
his own--that morning in the pine forest outside Orvieto.

After a pause, with an obviousness that sunk him into an even deeper
gloom, she changed the subject. "Uncle told me all about what they did
when the pope died. He was with the Holy Father right to the end. Just
before he died, Pope Urban said, 'Beware the Tartars, Adelberto.' I
would have thought Uncle made that up, but he says all the pope's
attendant priests and servants heard it. Uncle says it proves Pope Urban
had changed his mind at the end about that alliance you are all so
worried about."

"Maybe the pope was warning your uncle that the Tartars are angry at him
for all the trouble he has caused them," said Simon, forcing himself to
comment on something that, at the moment, did not interest him.

He refused to worry about whether Pope Urban had a deathbed change of
heart. How beautiful her eyes were, such a warm brown color! He had
everything planned out for both of them. She had only to agree. He would
present her first to King Louis. How could the king disapprove his
marriage to a cardinal's niece? And with the king's support, no one else
could object. Besides, Nicolette and Roland would love her; he was sure
of it.

She went on. "Anyway, Uncle said that the pope's chest filled up with
black bile, and that was what killed him. The pope's priest-physician
felt for a heartbeat, and when there was none, Uncle took a silver
hammer and tapped the pope on the forehead with it."

"Really!" Simon had no idea they did that. The strange scene interested
him in spite of his longing for Sophia.

"To make sure he was dead. And then Uncle called his name--his baptismal
name, not his name as pope--'Jacques, are you dead?' He did this three
times. And when the pope did not answer, he said, 'Pope Urban is truly
dead.' And he took the Fisherman's Ring off the Pope's finger and cut it
to bits with silver shears. And with the hammer he broke the pope's
seal. So they must make a new ring for the new pope."

"When Cardinal le Gros is made pope, he will confirm the alliance of
Christians and Tartars," said Simon, eager to put a finish to