For there was I know not what about this child that seemed to take me in its toils, and so wrought upon me that there and then I would have risked my life in her good service.

Oh, you may laugh who read.

Indeed, deep down in my heart I laughed myself, I think, at the heroics to which I was yielding--I, the Fool, most base of lacqueys--over a damsel of the noble House of Santafior.

It was shame of my motley, maybe, that caused me to draw my cloak more tightly about me as I urged forward my horse, until I had come into their midst.
"Lady," said I bluntly and without preamble, "can I assist you?
I have inferred your case from what I have overheard." All eyes were on me, gaping with surprise--hers no less than her grooms'.
"What can you do alone, sir ?" she asked, her gentle glance upraised to mine.
"If, as I gather, your pursuers are servants of the House of Borgia, I may do something." "They are," she answered, without hesitation, some eagerness, even, investing her tones.
It may seem an odd thing that this lady should so readily have taken a stranger into her confidence.

Yet reflect upon the parlous condition in which she found herself.