The King or the Prince spoke, and Madame Alois moistened her lips; she looked nowhere but at the old tyrant, not at his eyes, but above them, at his forehead, and with a trepitant gaze, like a watched hare's.

'The King has her in thrall, soul and body,' Richard considered.

Then his knee began to ache, and he released it.

'Fair sire,' he began in his own tongue.

Madame Alois gave a start, and 'Ha, Richard,' says the King, 'art thou still there, man ?' 'Where else, my lord ?' asked the son.