In Italy he had met adventurers of Genoa and Venice who had shown him charts of unknown oceans and maps of Prester John's country and the desert roads that led to Cambaluc, that city farther than the moon, and told him tales of awful and delectable things hidden beyond the dawn.

He had returned to his tower by the springs of Canche, a young man with a name for uncanny knowledge, a searcher after concealed matters, negligent of religion and ill at ease in his world.
Then Louis cast his spell over him.

He saw the King first at a great hunting in Avesnes and worshipped from afar the slight body, royal in every line of it, and the blue eyes which charmed and compelled, for he divined there a spirit which had the secret of both earth and heaven.
While still under the glamour he was given knighthood at the royal hands, and presently was weaned from unwholesome fancies by falling in love.

The girl, Alix of Valery, was slim like a poplar and her eyes were grey and deep as her northern waters.

She had been a maid of Blanche the Queen, and had a nun's devoutness joined to a merry soul.