Gentlemen, to your feet! I give you the matchless Roxalanne de Lavedan!" Such amusement as I felt was tempered by apprehension.

I shot a swift glance at Chatellerault to mark how he took this pleasantry and this pledging of the lady whom the King had sent him to woo, but whom he had failed to win.

He had risen with the others at La Fosse's bidding, either unsuspicious or else deeming suspicion too flimsy a thing by which to steer conduct.

Yet at the mention of her name a scowl darkened his ponderous countenance.

He set down his glass with such sudden force that its slender stem was snapped and a red stream of wine streaked the white tablecloth and spread around a silver flowerbowl.