What shall it signify that Rabecque eludes your men?
He is but a lackey after all." "True," said the Seneschal, very soberly; "but do not forget, I beg, that he is the bearer of letters from one who is not a lackey." The laughter went out of her face at that.

Here was something that had been lost sight of in the all-absorbing joy of other things.

In calling the forgotten Rabecque to mind she had but imagined that it was no more than a matter of the tale he might tell--a tale not difficult to refute, she thought.

Her word should always weigh against a lackey's.

But that letter was a vastly different matter.
"He must be found, Tressan," she said sharply.
Tressan smiled uneasily, and chewed at his beard.
"No effort shall be spared," he promised her.