her spirits sank again before it.

To Crispin's chagrin there were no horses to be had. Someone
in great haste had ridden through before them, and taken what
relays the hostelry could give, leaving four jaded beasts in
the stable. It seemed, indeed, that they must remain there
until the morrow, and in coming to that conclusion, Sir
Crispin's temper suffered sorely.

"Why need it put you so about," cried Cynthia, in arch
reproach, "since I am with you?"

"Blood and fire, madam," roared Galliard, "it is precisely for
that reason that I am exercised. What if your father came upon
us here?"

"My father, sir, is abed with a sword-wound and a fever," she
replied, and he remembered then how Kenneth had spitted Gregory
through the shoulder.

"Still," he returned, "he will have discovered your flight, and
I dare swear we shall have his myrmidons upon our heels.
Should they come up with us we shall hardly find them more
gentle than he would be."

She paled at that, and for a second there was silence. Then
her hand stole forth upon his arm, and she looked at him with
tightened lips and a defiant air.

"What, indeed, if they do? Are you not with me?" A king had