"I thank you," said Gilbert, turning the roll over in his hands as if
hardly knowing what to do. "How came you by this?"

"Last night there arrived messengers from France," answered Arnold,
"bringing letters for the Senate and for me, and with them was this,
which the messenger said had been delivered into his hand by the Queen
of France, who had commanded him to find out the person to whom it was
addressed, and had promised him a reward if he should succeed. I
therefore told him that I would give it to you."

Gilbert was looking at the seal. The heavy disk of lead through which
the silken strings had been drawn was as large as the bottom of a
drinking-cup and was stamped with the device of Aquitaine; doubtless
the very one used by Duke William, for it bore the figures of Saint
George and the Dragon, which Eleanor was afterwards to hand down to
English kings to this day. Gilbert tried to pull the silk cord through
the lead, but the blow that had struck the die had crushed and jammed
them firmly.

"Cut it," suggested the friar, and his ascetic face relaxed in a smile.

Gilbert drew his dagger, which was a serviceable blade, half an ell
long, and as broad as a man's three fingers under the straight cross-
hilt, and as sharp as a razor on both edges, for Dunstan was a master
at whetting. Gilbert cut the string and then the laces, and slipped the
seal into his wallet, unrolling the stiff sheet till he found a short
writing, some six or eight lines, not covering half the page, and
signed, 'Eleanora R.'

But when he had opened the letter he saw that it was not to be read