Argathona held them for a moment, glanced at their smooth surface, and let them fall with a sigh, looking gravely at the girlish face of the knight. "Speak!" cried Sir Guy. "Why do you hesitate?" Argathona spoke in a low voice. "Death is near at hand," she said. No change came over the delicate face of the knight. "How?" he asked, as quietly as he might have asked the hour for supper. "Bravely--in battle," Argathona answered. Sir Guy struck his hands together exultingly. "You merit a princely gift for that promise. What will you have of me?" "Will you give me a helmet?" asked the shepherd. "You shall have a golden helmet," Sir Guy promised. "What is your crest?" And the shepherd answered, remembering with a smile the heraldic wisdom of Simon: "An oak-tree with acorns." Sir Guy saluted Eleusis and turned and joined his fellows. Others were eager to take his place, but this time the staff of the lord-marshal restrained impetuosity. "My turn, I pray you," Count Ernault said, and, advancing, faced the seeming shepherd with extended hands. "Don't tell me of battles," he said, "or how I shall come to my death; death is the handman of Heaven. To-day I live, and to live is to love. Read my love-riddle." Argathona looked steadfastly at the hands that many women had held with passion, for Count Ernault was the well-beloved in every land where he had wandered. "Many women will love you," she said, slowly, and Ernault gave a sigh of joy, for he was no longer in the hot of his youth and he dreaded love's twilight. She went on--"but never the one woman." Ernault's passionate eyes clouded for an instant, for all the world knew of his passion for the lovely Duchess of Corinth and the implacable chastity of the lady. Wherefore she and her husband came not as guests to Athens. Then his eyes widened again and he smiled. "Well," he said, half sadly and half laughing, "I must make the best of the many, if I show the worst with the one. I will give you a blank shield, brother-in-arms. Tell me your device for my squire to paint." "A golden acorn on a green field," Argathona answered, again profiting shrewdly by the lessons in heraldry that Simon had given her during the long day in the forest. "A golden acorn on a green field," Count Ernault repeated, committing the new device to his courtly memory. He turned away from the shepherd and addressed the expectant knights. "Come, friends," he said, "our knight-challenger has now sword, helmet, and shield; he still needs body armor and battle-axe, horse and lance. Who is for having his fortune told that will pay this price for the tale?" A multitude of hands were lifted, and Count Ernault contemplated with assumed dismay a forest of waving fingers. Then he shook his head in depreciation. "There is no time for all," he said. "The sun climbs high, and our guest needs no more than a single equipment, wherefore I will trust to the ordeal by chance."