"Many have loved her, and all have sorrowed in the loving. While I stood in the throng but now I heard strange tales of her from some of those Spanish rascals and some of the duke's people. They say that when the Duke of Thebes lived, whose unweeping widow she now is, she would send him to sleep at nights with a drugged draught, and then"--he coughed a little behind his hand, as if apologetically, and resumed--"and then entertain company." Argathona's eyes were still set steadfast upon Esclaramonde where she smiled upon her flatterers. "It is blasphemous to wear a fair face and hide a foul heart; but if she be as base as you say, she may help me well if I win in the tournament." Simon whistled. "Pray God you may win," he said; "but if you thrust your body where hard knocks are going you must not pule at bruises." "I do not think I shall come to hurt," Argathona answered. "But I shall fight fair, trusting to my strength as the others trust, and using no more woodland work than this, that my spear is invincible against all false lovers." XIV THE TRIUMPH OF THEBES The Lady Esclaramonde held a little court upon the gallery. Leaning against a pillar and playing with her fan, she summoned this lord and that from the throng of knights now mingled with the brilliant swarm of women, and gave each a few gracious moments of her sunshine ere she dismissed him from her side. Count Ernault had his turn, and the flash of their glances was always alive with intimate memories. Jaufre de Brabant came and Guy de Hainault, and pompous Andronicus Palæologus and the others; none was forgotten; each beamed with the conviction that the duchess preferred him above his fellows. The last that Esclaramonde called to her was Fernand Ximenes, and when the Spaniard was by her side she turned to look into the court-yard, and he following her example, none could hear their speech. "You have not been brisk to wish me felicity," the duchess complained. Ximenes shrugged his shoulders. "I do not think you have made a good shot for fortune," he answered, frankly. "The boy is a fool, and you might have had a man for a master." The duchess's eyes mocked him under lowered lids, and she patted his hands with her fan. "Such an one as a certain soldier of fortune?" questioned Esclaramonde. "But I believe I do not desire a master, and, besides, this boy-fool will be Duke of Athens, whereas--" She left her sentence unfinished, provocatively. Ximenes stared impassive into her defiant face. "I say you have made a bad shot," he replied, firmly. "You might have chosen better; but I dare say you will be content enough, and, indeed, I hope so."