'Ha, De Gurdun,' he said, 'we need thee, good knight. But come out of this accursed fly-roost, and we shall show thee a better way than thine. It is the flies that make thee afraid.' 'Eh, damn the flies,' said Gilles. 'They will never disturb me. They do but seek their meat.' 'They disturb me horribly,' said the Marquess, with Italian candour. Saint-Pol laughed. 'I told you that I could bring you in a man,' he said. 'Now, Marquess, you have our two clean reasons. What is yours?' 'I have given you mine,' said Montferrat, shifting his feet. 'He called me a liar.' 'It lacks cogency,' said Saint-Pol. 'One must have clean reasons in an unclean place.' The Marquess broke out into blasphemy. 'May hell scorch us all if I have no reasons! What! Has he not kept me from my kingdom? Guy of Lusignan will be king by his means. What is Philip against Richard? What am I? What is the Archduke?' He had forgotten that the Archduke was there. 'By Beelzebub, the god of this place,' said that deep-voiced hairy man, 'you shall see what the Archduke is when you want him. But I am no murderer. I am going home. I know what is due to a prince, and from a prince.' 'Do as you please, my lord,' said Saint-Pol; 'but our schemes are like to be endangered by such goings.' 'I have so little liking for your schemes, to be plain with you,' replied the Archduke, 'that they may fail and fail again for me. How I deal with the King of England, who has insulted me beyond hope, is a matter for him and me to determine.' 'Cousin,' said Montferrat, 'you desert me.' 'Cousin again,' said the Archduke, 'do you wonder?' And so he walked out. 'Punctilious boar!' cried Saint-Pol in a fume, 'who can only get his tushes in one way! Now, Marquess, what are we to do?' The Marquess smiled darkly, and tapped his nose. 'I have my business in good train. I have an ancient friend on Lebanon. Stand in with me, the pair of you, and I have all done smoothly.' 'You hire?' asked Saint-Pol, drily. Then he shrugged--'Oh, but we may trust you!' 'Per la Madonna!' said the Marquess. 'What will you do, Gilles?' Saint-Pol asked the Norman. 'Will you leave it to the Marquess of Montferrat?' 'I will not,' said Gilles. 'I follow King Richard from point to point. I hire nobody.' The Marquess's hands went up, desperate of such folly. 'You only with me, my Eustace!' he said. Saint-Pol looked up. 'I differ from either. I have a finer plan than either. You are satisfied with a sword-stroke in the back--' 'By my soul, it shall not be in the back!' cried De Gurdun. Saint-Pol shrugged again.