You must remember that all this happened in a very brief time. A feeling of triumph ran along every nerve. I turned towards the old Count with my face beaming with delight, when I saw him swaying unsteadily in his seat. He had gone ashen pale. The spear had dropped from his hand and his fingers were clutching at the empty air. Then, unable to steady himself any longer, he leaned far to the one side and tumbled headlong from his saddle. On the instant I forgot all about the boar. I was down from my horse like a flash and at his side. To my horror the fresh blood was flowing in a steady stream from a wide-open gash in his chest. I raised his head and laid it in the hollow of my bended arm and looked around appealingly for help. His lips moved as though he would speak. But no words came. His eye-lids quivered. Then, with a gasp, he fell back. In the meantime André and De Marsac were at my side. My brother stooped down and spoke to the old Count. That other stood aloof. His glance was turned half-way towards us and half-way towards the woods. The faintest trace of a smile flickered on his face and his eyes beamed as though with inward satisfaction. “Is he dead?” he demanded finally. I laid the old Count gently down. André and I stood for a moment with our heads bowed to breathe a prayer. “He has been killed!” replied my brother with anger and bitterness bursting his heart. To our amazement De Marsac stepped forward and touched André on the arm. “You will have to answer for this deed with your life, André La Mar,” he said coldly. “You are the murderer of one of the foremost barons of Normandy!” CHAPTER VII THE BLACK PRINCE André drew back like a man taken unawares as though he would avoid a blow. He stood motionless for a moment to gather his dazed thoughts. A silence fell over us like the hollowness of an empty tomb, with only the long strained cawing of a crow overhead to break the tenseness. Then a clearness came into his eyes and with it a hardness about his mouth and jaws. He took one step forward and blazed a look of hate at our enemy. “I know now, De Marsac,” he said, “why you have come among us. You planned this from the beginning.” That other shifted his gaze and pointed to where the old Count of Gramont lay. “You understand what this means?” he asked with a glare in his eyes.