"Oh, no! She is sometimes sad, and she has told me how her father took a second wife who was unkind to her, and she speaks of her own childhood as if she were the daughter of a great house. But that is all." "And she never told you her stepmother's name, and never mentioned this Englishman?" "Never, Madam, I am quite sure. But she is often very gay and quick of wit, and makes us laugh, even when we are tired and hot after a day's march and are waiting for our women; and sometimes she sings strange old Norman songs of Duke William's day, very sweetly, and little Saxon slave songs which we cannot understand." "I have never heard her laugh nor sing, I think," said Eleanor, thoughtfully. "She is very grave before your Grace. I have noticed it. That may be the English manner." "I think it is." The Queen thought of Gilbert, and wondered whether he were ever gay. "But the question," she continued, "is what am I to do for the man?" She spoke coldly and indifferently, but her eyes were watching the Lady Anne's face. "What should you do yourself?" she asked, as the noble woman made no answer. "I should not have sent him gold first," replied Anne of Auch. "But since that cannot be undone, your Grace can only offer him some high honour, which may be an honour only, and not wealth." "He is not even a knight!" "Then give him knighthood and honour too. Your Grace has made knights,--there is Gaston de Castignac,--and the fashion of receiving knighthood from the Church only, is past." "I have heard him say that he would have it from his own liege sovereign, or not at all. He will not even set a device in his shield, as many are beginning to do, to show in the field that they are of good stock." "Give him one, then--a device that shall be a perpetual honour to his house and a memory of a brave deed well done for a Queen's sake." "And then? Shall that be all?" "And then, if he be the man he seems, single him out for some great thing, and bid him risk his life again in doing it for the Holy Cross, and for your Grace's sake." "That is good. Your counsel was always good. What thing shall I give him to attempt?" "Madam, the Germans have been betrayed by the Greek Emperor's Greek guides, and we ourselves have no others, so that we in turn shall be led to slaughter if we follow them. If it please your Grace, let this Englishman choose such men as he trusts, and go ever before our march, till we reach Syria, sending tidings back to us, and receiving them, and bearing the brunt of danger for us." "That would be indeed an honourable part," said the Queen, thoughtfully, and she turned slowly pale, careless of her lady's straight gaze. "He can never live to the end of it," she added, in a low voice. "It is better to die for the Cross than to die or live for any woman's love," said Anne of Auch, and there was the music of faith in her soft tones.