on one side and Saxon outlaws on the other, you can appeal to your friends
for help."

Alazais laughed her pretty rippling laugh.

"The fortress is not yet built," she said with a toss of her golden head.
"We are not going to live among the heathen."

"You men!" pouted Beatriz. "You are always thinking of battles and sieges,
wars and jousting. Perhaps you would like a tournament of pigeons!"

"Why not?" queried Savaric undisturbed. "It would be highly amusing."

"I lay my wager on Blanchette here," said Peire d'Acunha. "She is as
graceful as a lady. She shows her breeding."

"Endurance, my friend, is what counts in a carrier," said Bertrand
d'Aiguerra. "Pere Azuli yonder will forget the miles behind him--as you
forget your debts."

"You are both wrong," said Savaric. "It is spirit that wins. Little Sieur
Rien-du-Tout, the pigeon without a pedigree, will make fools of all of
you."

The pigeon-tournament was actually planned, with much laughter and light-
hearted nonsense. It was to take place at Montfaucon during the week of
the wedding. Each knight should adorn his bird with his lady's colors, and
the little feathered messengers were to carry love-letters written in
verse. Afterward, the pigeons were all to be presented to Lady Alazais for
her dovecote in the barbarous land to which she was exiled.