"Listen then and you will see why I count this storm as sign of hope
sent to me."




CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lady Jeanne's Story


Two years will it be next month when the Duke of Gascony with fifty
knights went forth on a quest that would take them to far Eastern
lands. Of these fifty, Sir Vilard, my husband, was one.

"He left with me, my son Ambrose, my daughter Helene and two
servitors, old men who could not go with him. It was in a good and
holy cause so I had no tears for him to see. Rather did I bid him
Godspeed and a safe and quick return.

"You see me alone now. Two years, and I have neither son, nor
daughter, nor husband. Did I know they were dead, bitter would be my
woe yet would I count God's mercies many, His ways strange, but not
for any mortal to question. But I do not know that. They would have me
believe my husband dead. Ambrose went forth one day and I have had no
word of him since then. And my daughter is lodged within prison walls
waiting the whim of Sir Dolphus who holds her in his power.

"They tell me that my husband perished with the Duke and all but three